Nino Bixio – soldier and politician

Patriotic general helped to unify Italy

Nino Bixio helped Garibaldi organise
his Expedition of the Thousand in 1860

A leading personality during the unification of Italy, Nino Bixio was born Gerolamo Bixio on this day in 1821 in Genoa.

Bixio helped to organise Giuseppe Garibaldi’s Expedition of the Thousand in 1860 against the Kingdom of the two Sicilies, and he took part in the capture of Rome in 1870, which completed the unification process for Italy.

Bixio’s parents had made him join the navy of the Kingdom of Sardinia while he was still a boy and he travelled abroad on his ship. When he returned to Italy in 1846, he joined Giovine Italia, a political movement founded by Giuseppe Mazzini, who had written to Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, asking him to unite and lead Italy.

The following year in Genoa, Bixio is said to have seized the bridle of Charles Albert’s horse and cried out: “Pass the Ticino, Sire, and we are all with you" - a reference to the Ticino river, which his army would have to cross in order to drive out the Austrians in northern Italy.

Bixio fought during the wave of revolution that swept through Europe in 1848 and, while serving under Garibaldi in 1849 in Rome, he took an entire battalion of French soldiers as prisoners, winning a gold medal for valour. 

During Garibaldi’s Sicilian campaign, Bixio contributed to his victory at the Battle of Calatafimi. After some of the peasants revolted against Garibaldi in a village in the province of Catania, Bixio was sent to the area to restore order. Among the 16 people killed had been two children and a priest and the town’s theatre and archives were set on fire by the peasants.

Bixio led a division of troops in
the capture of Rome in 1870

With two battalions of red shirts, Bixio besieged and successfully secured the village.  Bixio organised a military court, which found 150 people guilty and sentenced five of them to death.

After arriving with Garibaldi’s men in Reggio Calabria later that year, Bixio took part in the Battle of Volturno, during which he suffered a broken leg.

He ignored the Austrians when they demanded an Italian surrender after his men were forced to retreat in the Battle of Custoza in 1866.

In 1870, Bixio was given command of a division during the movement against Rome and his men took Civitavecchia. On 20 September they participated in the capture of Rome, which completed Italian unification. His division entered Rome through Porta Pancrazio. There is a bust of General Nino Bixio in the Gianicolo, a hill near Porta Pancrazio in Rome where Garibaldi and his famous soldiers are remembered. 

After Bixio became involved in politics and was appointed a deputy in 1861, he attempted to heal the rift between Cavour and Garibaldi and he was appointed as a senator in 1870.

Nino Bixio died of cholera in 1873 in Sumatra. He had been on his way to Batavia, now known as Jakarta, to take command of a commercial expedition. The exact location of his grave is not known, although local people said he had been buried on the beach. 

In 1876 a small military expedition was sent to try to pinpoint the exact spot where he was buried but the exercise ended in disaster when several of the soldiers were brutally killed by some members of the indigenous population.

Three years later his remains were at last traced and they were taken to be cremated under the supervision of the Italian consul in Singapore. They were transported to Genoa in 1877 and interred in the Cimitero di Staglieno in the city.

The huge Cimitero di Staglieno as it looked
when Bixio's remains were buried there

Travel tip:

The Cimitero Monumentale di Staglieno is one of the largest cemeteries in Europe and is famous for its monumental sculpture. The extensive cemetery is located on a hillside in the district of Staglieno in Genoa and covers an area of more than a square kilometre, As well as being the final resting place of Nino Bixio, the cemetery houses the grave of Giuseppe Mazzini, the spearhead of the Italian revolutionary movement who inspired Bixio to fight for the cause of the Risorgimento.

The Porta Pancrazio, where Nino Bixio led his
troops as they entered Rome in 1870

Travel tip:

Porta Pia and Porta Pancrazio are gates through which soldiers entered Rome in 1870 and were finally able to unite Italy in the name of Vittorio Emanuele II. Rome had remained under French control even after the first Italian parliament had proclaimed Victor Emanuel of Savoy the King of Italy, despite repeated events by nationalists to liberate it. But after the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, Napoleon III withdrew some of his troops. Italian soldiers seized their chance and after a brief bombardment were able to enter Rome through a breach in the walls at Porta Pia. At the same time, the troops of Nino Bixio entered through Porta Pancrazio. Victor Emanuel II took up residence in the Quirinale Palace and Italy was declared officially united. 

Also on this day:

1588: The birth of Saint Charles Borromeo

1897: The birth of Mafia boss Joe Profaci

1950: The birth of politician and magistrate Antonio Di Pietro

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