Luciano Manara

Roman Republic (1849) National liberation and anti-colonial movements 1825–1849 ✕ Killed in action

Milanese commander who took the Porta Tosa in the Five Days and led the Lombard Bersaglieri until he fell defending Rome

Born in Milan in 1825 into a wealthy bourgeois family and a friend of Carlo Cattaneo, he led the capture of the Porta Tosa in the Five Days of Milan in 1848 and, in the service of the Milanese provisional government, raised 500 volunteers of his own, the Lombard Bersaglieri. As a major in the Lombard Volunteer Corps he took part in the invasion of Trentino and was heavily defeated at Sclemo on 20 July. Withdrawing to Piedmont in August, he commanded a corps of Bersaglieri as a major in the Piedmontese army. After the defeat at Novara in 1849 he took 600 Bersaglieri to defend the Roman Republic, reaching Rome on 29 April. Garibaldi made him chief of staff, and on 30 June he was mortally wounded defending Villa Spada, aged 24.