Throughout the 1830s and 40s, largely by virtue of his name, Napoleone d’Auria largely stagnated after his initial promotion to Maggior Generale in 1836 (being only 21 at the time, an astoundingly young age); he was however amongst the first officers to call for and train the new bersaglieri, a unit which would afterwards maintain a strong paternal feeling towards. Beyond that, he relegated himself to commanding his army (Corpo III), and eschewed the party politics of the time – and indeed, the lifestyle of the affluent of Sardinia.
During the Tunisian War of 1841-43, advocated voraciously by the Chief of the General Staff, Sebastiano Giovanni Pico delle Pes, d’Auria and his Third Corps would remain in Sardinia, whilst the II and IV Corps landed near Tunis in June; on the 6th of October, Generale d'Manin-Grimani’s Corpo IV was nearly wiped out, and following the battle of Kairouan was almost entirely defunct. This poor mishandling would lead to delle Pes’ sacking in late April of 1843.
During the intervening months, two major candidates emerged as delle Pes’ potential successor – Napoleone d’Auria and his colleague Alighieri. D’Auria was considered the favoured successor, though ultimately through the efforts of the Conte di Nizza, Alighieri was given the nod. D’Auria himself made little of the rejection, instead questioning some of the organisational suggestions of his new superior, notably his decision to dissolve the III Corps (which, in the wake of the Tunisian War, was the only army in Piedmont, and one of only two not horribly mauled by battle). This proved crucial during the following strikes that plagued Sardinia throughout 1843 to 1846.
During the Springtime of Nations, Sardinia proved surprisingly peaceful – as would the remaining years of Carlo Alberto’s reign. Following the retirement of Alessandro Niccolo Gonzaga di Collegno, the Deputy Chief of Staff in 1856, d’Auria was promoted both to Tenente Generale and Deputy Chief of Staff (he was also moved from Corpo III to Corpo II). Later in the year, he would serve in the field during the Sinai War of 1856-57 (also known as the Last Crusade). Unlike several of his colleagues, Generale d’Auria was not ennobled or rewarded for his conduct.
In 1859, the Ottoman Empire, wary of rising Sardinian influence in the Levant, declared war. In May, the Ottoman 4th Army attacked d’Auria’s Corpo IV; though he lost half his men, he fended off the more numerous enemies – he would then fall to Acre whilst Generale Alighieri relieved pressure by attacking into Syria. This ploy would however prove to be ineffective, as 33,000 Turks and Wallchians attacked Acre and d’Auria’s battered corps in June. Alighieri beat a hasty withdrawal from Syria and reinforced d’Auria in time to force the Ottomans to cede the field. All the same, the two commanders agreed that, rather be surrounded (a new Ottoman army had just been spotted near Jerusalem, they would instead fall back to the Sinai Peninsula.
Due to French involvement in a Balkan conflict, Ottoman efforts after August became diminished, particularly their naval commitments (thus allowing the beleaguered Alighieri and d’Auria to be resupplied). Better supplied, d’Auria rused an Ottoman army into attacking Corpo III near Al-Arish; despite taking significant losses, the Ottoman 5th army was destroyed. The two Sardinian generals then advanced upon Al-Arish and delivered the Turks a crushing blow in early January. Peace was declared in March of 1860. For his conduct in the campaign, d’Auria was ennobled as the Visconti d’Acre, and made an Officer of the Order of Saint Maurice and Lazarus. Both commanders were declared national heroes.
The next three years under the Amat government were quiet ones for d’Auria.
Napoleone d’Auria would enter into the annals of Italian history for his brilliant generalship and steadfast loyalty in the wake of Romanisti Rebellion of 1864.
The Revolution broke out in late January of that year, and d’Auria, staunchly loyal to Vittorio Emmanuelle and constitutional government, first moved against the absolutist counter-revolution, compelling the so-called Chambery government to surrender. Following the death of Generale Alighieri at Torino defending the crown, d’Auria became the un-official Chief of the General Staff, and quickly began organising a resistance to Lucio Balbo, leader of the Romanisti Revolution. By late February, only d’Auria’s forces were actively resisting the regime.
When Vittorio Emmanuelle began his counter-offensive in March, the last White leader Stephano Bonaretti surrendered to d’Auria; immediately afterwards, he and his remnant joined with the King’s army, assisting in the capture of Alessandria, and leading the storming of Torino. Following that, he led the reconquest of Sardinia from the Romanisti.
During the newly installed Corsini government, d’Auria organised and led the invasion of Austria in June, 1864. After a sudden surprise from a Bavarian contingent, which with some effort he was able to repulse from Modena. By December, Milan was occupied, and Venice by early the next year. By mid-1865, d’Auria was approaching Vienna, despite a British blockade. However, a British army arrived in Nice via France, which compelled d’Auria to fall back from the foothills of Vienna to fend of the attack, which he did in December of 1865 (despite the British numbering over 100,000). Peace was brokered in Paris, in which Lombardy was ceded to Italy. The War of Italian Independence, waged from 1864 to 1866, was over. Austria was left neutered, and German Dualism ended shortly thereafter. D’Auria’s acclaim, in the meantime, reached new heights; it was shortly after the war ended that, on the 29th of May, Napoleone d’Auria married Annabella, daughter of the late Prime Minister Cesare Luigi Amat, Marchese di Soleminis e St Philippe. His first children, twins Cesare Giacomo and Maria Caterina were born only a year later. He was also the first man awarded the Grand Cross of Italy (established in 1867).
The Roman Question emerged following this war, and the Corsini government’s inability to resolve the matter to the King’s satisfaction led to its collapse in 1867. The new Alighieri government, even with the collapse of Napoleon III’s government in 1869 (and the rise of Louis-Philippe, Count of Paris to a restored Kingdom), failed to address it properly, and it too fell after two years. The new Uleri government (elected in 1870), and after great reluctance (and pressure from the King), war was declared in July of 1871.
D’Auria’s initial war-plan went swimmingly, Generale Valperga moved swiftly to occupy all but Rome, which after a brutal siege fell on the 21st of September. However, the defensive line that d’Auria had organised from Annecy to Nice proved to be for naught, as the French coerced the Swiss into granting them military access, and attacked into Milan; he quickly counter-attacked and drove the French out of Italy, and quickly set about establishing a new defensive line along the Swiss border. The French then opted to negotiate with the Austrians to enter into their lands to flank d’Auria, which was granted – the French high command then utilised the force sent there to divert d’Auria’s army from the Franco-Italian border, and attacked with 200,000. The Nizza offensive lasted throughout April of 1872, which d’Auria won following the loss of over 100,000 on either side. The offensive collapsed, as did the Orleanist Regime, and peace was made on the 6th of May; Roma was annexed into the Kingdom and made the new capital.
During the government of Achille Giovanni delle Pes, who was known for his almost obsessive hawkishness (he was rumoured to have plotted invasions of virtually every neighbour of Italy), d’Auria advocated a drastic expansion of the navy, a position he would maintain until the end of his life. The anarchist uprising of January 1873 was quickly put down, with unfortunately heavy losses. Towards the end of the year, several junior officers, and many political allies of delle Pes began clamouring for war against Egypt; d’Auria himself remained for all intents and purposes neutral to such a conflict, and merely made the preparations as required of him, all the while reminding the government that the navy was in dire need of expansion to effectively transport and supply the army. Duly noted and ignored, the war was declared on the 24th November, 1874, and after a quick campaign by Generale di Susa, was over by October the following year (d’Auria noted the war could have ended much quicker had the navy been expanded per his directives).
All the same, the large acquisitions in Egypt seemed only to encourage delle Pes’ hawkishness; first he weighed an invasion of Abyssinia, then opted instead to focus on a war with Austria to claim Venice; delays due to the lack of naval transports and a second anarchist uprising broke out, only to be crushed by May of 1877. Germany, once very willing to wage war with Austria, had since grown more trepidatious (largely due to a new treaty being signed between Austria in Britain in the intervening months). However, the Rovne Crisis, a Polish-Ukrainian nationalist movement that broke out on the 11th of July; Germany, eager to weaken Poland, sided with the Ukrainians, whilst Britain did the obverse – Austria and Italy were quick to join their respective allies – France then declared for the Austrians. Europe hung on the precipice of a great and terrible war, and d’Auria frantically began preparing for a two front conflict (which he repeatedly advised delle Pes not to enter into). Rumours that Russia was inclined to side with Poland however encouraged Germany to seek out peace, ending any possibility of a war.
Delle Pes was elected out of office in 1877, d’Auria’s brother-in-law Stephano Bonaretti being elected Prime Minister. However, delle Pes was installed as Minister of War; he and d’Auria quickly clashed over the structure of the army (d’Auria agreed that reorganisation was needed, as it was largely still functioning on the hodge-podge, ad hoc system arrayed in the wake of the Risorgimento some years previously) – the two posed very separate models of command, and by virtue of d’Auria’s position and experience his more streamlined model was accepted(it was however stalled by yet another anarchist uprising in May of 1877). One of the few key reforms he made during this period was the introduction of machine guns into the Italian Army, which would prove pivotal in the coming months. However to the chagrin of both d’Auria and the increasingly sickly Vittorio Emmanuelle, delle Pes and Bonaretti began considering war against Spain, with a date of 1878 being tossed around; d’Auria therefore threw all his efforts into reorganising the army.
In late September of 1877 however, a series of wars were declared that engulfed Europe. First, the Austrians and their Dutch allies declared war on Poland, with the intention of retaking Austrian Galician claims. Britain, which had some years before guaranteed Polish independence and sovereignty, immediately broke its alliance with Austria and declared war on Franz-Joseph. Seizing the moment (very much over the objections of Chancellor Bismarck), the Germans declared war against the UK over the Heligoland territories.
Third, France declared war on Germany on the 23rd of October, demanding the return of Alsace-Lorraine; Germany called upon Italian aid.
Following Bonaretti’s honouring of the alliance, Italy was then at war with the UK and all their allies (including Poland, Greece, and Albania), but declined to declare war on France (to d’Auria’s relief). However on the 3rd of December, Bonaretti and delle Pes succeeded in convincing Vittorio Emmanuelle to consent to a war with Austria, which was declared that day. Thus the Year of Fours Wars began.
Throughout 1878, d’Auria placed his main focus upon taking control of Venezia (again); well aware of the Italian naval deficit, he resigned the sea to British domination (instructing Admirale Galanti to only attack the British fleet if necessity demanded it or immense opportunity presented itself). A daring Austrian assault, mimicking the earlier French offensive from Switzerland nearly a decade before was crushed by virtue of two things; d’Auria’s increased experience in fighting an Alpine War, and the newly introduced machine guns, which ended the assault almost at once.
D’Auria then turned his focus on taking complete control of the Tirolia and Venezia, which he did with his usual efficiency; however, by mid-April neither the Austrians nor the Italians could achieve breakthrough, despite numerous efforts by both parties. Peace was brokered on the 10th of July, 1878, with Tirol and Venezia both conceded to Italy.
However, in the backdrop of this, the Father of the Fatherland, Vittorio Emmanuelle II, died (the 9th of January, 1878, never living to see Italy united); an excerpt from d’Auria’s diary, published in part a part of the biography his son Cesare published in 1914, noted the day with great sadness. D’Auria was long held to have been a close friend of the King.
For his efforts, Prime Minister Bonaretti was named the Duca di Venezia. D’Auria’s “rival” delle Pes (who considered d’Auria to be a threat to his political career; d’Auria himself regarded the former Prime Minister as little more than a nuisance), himself expected d’Auria to be similarly awarded; no such award was forthcoming.
With Italy unified, d’Auria seemed content with spending these next few months continuing his army reforms and petitioning the government for more ships; indeed his army reform was the grandest and most sweeping in over a generation – the homeland’s command was consolidated into the North and Southern Districts (with a third Colonial District handling the regional sub-districts of Tunisia, Egypt, Sinai and Palestine, and Somaliland), composed of seven corps; royal interference by the new King, Umberto, however stymied some efforts, particularly in effectively supplying corps II through VII with enough cavalry.
Any complaints within the General Staff died out when the fourth, and most severe, anarchist uprising broke out in September, 1878. The 200,000 rebels were, with some effort put down; d’Auria himself led the effort in the old lands of Sardinia-Piemonte. By November, most all the rebels had been quashed, as the rebel forts of Messina and Torino at last fell, the latter to d’Auria personally. The Visconti d’Acre immediately refocussed his efforts back to his reforms.
He was soon disappointed that the Bonaretti government was, only months after one brutal war (and a major rebellion), was planning another; yet again, against Spain. Even with delle Pes and his party-members leaving the coalition (and attempting to bring down the government), by 1879, the war seemed imminent. D’Auria continuously advised against such a measure, noting the alliance between Spain and Russia, the half-reformed Army (still bloodied from the rebellion), and a laughably small navy; his concerns were ignored, Bonaretti himself convinced the Germany would enter and Russia would not, and war was declared on the 11th of November; Germany sent its declination two days later, whilst a week after that, the Russians declared war.
According to the historian Andrea Stanecci:
D'Auria tried to make the best of a bad situation, taking most of his Corps to Africa. He quickly landed in Sinai. The dramatically superior Spanish fleet would pull into Cape Bon on December 8th, keeping D'Auria from executing the rest of his plan to ship several corps to Africa.[2][D'Auria had asked that the navy be expanded to more than 90 modern ships just months prior. Most in government had regarded it as an impossibly expensive goal at the time, though it enjoyed the "unfaltering support" of Admiral Giuliano Galanti. Perspectives began to change after the appearance of the Spanish fleet.] Meanwhile, the Russians' Ottoman allies and the Emperor Franz-Joseph both granted the Russians the right to march through their territory.
While D'Auria quickly marched into Dongola with a handful of auxiliary and colonial forces (intervening in spreading civil violence in Egypt on the way, triggered by the outset of war), the situation quickly became black for him. In February, 141,000 Russian troops, a full army group, marched into Acre. D'Auria had only about 30,000 men with him. After Dongola was captured, he quickly fled south. Much of Palestine, including Jerusalem, as well as Italian Egypt, would fall in the coming months.
In the meantime, the brutal battle of Udine was fought, often considered one of the bloodiest battles on European soil; modern trench warfare is also said to have started here.
It was only the sudden outbreak of several wars which Russia was drawn into that led a quick end to the war in early November; the war, despite Bonaretti’s best efforts to say otherwise, was regarded as an immense failure, and not on the part of the military, which when considered in the position it was placed, disorganised from months of unfinished reforms, the complete lack of naval power, and a general disregard for the General Staff, proved immensely effective.
Nonetheless, Bonaretti’s government survived elections. After coaxing from the Prime Minister and the King, d’Auria placed much of the nation under martial law, though the recurring plague of anarchist uprisings seemed to cease because of it. D’Auria also noted glumly how the murder of several Italian soldiers by Germans in Africa was covered up by the government; d’Auria himself may have been threatened into public silence, it proved increasingly to be the modus operandi of the Bonaretti government – several opponents and critics were jailed in the early 1880s, most notably in 1882. Nathan Fabron and Orazio d'Antico, prominent labour leaders and malcontents, were imprisoned by Umberto di Susa, Marchese di Susa and Interior Minister (and a cousin of d’Auria’s wife) helming the perscutions. Even the prominent radical nobleman Giovanni del Idra was arrested and later hanged. In reaction, Alessandro "Libertà" Zecchini travelled to Roma, entered into the Parliament building (unchecked), and threw a bomb at the conservative section (earning the moniker Il Bombarolo).
D’Auria was formally installed as Conte d’Ismailia in early 1883, and awarded the title Maresciello d'Italia for his long service to the Kingdom of Sardinia and Italy (52 years by that point). D’Auria opted to celebrate, by heading on a brief vacation in late April to Greece.
On the first of May, 1883, Umberto di Susa took control of the army and ordered them to fire upon protesters, killing thousands. His Deputy (Lorenzo Accorsi, who would die a week later at the age of 67) informed of the events that transpired, and D’Auria returned to Roma immediately, arriving there on the seventh.
All the same, d’Auria moved swiftly to try and contain the incident, though martial law seem to do little more than incur more wrath; nearing seventy, d’Auria then went to Napoli to recuperate at the suggestion of his family doctor, Amato Durante, where he spent the majority of his time complaining about the state of the shipyard there. He returned to Rome, where in May of 1884, he suffered a heart attack, right as the revolutionary fervour reached a fever pitch, when thousands of rebels emerged from all corners of Italy.
Some historians have claimed that d’Auria’s inaction regarding illegal unions in the 1880s, which on at least two occasions he was requested by S. Bonaretti to forcibly shut down, allowed them to grow in power and size, that the fault of the Massacre ultimately belongs to him. When first posited, by Prime Minister Bonaretti himself, it was controversial; and so it remains today.
Despite his heart attack, d’Auria immediately (within days) returned to command and began drafting a battle plan, all the while confined to a wheel chair (or at best completely dependent upon a cane). On the third of September, several days before the offensive he planned was to commence, he was murdered by a lieutenant with revolutionary sympathies; the army collapsed following the news, and many trace the seeds of the Anarchy that would overtake the nation to this.
Over the course of his 53 year career, Napoleone d’Auria served or fought in nine wars, three major rebellions, and countless other uprisings; he reformed the army, encouraged naval expansion, and was the organiser of some of the greatest battles in Italian history (personally for his efforts during the Nice Offensive in 1867, the Milan Offensive in 1878, and for his logistical skills for the Battle of Udine in 1879). He was the first Marshall of Italy, and highly regarded both before and after his death.
Some have theorised that, had d’Auria not been assassinated in 1884 that the Anarchy, and the subsequent rise of the Alliata and Balbo dictatorships, and the communist state, would have been prevented; however, whilst d’Auria was indeed a capable commander (considered to be, barring Napoleon I of France, to be the greatest Italian general in generations), he was seventy by the time of his death and records from his personal physician Dr Durante have led many historians to believe that even had he survived, he was in no state to keep the nation united; indeed, many believe he would have passed within two years, so fragile was his health. Furthermore, d’Auria’s political talents are virtually unknown, and whilst skill on the battlefield can establish a government, one can only go so far with the support of the army, as both Alliata and Balbo found out later.