“No quarter is given; it is a sheer butchery; a struggle between savage beasts, maddened with blood and fury.”

Long had fair Italia fallen. For over 1500 years, the peninsula of Caesar, Virgil, and Augustus lay divided. Petty dukes and kings squabbled over riches and prestige, while foreign powers leeched the pride of heirs of Rome. And thus dear Italia fell to foreign influence, her dignity forgotten until now.

April 26th, 1859. It has been just over a decade since the young hopes of Italian unification were violently dismantled at the twin battles of Custoza and Novara. Thousands of men now lay in the fields along the Po, and the prospect- the very chance of such another attempt at unification is uncertain in the sense of both feasibility and because of the waning conviction of those who execute it.

Just 3 months prior, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia signed the Treaty of Plombières with France, giving up Savoy and Nice in exchange for a defensive military Alliance against the Austrian Empire. Since then, the embers of Italian unification have come alive once again, manifesting themselves in one last fleeting chance.

With the mobilization of Austrian forces with the final aim of crushing the Piedmontese and the French declaring their support for the Italian cause, there is only one statement that comes to the mind of every individual across the European continent:

Let the die be cast