The Battle
On 16 December the Milanese army reached Magadino on Lake Maggiore about 14 km (8.7 mi) from Bellinzona. However, the Confederates had already retired, after a 14-day siege of Bellinzona, to the Gotthard Pass. Only a 175-strong reserve army, reinforced by about 400 soldiers from the Levantina, were guarding the rear at Giornico in the Levantina valley. The entire Milanese army reached Giornico on 28 December 1478 and outnumbered the defenders by about twenty to one. The defenders were able to defeat the much larger force because the Milanese army was confined in a narrow valley, struggling for foothold on the December snow and ice. The Swiss ambushed the army from above, creating confusion by rolling large boulders down the hillside. They reportedly also wore crampons for better foothold. Against this attack, the Milanese army was helpless regardless of their superior number, and they were forced to flee, leaving an estimated 1,400 dead.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Giornico
Famous quotes containing the word battle:
“Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!
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Spiked breast to spiked breast opposing!”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“Forty years after a battle it is easy for a noncombatant to reason about how it ought to have been fought. It is another thing personally and under fire to have to direct the fighting while involved in the obscuring smoke of it.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)