Last Days of The Papal States
The Zouaves also played a role in the final engagements against the forces of the newly united Kingdom of Italy in September 1870, in which the Papal forces were outnumbered almost seven to one. The Zouaves fought off enemy lancers on the 13th, withdrew with Papal artillery under heavy fire on the 20th and made preparations for a counterattack against the Garibaldians before being told of the surrender, whereupon they destroyed their weapons.
Several Zouaves were executed or murdered by the Italian forces following the surrender, including a Belgian officer who refused to give up his sword.
Read more about this topic: Papal Zouaves
Famous quotes containing the words days and/or states:
“My days are in the yellow leaf;
The flowers and fruits of Love are gone;
The worm—the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone!”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“With steady eye on the real issue, let us reinaugurate the good old “central ideas” of the Republic. We can do it. The human heart is with us—God is with us. We shall again be able not to declare, that “all States as States, are equal,” nor yet that “all citizens as citizens are equal,” but to renew the broader, better declaration, including both these and much more, that “all men are created equal.””
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)