Lombard Legion

The Lombard Legion (Legione Lombarda) was a military unit of the Cisalpine Republic which existed from 1796 until the Republic's fall in 1799.

It was formed on 8 October 1796 by Napoleon Bonaparte, then commander of the Armee d'Italie. Its theoretical full strength was 3740 men made up of a hussar company, an artillery company and seven 500-man infantry cohorts (3 from Milan, 1 from Cremona and Casalmaggiore, 1 from Lodi and Pavia, 1 from Como and 1 miscellaneous cohort of Italian nationalists, mainly from the Papal States and the Kingdom of Sicily). It was commanded by the former Milanese nobleman, general Trivulzio and included Ugo Foscolo and Vincenzo Cuoco among its soldiers. 2720 had been recruited by 18 October and on 6 November 1796 it and several other units were ceremonially presented with their standards in the piazza outside Milan Cathedral - they were in red, white and green, which would become the national colours of Italy. It fought at the battle of Arcole on 15 November 1796 and then against papal forces on the river Senio. The Legion's fourth cohort joined Cisalpine troops to put down insurrections at Pesaro then at Urbino.

By February 1797 it was stationed in Brescia and on 26 February 1797 it was reorganised into two demi-brigades of three cohorts, an artillery company and a hussar company and at the end of that year the Cisapadane Legion merged into it - that unit had been made up of 6 cohorts of 1,000 men and became the Lombard Legion's third demi-brigade. By then the Legion had been moved to Verona in support of French forces fighting in the Veneto before being divided up between Corfu, Peschiera and Friuli - the elements of the Legion still in Italy on the treaty of Campo Formio of 17 October 1797 returned to Lombardy.

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