Battle of Magenta
1859 CE.
Shown on the map at 45.456°, 8.802°.
The Battle of Magenta (Italian pronunciation: [maˈdʒenta]) was fought on 4 June 1859 near the town of Magenta in the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, a crown land of the Austrian Empire, during the Second Italian War of Independence. It resulted in a French-Sardinian victory under Napoleon III against the Austrians under Marshal Ferenc Gyulay. Napoleon III's army crossed the Ticino River and outflanked the Austrian right forcing the Austrian army under Gyulay to retreat. The confined nature of the country, a vast spread of orchards cut up by streams and irrigation canals, precluded elaborate manoeuvre. The Austrians turned every house into a miniature fortress. The brunt of the fighting was borne by 5,000 grenadiers of the French Imperial Guard, still mostly in their First Empire style of uniforms. The battle of Magenta was not a particularly large battle, but it was a decisive victory for the Franco-Sardinian alliance. Patrice de MacMahon was created Duke of Magenta for his role in this battle, and would later go on to serve as President of the French Third Republic.
Text from the Wikipedia article Battle of Magenta, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.