After six years of service he asked for a discharge and, thanks to his connections to Colonel Girolamo Emilio Gerini, a military advisor in Siam (now Thailand), he moved there and took up the organization of the local army and the education of one of the King's sons.
Under Ricchiardi's leadership this unit (also known as the "Latin Brigade" or the "Italian Legion") became distinguished for their close-knitness and skill in performing reconnaissance and other tasks required by asymmetric warfare.
It was not only the bravery of the Italian Legion that made him famous, but also his charisma and chivalric attitude toward the enemy: for instance he used to send the personal belongings of British casualties to their families along with a letter of condolences.
During his stay in South Africa, Ricchiardi married Hannah Guttman, Paul Kruger's granddaughter, who he had met in the Pretoria Military Hospital while recuperating from serious leg wounds he had suffered at the battle of Tugela.
He later moved to Argentina with his friend Louis Baumann [es] where he was appointed administrator of a colony of Boer refugees, called Colonia Escalante, in Chubut.