As a result of the revolts of Milan and Venice, from 23 March 1848, the Austrians had to retreat into the Quadrilateral fortresses (Peschiera, Verona, Mantua, and Legnago) which formed the defensive nucleus of the Habsburg army in Lombardy–Venetia.

[12] Before crossing the Ticino river, which marked the border between the Kingdom of Sardinia and Lombardy–Venetia, Charles Albert decided that the war flag would be the Italian tricolor with the Savoyard arms at the centre.

[15] In Parma and Modena, the respective dukes, Charles II and Francis V, had abandoned the throne in the face of popular riots, allowing the formation of provisional governments.

The last group consisted of around 9,000 men, organised as regular units by Daniele Manin and directed principally against the enemy forces which had crossed the Soča from the east in order to reinforce the Habsburg troops in Lombardy–Venetia.

[23] Only one of the advance guards was sent to Brescia – this consisted of a brigade of infantry, a regiment of cavalry, and a battery of cannons and was commanded by general Michele Giuseppe Bes (1794–1853), who had already crossed the Ticino at Boffalora and entered Milan.

The Battle of Pastrengo thus ended in a Piedmontese victory which raised the morale of the Savoyard troops, but their success in eliminating the Austrian bridgehead was incomplete since the east bank of the Adige remained firmly under Radetzky's control.

At Charles Albert's request, General Bava prepared a plan, which was then modified by Franzini, for an "armed reconnaissance" in the direction of Verona in order to provoke a battle in the open.

Parts of the Brigade "Re" and the 2nd Division of the 1st Army began to arrive between 12 and 1:30 pm, at which point Bava launched an assault, which was focused on the cemetery of Santa Lucia, doggedly defended by the Austrians.

On 21 May 1848, a few hours after the departure of the first brigade of the Neapolitan expedition from Bologna to Ferrara, the commander of the troops, Guglielmo Pepe, received the order to return immediately to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

On the other side, the Piedmontese scouts did not report a rapid advance of the enemy and Bava, who was in command of the 1st Corps, which was the most exposed to an attack from the south, decided to concentrate his forces near Goito.

Franzini wanted to take advantage of the situation to make an immediate assault on Verona, but the council decided instead to attack Peschiera from the northeast and to occupy Rivoli Veronese.

[71] Meanwhile, at the front, after an attempt to reinforce and resupply the garrison at Ferrara, an Austrian brigade occupied Governolo (southeast of Mantua, at the confluence of the Mincio and the Po) on 16 July, leaving five companies there and then withdrawing to the Quadrilateral.

On 18 July, he initiated a lively fire of fusiliers and artillery from the Mincio, when a Bersaglieri company traveled up the river, attacked the Austrians on the left bank, and managed to lower the drawbridge.

The Austrians followed the Piedmontese since they did not want to lose contact and in order to give the impression of imminent danger, thereby speeding up the retreat and causing Charles Albert's troops to get strung out.

In the zone of the 1st Division, in fact, the commandant Sommariva decided to abandon the right bank of the river, as a result of the impossibility of stationing artillery in the marshy land, a misunderstanding of the enemy's intentions and an overestimation of his own forces.

[95] At this point, the defensive line on the Adda was lost and against the wishes of almost all his generals, Charles Albert wanted to concentrate his whole army in Milan, so as not to lose the dynastic advantages that he had acquired there.

[96] The Piedmontese army marched north, reaching Lodi on 2 August, where the king relieved Sommariva and Di Ferrere of their commands as a result of their actions over the preceding week.

After the armistice of Salasco, Prince Franz de Paula of Liechtenstein marched on Modena and Parma to restore their deposed dukes, while General Ludwig von Welden crossed the Po near Ferrara on 28 July and then, perhaps on his own initiative, diverted 7,000 men from the Siege of Venice to occupy Bologna.

Although the element of surprise was lost, Mazzini decided to invade anyway and three columns containing a total of 850 men descended from Switzerland into the Val d'Intelvi, heading for Lake Como and for Luino.

[108] In the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Leopold II appointed the democrat Giuseppe Montanelli as prime minister on 27 October 1848, whose policy was to seek union with the other Italian states and to restart the war with Austria.

In Rome on 15 November 1848, the Roman minister of the interior, Pellegino Rossi was assassinated and on the evening of 24th, Pope Pius IX fled the city for the Neapolitan fortress of Gaeta.

Montanelli demanded that Grand Duke Leopold II make common cause with the Romans, but he decided instead to leave the capital on 30 January 1849 and take refuge aboard an English ship at Porto Santo Stefano.

With the help of the Piedmontese ambassador Salvatore Pes [it], Savoy attempted to have Leopold II return to Florence rather than lose an ally in the forthcoming renewal of war with Austria.

Against the advice of the Minister of War Giuseppe Dabormida, who wanted to place a Frenchman in command of the Piedmontese army,[109] Charles Albert decided to appoint a less experienced Polish general, Wojciech Chrzanowski.

[115] On the Sardinian side the area of the Austrian attack was the responsibility of the Lombard Division, whose commander Girolamo Ramorino had received an order on 16 March to move forward[116] and hold the strong point at La Cava, from which it would be possible to watch over the final section of the Ticino River down to its confluence with the Po.

From a tactical point of view, the Piedmontese had prevented the Austrians from marching on Vigevano, but strategically, Radetzky had succeeded in advancing the three Corps that were not involved in the battle (2nd, 3rd, and 1st reserve) along the road to Mortara, which was the principal objective of the attack.

[123] Alessandro La Marmora, Chrzanowski's chief of staff, who had coordinated the action of the two divisions opposing the Austrian 2nd Corps, only now realised that Mortara had been occupied and that the troops that he was commanding had been cut off.

Ettore Perrone di San Martino then attempted another counterattack, managing to stop the enemy advance, but suffering a fatal wound to the head in the process.

[153] News then arrived that the king had granted an amnesty and on 15 May 1849, the Bourbon troops entered Palermo,[154] while the 43 Sicilian leaders, who were excluded from the armistice, fled into exile in Malta.

In Venice, Guglielmo Pepe had gathered the modest forces of the Republic of San Marco and, with the agreement of Daniele Manin, he had arranged them to resist to the bitter end.