Francesco Nullo (1 March 1826 – 5 May 1863) was an Italian patriot, military officer and merchant, and a close friend and confidant of Giuseppe Garibaldi.

He was a participant in the Five Days of Milan and other events of the revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states, Sicilian Expedition of the Thousand in 1860 and the Polish January Uprising in 1863.

Francesco Nullo was born on 1 March 1826 in Bergamo, as a son of Arcangelo and Angelina Magno, a wealthy family of linen traders.

[1][2] In 1840 he returned to work in his family's textile factory, but left soon afterward to study in Milan; there he became involved in the revolutionary movement for Italian unification.

[1] In 1859, motivated by the resurgence of Italian patriotism, he joined Garibaldi in the ranks of Hunters of the Alps to fight against the Austrians.

[2][3] He personally supervised the enrollment of volunteers in Bergamo which, given the large number of accessions (more than 10% of the total), could then boast the title of City of the Thousand.

[1] He wrote in the Book of Honor of Bergamo's volunteers: I am proud to belong to the ranks of the valiant sons of Bergamo who adorn the pages of this book of honor and to see my name alongside those of many brothers in arms In 1862 Nullo was arrested along with 123 other partisans while organizing an expedition for the liberation of Austrian-ruled Veneto (considered too dangerous by the newly established Kingdom of Italy).

[1] After the overthrow of the government of Urbano Rattazzi, because of the popular indignation at the events in Aspromonte, the new prime minister Luigi Carlo Farini encouraged Nullo to form a legion of volunteers to intervene on the side of Polish insurgents against Russian domination, ensuring his lobbying at King Vittorio Emanuele II, to declare war on the Russian Empire.

[1][2] Farini was considered insane and forced to resign, but Nullo could leave for Poland, gathering some Italian volunteers (sources vary with regards to their number, but most reliable ones settle on about twenty).

[1] Early in the morning of the 4th the unit's first battle in Poland occurred at Podłęże where it defeated a Russian force (the garrison from Olkusz).

[1] Hit by a Cossack bullet while preparing (or leading) a charge (sources vary), he had only time to whisper, in Bergamo dialect: So' mort!

[2][12] Even before Poland regained its independence, a monument dedicated to him was built there by the local community; it was raised illegally as at that time Olkusz was still part of the Russian partition.

[13] In the Second Polish Republic, in 1923, on the 60th anniversary of the battle, a ceremony was held there, attended by government officials and with the writer Stefan Żeromski giving a eulogy.