[4] In 1882, after attending the War School, he was promoted to captain and assigned to the 1st Bersaglieri Regiment, transferred first to Chieti and then to Rome for temporary duty, and then to the General Staff Corps.

[9] Before returning to Italy to assume his new position as general of the XI Army Corps in Bari,[10] he wrote and sent a detailed report to the Foreign Office explaining the political and military dangers the Colony was undergoing.

At the head of his unit, Cigliana took part in the first ten Battles of the Isonzo, always deployed to the left of the 3rd Army, and initially versus against the formidable defenses of Mount San Michele,[15] and then operating in the rugged and desolate sector of the Karst, beyond the Vallone (beyond Gorizia).

[17] In August of the same year[18] (Sixth Battle of the Isonzo), the XI Corps succeeded in taking Monte San Michele,[19] and to secure the quotas (high grounds) to the east of the Vallone.

In the seventh, eighth and ninth battle of the Isonzo, fought in the second half of 1916, the troops of the XI Corps reached beyond Veliki Kriback and Dosso Faiti.

The flags of the Third Army bend reverently before the tomb of the ancient Commander of the XI Corps which comes from the bloody cliffs of San Michele and the battered Faiti the sweet call of our brothers in arms today joined in immortality and glory.