RESTA DI SOGLIANO, FILIPPO. - Papal general, born into a noble family at Tagliacozzo in Oct. 1777, died there on 20 Nov. 1853.
Admitted to the papal army at the age of fourteen (1791), he fought as a second lieutenant on the Senio against the French (2 Feb. 1797), was wounded, and earned promotion to captain. He refused to serve the Republic (1798–1800) and the Empire (1808–14), suffering imprisonment and exile as a result. A colonel in 1816, he collaborated in the reorganization of the armed forces upon the departure of the Austrians from the Romagne (1817). He then joined the General Staff and in 1830 became brigadier general and supreme commander. During the disturbances of Feb. 1831, after securing peace in Rome, he confronted Sercognani’s column in the vicinity of Corese with about 4,000 men and succeeded in dispersing it with considerable losses, thereby saving the capital. He then concentrated at Rimini the forces which, on 20 Jan. 1832, Cesena (v.). Lieutenant general in 1847, he concluded his career with the honorary rank of captain general, granted by Pio IX.