ZAPPI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. — General, born in Imola to a marquess family on 2 June 1816, died in Florence on 28 December 1885.
He had served in cavalry in the Austrian army until 1848. On 10 March 1851, he was admitted into the papal forces with the rank of major in the Dragoons regiment. Promoted lieutenant colonel on 1 May 1859, transferred to the general staff, he promptly helped suppress the disturbances in Ancona by seizing the fortress in a surprise attack. At the outbreak of hostilities with Piedmont in 1860, he commanded the garrison at Pesaro, and when the entire corps of General Cialdini surrounded him in the Rocca Costanza on 11 September with only 1,200 men, he delayed their advance for twenty-two hours, earning promotion to colonel on the field from Lamoricière (v.).
After his imprisonment in Alessandria, he was made brigadier general and placed in command of the second brigade, tasked with maintaining order in Rome and forming the nucleus of the defense (December 1865). He accomplished this especially during the fierce Garibaldian guerrilla warfare of autumn 1867: in less than an hour, he quelled the multiple insurrectionary disturbances of 22 October; on the 23rd, he crushed the Cairoli brothers' sortie at Villa Glori; and on the 25th, he put down the resistance at Casa Aiani in Trastevere. He played a significant role in keeping open the French supply route at Civitavecchia, Mentana (v.), in the recovery of the Viterbo region, while he gallantly attended to the wounded Giovanni Cairoli and, at the request of his mother Adelaide Bono Cairoli, personally arranged for the return of the fallen Enrico’s remains.
During the final crisis of 1870, he was an active partisan of resolute resistance, and on the morning of 20 September, he distinguished himself particularly at Porta San Giovanni and Porta Pia, ceasing fire only upon the order of the Holy Father.
The next day, after commanding the papal troops’ parade at Porta San Pancrazio to receive the honors of war, he again followed his soldiers into captivity in Alessandria, and upon returning to Rome, he faced the hostility of the crowd (24 November), retiring to Florence after a vigorous protest.
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