ZUCCHI, CARLO. – General, b. 10 March 1777 at Reggio Emilia, d. there 31 Dec. 1863.
As a youth, he abandoned his studies to fight alongside the French and, as a sub-lieutenant in 1796, took part in all the wars of the Revolution and the Empire, earning the noble title of baron and rising to the rank of divisional general by 1813. He then served briefly in the Austrian army, but came under suspicion for his liberal sentiments and, after four years of imprisonment in the Duchy of Modena (1823–27), in 1831 he became head of the revolutionary militias of central Italy, clashing valiantly with the Austrians between Rimini and Cattolica.
Captured at sea with other exiles on the Ancona–Corfu route, he was tried in Venice and sentenced to death, the sentence being commuted to twenty years of hard imprisonment, part of which he served at Munchaz, Josephstadt, and Palmanova. The events of 1848 found him there: he defended the fortress stoutly; later he took command of a division in the provisional government of Milan. The armistice of Salasco, due to the intemperance of the mob, forced him to seek brief refuge in Switzerland.
His excellent military reputation and such antecedents led, in the autumn of 1848, Pius IX to summon Zucchi to Rome as Minister of War in the cabinet of Pellegrino Rossi (q.v.). No less detested by the extremists than Rossi himself, he set about dissolving and disarming those violent and lawless bands of volunteers who formed the core of the insurrectionary ferment. Thus he worked effectively to restore the rule of law both in Rome and in the provinces, including Bologna, even against Garibaldi himself, but his efforts were short-lived, being cut short by the assassination of Rossi, the violence of 16 November, and the Pope’s flight into exile at Gaeta.
By the Pope’s wish, Zucchi was a member of the government commission of state presided over by Cardinal Castracane. Faithful to his oath, he followed the sovereign to Gaeta, where on 7 January 1849 a general order was issued to the papal troops not to side with the revolutionary regime. With the help of the Kanzler (q.v.), he then set about rebuilding adequate regular papal forces, first in Benevento and then in Bologna, thanks to the influx of soldiers who deserted the republican banners out of loyalty.
He retired to private life in his native city on 10 October 1850, his final years embittered by the spite of sectarian elements unable to comprehend his honest and consistent rectitude, and only in 1860 did the Italian government grant him definitive recognition of his rank of lieutenant general.