Battle of Versa
The Battle of Versa took place on the 26 July 1866 during the Italian War of Independence in the Italian unification process.
The Italian army, jointly commanded by Alberto La Forest de Divonne, defeated the Austrian army guarding the crossing of the Torre river at Ponte di Versa, present-day fraction of Romans d'Isonzo in the province of Gorizia. This marked the maximum Italian advance into Friuli.
Order of Battle
- Austrian Army:
- *Two squadrons of the Württemberg Hussar Regiment
- *18 companies of the Regiments "Archduke L. Vittore", "Nagy", "Grand Duke of Tuscany"
- * 7th Artillery Regiment
- Italian Army:
- * Five cavalry squadrons of the 9th Regiment "Lancieri di Firenze"
- * Fourteen companies of the X, XVI, XXII, and XXXV Bersaglieri battalions
- * 5th Battery of the 8th Artillery Regiment
Battle
The battle took place after noon and continued until 14:00 on the wooden bridge over the Torre river, between the Italian army arriving from Palmanova, as the vanguard of Cialdini's expedition, and the Austrian troops encamped on the bank left of the Torre torrent.After the war, 38 Italian soldiers were awarded, and the Regiment "Lancieri di Firenze" was awarded a Bronze Medal of Military Valor.
In 2016, some graves of the soldiers who fell during the battle were found in the bed of the Torre.