Francesco Nullo

Francesco Nullo (1 March 1826 – 5 May 1863) was an Italian patriot, military officer and merchant, and a close friend and confidant of Giuseppe Garibaldi. He supported independence movements in Italy and Poland. He was a participant in the Five Days of Milan and other events of the revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states, Sicilian Expedition of the Thousand in 1860 and the Polish January Uprising in 1863. His military career ended with him receiving the rank of general in Poland, shortly before his death in the Battle of Krzykawka.

Youth Francesco Nullo was born on 1 March 1826 in Bergamo, as a son of Arcangelo and Angelina Magno, a wealthy family of linen traders. He had five younger brothers. He personally supervised the enrollment of volunteers in Bergamo which, given the large number of accessions (more than 10% of the total), could then boast the title of City of the Thousand. Due to his previous experience in the textile industry, he provided the red shirts used by Italian "garibaldini" (voluntary troops at Garibaldi's command), who became known as the "red shirts". He was wounded in the Battle of Calatafimi, but just a few days later led his soldiers in a charge at the Battle of Palermo. The group, commanded by Nullo, became known as the Garibaldi Legion. During the trip, the Italian group was joined by a small groups of Polish emigres and the French volunteer unit, the Zouaves of Death, led by Lieutenant François Rochebrune. The Italians and the French were sometimes referred to as the Foreign Legion.

Remembrance In Italy, two warships have been named for Nullo. The first, a , was built at Cantiere Pattison in Naples, commissioned in 1915, and renamed Fratelli Cairoli in 1921. The second, a destroyer of the , was built in Fiume by 3. Maj and served from 1927 until she was sunk in 1940.

In Bergamo, his hometown, a statue erected in 1907 by sculptor Ernesto Bazzaro near the main city theatre was dedicated to him. In 1937 an urn with soil from his tomb was offered by Polish legioners to the Bergamo Municipality. It is preserved in the town's Museum of Risorgimento. Several schools in Poland are named after him.

In Poland Nullo is considered a national hero. On 8 May he was buried in the cemetery in Olkusz, together with several other soldiers killed in the battle of Krzykawka, and on 12 May a mass in his name was held in Kraków. Even before Poland regained its independence, a monument dedicated to him was built there by the local community; it was raised illegally as at that time Olkusz was still part of the Russian partition. In the Second Polish Republic, in 1923, on the 60th anniversary of the battle, a ceremony was held there, attended by government officials and with the writer Stefan Żeromski giving a eulogy. Even during the Cold War years, a consul went to Bergamo to pay him homage at the foot of the monument dedicated to him in his hometown. In 1963, on the battle's 100th anniversary, an Italian delegation visited the cemetery, adding another plaque and several trees. There is also a monument in Warsaw (on a street bearing his name), the monument was unveiled on 26 February 1939 by Galeazzo Ciano. On the 130th anniversary of his death, 5 May 1993, Polish Post issued a stamp dedicated to him.