On October 9, 1840, Field Marshal Radetzky (Fig. 1) supervised the annual fall maneuvers of the Austrian Army in northern Italy (Fig. 2). The maneuvers that year were held in Castiglione delle Stiviere in Lombardy, a small town close to Brescia and the Lago di Garda, only 25 miles northwest of the famous fortress of Mantova. The Field Marshall was at that time 75 years old, but in excellent health. As a lifelong soldier, he was a vigorous man who was in complete control of the situation. He was the commanding general of the relatively recently established Lombardo-Venetian Kingdom, a crownland of Austria governed by Viceroy Archduke Rainer.