Antonio Giuseppe Miani

Antonio Giuseppe Miani was an Italian general who served as an officer in the colonial field, fighting in Eritrea during the Eritrean war and the Abyssinian war, being decorated with three Silver Medals for military valor.

Having returned to his homeland, he carried out garrison duties until 1913, when he was sent to Libya to organize the conquest of the Fezzan region, which he completed by March 1914, being awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Savoy. This occupation did not last long, as in November a large rebellion broke out which forced the Italian troops to quickly abandon the Fezzan. Sent back to Libya in 1915 with the task of carrying out a colonial police operation in Sirtica, his column was heavily defeated in the Battle of Gasr Bu Hàdi (29 April), with huge losses of men and materials. Made the scapegoat for the defeat, he was sent back to his homeland, being kept aside until his official retirement, which took place on 16 June 1916 . Recalled briefly to service during 1917, taking on the role of commander of the Vallarsa sector, he was relieved shortly thereafter by General Luigi Cadorna, never holding any further military office.

He was born in Milan on 31 July 1864, son of Giuseppe and Bianca Consolini.'^[1] After attending the technical institute, on 19 December 1881 he enlisted in the Royal Army and began attending the Royal Military Academy of Infantry and Cavalry in Modena as an officer cadet, leaving with the rank of second lieutenant , assigned to the infantry corps, on 23 July 1883, after having attended the weapons and shooting course at the Normal School in Parma. He entered service with the 9th Bersaglieri Regiment stationed in the Milan area, three years later, promoted to lieutenant, he was sent to Eritrea assigned to the local Royal Colonial Troops Corps. Having arrived in Massawa he was immediately added to the expeditionary force, under the command of General Alessandro Asinari di San Marzano , which had the task of avenging the honour of the Italian armies, which had been defeated at Dogali.The expedition was fruitless, because neither Ras Alula nor Negus Johannes IV accepted the fight and retreated to Ethiopia. Once the expeditionary force was disbanded, he was sent on leave to Italy, but returned shortly afterwards to Cologne to take part in the definitive operations for the conquest of Eritrea.^[1]

On 2 June 1889 he took part in the occupation of Cheren, and on 3 August in that of Asmara, attracting the attention of the governor of the colony, General Antonio Baldissera, who entrusted him with the command of a company of Ascari and a contingent of Eritrean irregulars, with the task of in the villages of the tribes of Habab, Beni Amer, Baria and Baza. He learned the Arabic and Tigrinya languages, also dedicating himself to geological studies and topographical surveys. In January 1890, aided by the Beni Amer, the Baria and the Baza, he conquered the fort of Suzennà, garrisoned by a band of Abyssinian raiders, and on 31 May the following year he took part in the battle of Mai Daro. In that same year he was appointed political resident in the Maria region, and in 1891 in the Beni Amer region. He reported twice, in June 1890 and June 1892, to the new governor Oreste Baratieri the dervishes 'incursions on the borders between Eritrea and Sudan. Having formed the indigenous Barca bands, he managed, towards the end of 1893 , to discover that the emir Ahmed Ali had amassed around 10,000 armed men on the borders of the colony with the intention of advancing on Agordat, and he warned Colonel Giuseppe Arimondi. The battle broke out on 21 December, and he particularly distinguished himself in the fight, being awarded the first Silver Medal for military valor.^[1]

Having assumed command of the 3rd Company of the "Ameglio" Battalion, he did not take part in the Battle of Adua, because the latter had been charged by Baratieri to occupy the Gundet ridge to prevent Negus Menelik II from possibly invading Eritrea. He distinguished himself in the subsequent battles of Aga-à and Debra-Matzò (2 and 7 May 1896) which led to the liberation of Adigrat, being decorated with the third Silver Medal for military valor. Promoted to captain on 18 October 1896 , he remained to serve in the colony, taking part in a subsequent clash with the dervishes, whose emir Fadil had bypassed the advanced position of Cassala advancing directly on Agordat. General Giuseppe Ettore Viganò, vice-governor of Eritrea, managed to concentrate a large military force, and at this point Fadil gave up advancing and retreated towards Sudan. Having obtained special leave, he returned to Italy to marry his cousin, Laura Miani on 10 April 1897. He immediately returned to the colony, leaving on 19 May, and participated in the handing over of Cassala to the Anglo-Egyptian forces of Colonel Parsons, which took place on 25 December. On 7 February 1898 he was repatriated by authority, assigned to the 3rd Bersaglieri Regiment. He served in garrison until 12 October 1899 when, appointed Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy, he was admitted to attend the Army War School in Turin. In 1903 he was assigned to the General Staff Corps under the Livorno Military Division, completing at the same time his demonstration map of the Eritrean Colony which was published by the Military Geographic Institute in 1905. The death of his father, which occurred in 1906, forced him to take a two-year leave of absence to follow the family factory, the Miani and Silvestri Mechanical Workshops, and during this period he took up residence in Domaso, on Lake Como, where his only daughter, Elsa, was born.^[1]

Recalled to active service on 22 May 1908, in September of the same year he was promoted to major , assigned to serve in the Command of the Military Division of Milan. In 1910 he was transferred to the General Staff Corps taking on the role of Chief of Staff of the Military Division of Palermo. On 4 June 1912 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel for exceptional merits.^[1]

In the early months of 1913 the Minister of Colonies Pietro Bertolini decided that the time had come to militarily occupy the Fezzan region , and the new governor Vincenzo Garioni chose him for this task. On 5 June he was transferred to the Ministry of Colonies, and assigned to the Royal Colonial Corps of Tripolitania.^[2] Arriving in Tripoli he had some meetings, one with the governor Garioni who warned him of the material impossibility of having reinforcement troops, and one with the Turkish officer Abd el Cader Giami Bey who warned him of the difficulties he would encounter, and of the military power of the tribes to be subjugated.^[3] Appointed in the meantime "Government Commissioner in charge of the occupation and government of Fezzan", between the second half of June he planned the military operation, which officially began on 16 July, when he and his troops embarked on three steamers left Tripoli arriving in the waters of Misurata the following day, embarking further troops and supplies of various kinds.^[4] Arriving in front of Sirte, on 18 July the landing operations began, and from here he left with his troops on 9 August, entering the desert. The column was made up of 1,100 men (109 nationals, and the rest colonials), 500 family members of the askaris, 10 cannons, 4 machine guns, 4 trucks and 1,765 camels loaded with water, ammunition and other supplies. After 16 days the column reached Socna, 300 km from the sea, occupied some time before by the troops of Captain Antonio Hercolani Gaddi. On 6 December the advance resumed in the direction of Brach, the capital of eastern Sciati, on the 10th he defeated a small group of enemies in Sceb, and on the 13th he defeated the troops of Mohammed ben Abdallah, occupying the castle of the city at 3.30 pm that day.^[5] This fact earned him the promotion to colonel for extraordinary merits. On 23 December he left Brach, where he left an occupation contingent, advancing and occupying Agar, and the following day he advanced towards Maharuga where the troops of Mohammed ben Abdallah were waiting for him. In the furious fighting the Libyans left 250 men on the ground, including their leader, while the Italian troops had 15 askaris killed, including their commander Antonio De Dominicis. The occupation of Maharuga, which took place at 5pm on 1 January 1914, concluded the first part of the campaign. Operations resumed on 16 February when 500 men under his command left Brach in the direction of Sebha, which was occupied on 25 February, leaving the next day in the direction of Marzuch which was reached on 3 March. The occupation of the town marked the subjugation of the Fezzan region, For this feat he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Savoy on 5 June 1915. In the following months he was busy solving the logistical, political and organizational problems created in the region by the Italian occupation, but the Arab revolt broke out in October 1914, so much so that he had to order the evacuation of military units from practically all of Fezzan, with some of them forced to transit through Algerian territory, with the benevolence of the French authorities. Once he arrived in Tripoli he was relieved of his command and sent back to his homeland, held in reserve for possible redeployment. In Garioni's place, General Giorgio Cigliana was first appointed, immediately replaced by General Luigi Druetti, who in turn was replaced some time later by General Giulio Cesare Tassoni. The latter decided to maintain the remaining Italian positions at any cost, and in agreement with Minister Ferdinando Martini had him sent back to Libya, employing him in a colonial police operation in Sirtica.^[1]

Arriving at Misurata ( Gulf of Sirte ) he gathered a total of 3,000 men with 220 horses, to which were added other national units, the 4th and 13th Libyan battalions, the 15th Eritrean battalion, for a total of about 6,000 men. In total he also had two batteries of 70 mm, 12 mountain guns and 12 Maxim-Vickers machine guns, plus 2,000 camels and 20 mules. On 5 April 1915, the column left Misurata, arriving four days later at Bir el Ezzar where the Tarhuna and Orfella bands under the command of Major Rosso were waiting for it. On the 14th, the column camped at Bir el-Gheddahia and from there set off again towards the rebel camp at Gasr Bu Hadi. Difficulties arose with the water supply and with the Arab bands who did not want to leave their territory. On 29 April, the column marched towards Gasr bu Hàdi, a place where he estimated there were 1,500 mujahedin under the command of the rebel leaders Safi ed-Din, Ahmed Tuati and Abdalla ben Idris. The Italian forces, which had a compact formation, slowed down however by the baggage train, were heavily attacked by irregular groups of Bedouins. They immediately attacked the baggage train, killing the drivers, and bypassing the "irregular" Italian units which were scattered. He immediately gave the order, even if late, to scatter the columns, with the enemy attacking again, pushing the Italian units towards a narrow valley. In the evening the disaster emerged in all its gravity, with the loss of 19 officers, 237 national soldiers, and 242 Eritrean and Libyan askaris. The rebels captured 5,000 rifles, about 3 million cartridges, at least 6 machine guns, almost all the pieces of 70 mm and even the military chest. Wounded by two bullets he returned to Sirte, where three days later he called an extraordinary military tribunal which sentenced to death 13 leaders of the Libyan gangs to whom he himself had entrusted positions of command. Considered by the Italian command as the main person responsible for the defeat, he was hastily sent back to Italy, but was not subjected to any trial.^[6]

Chosen as a scapegoat, he was placed on official retirement on 16 June 1916, and recalled briefly to service during 1917, taking up the post of commander of the Vallarsa sector. He was dismissed shortly after, never holding any further military office. He spent the rest of his life seeking rehabilitation, calling for the establishment of a special commission of inquiry, particularly hurt by the judgement expressed on him by General Luigi Cadorna , who wrote: Never, I believe, in the colonial history of any country, has such a reckless and ill-timed undertaking been encountered.^[6]

Promoted to brigadier general of the reserve, between 13 March and 2 September 1926 he wrote about thirty letters, addressed to generals Cadorna, Guglielmo Pecori Giraldi, Gaetano Giardino, Carlo Porro to the general and undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior Attilio Teruzzi, to the Minister of the Colonies Prince Pietro Lanza di Scalea, and to the Minister of War Benito Mussolini, without success. In 1928 he was appointed Prefectural Commissioner of Colico, and he was remembered by Marshal of Italy Pietro Badoglio, who after the occupation of Murzuch, which took place on 24 February 1930, sent him a telegram in which he recalled that he had been the first Italian soldier to have conquered it.^[1]

Suffering from heart problems, he died in Domaso on 8 August 1933 and was buried in the local cemetery. The attempts made by his widow after his death to obtain his full rehabilitation were in vain.^[6]