Piedmont-Sardinia's 32,000-strong invasion of the Papal States in central Italy was only a week old when a smaller Papal army under General de Lamoricière attempted to halt it at Castelfidardo. The result was a complete victory for the Northern Italian army and heavy casualties among the royalist and Catholic volunteers from all over Europe in the Pope's forces. The victors went on to take control of the coastal port of Ancona. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Peter N. Stearns, William Leonard Langer (eds.) An Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern ... (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), 498.