Luigi Delfini (b. Pinerolo, 1770)
An aristocrat, Delfini joined the Piedmontese infantry as a volunteer in 1795, was promoted to lieutenant in 1796, then enrolled as a volunteer in the Cisalpine army in 1797, where he was made a captain 2nd class on 30 April. He was considered a “very bad subject” by Inspector General Calori. In 1801 he was under arrest for two months following the complaint of a civilian, but such arrests lasted so long only because the councils of war had been suppressed. By 20 October he was promoted to captain 1st class. In 1802 he abandoned his wife Maria Clerici, which brought a harsh reaction from the minister of war, who judged it necessary to “repress such abuses that dishonour the army”; he accordingly ordered Calori to suspend him on 1 April “until he lends himself to what honour and duty prescribe” and in the meantime to pay ¼ of his stipends to his wife. Delfini hastened to reconcile with his wife, and was therefore put back in business in mid-June. In 1804 Calori asked the War Minister whether to discharge Delfini, as there had been “many disturbances in the 13th company” of the foot regiment, which he commanded. A commission composed of Mazzucchelli (colonel of the regiment), De Kokel, Vivès and Gorio had found bad faith in “accounting, a thousand omissions, and an inexpressible carelessness”. According to further investigations by the Inspector of Reviews, there was no doubt that Delfini had “committed a number of irregularities and extortions to the detriment of the soldier”, for which he was arrested. Calori, however, argued that it would be preferable to discharge him rather than have him judged by a war council, since: “in a contention between superior and subordinate the latter nearly always ends defeated. The soldier fears that after supplying the basis for a charge he will be victimized by his superior if he succeeds in getting off, and hence naturally tends to provide the means even at the cost of retraction. Delfini’s discharge will serve as a useful example and restraint for those like him whose bullying ways give our troops the strongest incentive to desert”. Melzi preferred to have him tried by a war council, which unanimously declared him innocent – not before he had been almost six months under arrest, however. His return to the corps was frowned upon by the new regimental commanding colonel Tricquenot: “This individual has enjoyed a reputation known to you in his own corps for the eight years that he has served you, throughout the army, and even among the public… when an officer is at the point where Delfini is, his presence in his own corps is pernicious”. For his part, Delfini asked to be transferred to the infantry or another corps, with advancement in rank. Instead, he was sent as parc director of the army in the Kingdom of Naples, where he remained until 1808. He distinguished himself in the German campaign of 1809, being made a knight of the Legion of Honor on 17 July 1809. On 4 August 1810 he was promoted to battalion chief in the naval artillery, but on 18 May 1813 he returned to the land artillery. In 1814 he applied for citizenship of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, which was not granted. He thereupon emigrated to France, where he was naturalized and regained his rank in 1817 (See MSA, WO, 1801, OR 89, SHD, 2Ye 1092, AN, LH/712/15, EBA, b. 41, f. 1).