Francesco Neri (b. Ferrara, 17 April 1774)
When the French arrived in Italy, he was a cavalryman in an equestrian circus. He presented himself as a volunteer in the sapper companies organized in Ferrara on 1 September 1796, and obtained by lot the rank of lieutenant 2nd class, in which he was confirmed in the artillery in 1801 by the Cisalpine Directory, with the obligation to take the exams within 3 years. On 7 July 1803 he was promoted to lieutenant 1st class. He served in Italy from 1798 to 1801, then in the division in France in 1803-1804 and in the Armée de Naples in 1805-1806. In 1806 he successfully defended the Tremiti Islands with 40 men against the British and was therefore promoted to captain 2nd class on 18 June and was decorated with the Legion of Honour on 1 September. From 1808 to 1811 he was in Spain, serving at the sieges of Rosas (for which he was awarded the iron Crown at the end of 1808), Girona and Hostalrich and being promoted to captain 1st class on 13 March 1811; in 1812 he was in Russia, in 1813 in Germany: on June 3 he was promoted to battalion chief and after Leipzig to colonel in the horse artillery. In 1814 he vied for Valtellina against the Austrians with 400 men. In 1815 he fought under Murat, taking command of the retreat after Tolentino; victorious at Castel di Sangro, he was appointed brigadier. He was then exiled to France and America, dying of yellow fever on the island of St. Thomas (cf. MSA, WO 1702, OR 89, Giacchi, Niccolò. 1940. Gli uomini d’arme italiani nelle campagne napoleoniche, in L’Opera del Genio Italiano all’Estero. Rome: Libreria dello Stato: 329, Crociani, Piero, Virgilio Ilari and Ciro Paoletti. 2004. Storia Militare del Regno Italico (1802-1814). Rome: USSME, vol. I, t. II: 746).