Giuseppe Federico Palombini or Joseph Friedrich von Palombini (3 December 1774 – 25 April 1850) became an Italian division commander during the Napoleonic Wars. He joined the army of the Cispadane Republic in 1796 and fought at Faenza in 1797. He became commander of a dragoon regiment in 1798. He became commander of the Napoleone Dragoons, of the Cisalpine Republic army, in 1802. He fought as an ally of the French at Kolberg and Stralsund in 1807. He married the daughter of Jan Henryk Dąbrowski (Dombrowski) in 1806.
Transferred to Spain, he fought in Domenico Pino's division at Roses, Cardadeu, Molins de Rei, Valls and Gerona and was promoted general of brigade in 1809. He led a brigade at El Pla and Tarragona in 1811 and was promoted general of division. He led his division at Saguntum, Valencia and Castro Urdiales in 1811–1813. Transferring to Italy, he fought at Cerknica in 1813 and Peschiera del Garda in 1814. After collapse of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1814, he joined the army of the Austrian Empire, becoming a Feldmarschall-Leutnant. He became the Inhaber (proprietor) of the 36th Line Infantry Regiment in 1817. He retired in 1824 and died in 1850 at his wife's castle in Grochwitz near Herzberg (Elster).
Early career On 3 December 1774, Palombini was born in Rome of parents Pietro Palombini and Teresa Spada. He studied drawing in school. On 1 November 1796 or a few days earlier he enlisted in the 5th Cohort of the army of the Cispadane Republic. He was promoted sergeant major on 7 November and second lieutenant on 21 December 1796. His first action occurred on 2 February 1797 at the Battle of Faenza while fighting against troops of the Papal States. He became first lieutenant on 10 May and captain assistant major on 25 May 1798. He resigned from the army of the Cisalpine Republic (successor state to the Cispadane Republic) on 9 September 1798 to take a commission as colonel of the gendarmes of the Roman Republic. In November the same year, Palombini's regiment was converted to dragoons. The unit was involved in operations near Fano on 11 July 1799.
Palombini was at the Siege of Ancona which lasted from 14 October to 13 November 1799. The French garrison was surrounded by an 8,000-strong Austrian corps and blockaded by a joint Russian-Ottoman fleet. The garrison surrendered to the Austrians and were paroled to France on condition to not fight against Austria until exchanged. Palombini was wounded in the shoulder on 2 November while repelling an enemy attack. The French commander Jean-Charles Monnier recommended him for promotion to general of brigade, but it was never approved. After Ancona, Giuseppe Lechi sent Palombini to Bourg-en-Bresse to organize a battalion of the Italic Legion. After the truce following the Battle of Marengo in June 1800, Lechi named him president of the audit board of his division. In October, Palombini led a 170-man Roman battalion in Domenico Pino's division during the invasion of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. This ended with the capture of Siena after a clash on 14 January 1801, during which he led Pino's advance guard.
Palombini returned to Milan the end of the War of the Second Coalition to find there was no post in the Cisalpine army for him. Despite recommendations from Lechi and Pino, his request to be named general of brigade was rejected by the government. The Minister of War Giovanni Tordorò found him an administrative position in November 1801. He was appointed commander of a battalion of the 1st Light Infantry Regiment on 2 November 1802.
Napoleonic Italy Northern Europe Palombini became chief of brigade (colonel) of the 2nd Hussar Regiment on 23 February 1804 and went to command the unit at the Camp of Boulogne. This regiment later became the Napoleone Dragoons. On 28 August 1806 he married Carolina Amalia Beatrice Dąbrowski, the daughter of the Polish general Jan Henryk Dąbrowski. He was appointed a knight of the Order of the Iron Crown in 1806, and at a later date, a commander of the order. He was part of the Italian contingent sent to Germany to fight in the War of the Fourth Coalition. The Napoleone and Regina Dragoons fought at the Siege of Kolberg which lasted from 20 March to 2 July 1807. The commander of the Italian division, Pietro Teulié was killed during the unsuccessful siege. In July, the division marched to participate in the Siege of Stralsund which had begun on 15 January 1807. With the division under Pino's leadership, the two dragoon regiments joined the besieging force until 20 August when the Swedes evacuated Stralsund.
Peninsular War: 1808–1809 In 1808, Palombini went to fight in Spain with Pino's division and stayed there until 1813. After Guillaume Philibert Duhesme's Imperial French army abandoned the Second Siege of Gerona in mid-August 1808, it was clear to Emperor Napoleon that he needed to send more troops to Catalonia. Unlike previous reinforcements, which were "mere sweepings of his depots", first class formations were sent. These were Joseph Souham's French division and Pino's Italian division. Pino's 5th Division comprised three battalions each of the Italian 1st Light, 2nd Light, and 6th Line Infantry Regiments, two battalions of the 4th Line, and one battalion each of the 5th and 7th Line. Jacques Fontane's Italian cavalry brigade consisted of the Royal Chasseurs and 7th Dragoons (Napoleone). The French emperor placed all Imperial troops in Catalonia in the VII Corps under Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr.
The Siege of Roses lasted from 7 November to 5 December 1808 and ended with the surrender of the Spanish garrison. The divisions of Honoré Charles Reille and Pino were employed in the besieging force while the divisions of Souham and Louis François Jean Chabot formed the covering force. The cavalry were not mentioned. Pino's division reported 30 officers and 400 men killed and wounded. After the fall of Roses, Saint-Cyr boldly resolved to march to the relief of Barcelona. He took the divisions of Pino, Souham and Chabot, leaving Reille behind. Since he planned to take his 15,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry across the hills on footpaths, Saint-Cyr took no artillery pieces and only what food and extra ammunition could be carried on mules.
On 16 December 1808 the Battle of Cardadeu (Llinas) was fought. Finding 9,000 Spanish troops under Juan Miguel de Vives y Feliu blocking his path, Saint-Cyr left Chabot's small division to guard his rear and planned to hurl 13,000 troops from Pino's and Souham's divisions at his foes. Saint-Cyr insisted that the assault be carried out in a massed column with Pino's division in the lead. However, Pino disobeyed orders and deployed the seven battalions of his leading brigade. The initial attack drove back the first Spanish line but was repulsed by the second line. In this crisis, Saint-Cyr directed Souham's division to angle to the left and ordered Pino's second brigade forward, six battalions strong. As the Spanish defenders began to give way before the two columns, the French commander ordered the two Italian cavalry regiments to charge the Spanish center. Vives' lines crumpled and his troops took to their heels. Saint-Cyr's corps sustained 600 casualties while inflicting 1,000 killed and wounded on the Spanish and capturing 1,500 men and five cannons.
With Barcelona relieved, the Spanish army fell back behind the Llobregat River. Since Vives was separated from his army after Cardadeu, Theodor von Reding commanded the Spanish troops. The Battle of Molins de Rei was fought on 21 December 1808. Saint-Cyr ordered Joseph Chabran's French division to make a false attack on the Spanish left flank. Completely fooled, Reding reinforced his left from his right flank. Saint-Cyr then sent Souham, Pino and Chabot against the weakened right flank and rolled up the Spanish line. The Imperial troops rounded up 1,200 Spanish prisoners and captured 25 artillery pieces. Palombini was promoted general of brigade on 14 February 1809.
After Molins de Rei, Reding was reinforced and his army recovered its confidence; he decided to take the field. After a series of maneuvers, Reding decided to return to his base at Tarragona. Hearing of this move, Saint-Cyr blocked both roads that his adversary might use, establishing Souham's division at Valls and Pino's at Pla d'Urgell. After a night march, Reding's army appeared before Souham's division on the morning of 25 February and the Battle of Valls began. During the morning, Reding's superior numbers forced Souham back and the Spanish army had a clear road to Tarragona. At noon, Saint-Cyr arrived in person with the two Italian cavalry regiments. Thinking that the Imperials were heavily reinforced, Reding pulled his tired soldiers back to high ground behind the Francolí River. Because of a muddle in orders, Pino's division did not come on the field until after 4:00 pm. At that hour Saint-Cyr arranged the two divisions in four columns of a brigade each, with the Italian cavalry between the center columns and the French 24th Dragoons on the right flank. Reding's soldiers fired a great volley at range, but when the Imperials were seen advancing through the smoke, the Spanish lines disintegrated. For the loss of 1,000 men, the Imperials inflicted 3,000 casualties on their foes and seized their wagon train and all their artillery. Reding was mortally wounded by French dragoons.
The Third Siege of Gerona lasted from 6 June to 10 December 1809. One authority wrote that the Spanish garrison lost 5,122 men killed and 4,248 captured, while Imperial fatalities numbered 15,000, half from disease. Jean-Antoine Verdier led 14,000 soldiers of the siege force in the divisions of Lechi, Verdier and Annet Morio de L'Isle while Saint-Cyr commanded 14,000 troops covering the siege. Palombini commanded a 912-man cavalry brigade in Pino's Division, which was part of Saint-Cyr's covering army. On 1 June 1809, the brigade included six squadrons belonging to the Italian Horse Chasseur and Dragoon Regiments. On 10 July, a Spanish relieving column was ambushed and destroyed by Pino's division, losing 40 officers and 878 men captured. The Spanish garrison of Gerona defeated a major Imperial attack on 19 September. After that fiasco, the 1,000 survivors of Lechi's division were incorporated into Pino's division and Saint-Cyr determined to starve out the garrison rather than waste any more lives in futile assaults. Pino's division defeated a relieving column on 26 September and captured its food convoy. On 7 November, Pino's division raided and burned the large Spanish supply dump at Hostalric.
Peninsular War: 1810–1811
On 15 January 1810, the VII Corps was under the command of Marshal Pierre Augereau. At that date, Pino's division had 238 officers and 6,346 men present under arms, 201 detached, 2,409 sick in hospital and 93 prisoners. With the divisions of Pino and Souham, Augereau made an expedition in January in which all captured miquelets (militiamen) were hanged. In retaliation, the Spanish began killing all Imperial soldiers that they caught. By 15 March Filippo Severoli had assumed command of the Italian division when Pino went home on leave. On 24 April, Napoleon replaced Augereau with Marshal Jacques MacDonald. The new commander rescinded Augereau's orders to kill captured guerillas. MacDonald used Severoli's division to guard large convoys to Barcelona in June, July and August. In 1810, Palombini was appointed an officer of the Legion of Honor.