Lieutenant general
Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...
Giovanni Cavalli (
Novara
Novara (, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous city in Piedmont after Turin. It i ...
, 23 July 1808 –
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, 23 December 1879Кавалли, Джиованни /ref>) was an Italian soldier, artillerist and inventor. He is credited with the creation of the first successful rifled breech loader gun.
Biography
He entered the Royal Academy of Turin in 1818, and graduated from it in 1828 as first of his class, with the rank of
lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...
. He worked on ways to reform and improve the work of artillerist and pontoneers, detailing proposals to change size and duties of gun crews, the procedures to drill them, among others.
Then-
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
Cavalli's first design for a breech-loading gun dated from 1832, but initially it was met with indifference; only in 1843 his proposal sparked some interest, and he was sent to
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
to oversee the construction of an experimental rifled gun to his specifications. He met there and collaborated with Baron
Martin von Wahrendorff
Martin von Wahrendorff (1789 – 1861) was a Swedish diplomat and inventor.
His father Anders von Wahrendorff was the owner of the gun foundry at Åker. Wahrendorff was Grand Master of Ceremonies at the Royal Court of Sweden from 1828 to ...
, and in 1846 the first trials with the gun met with resounding success.
He fought in the
First War of Italian Independence
The First Italian War of Independence ( it, Prima guerra d'indipendenza italiana), part of the Italian Unification (''Risorgimento''), was fought by the Kingdom of Sardinia (Piedmont) and Italian volunteers against the Austrian Empire and other ...
with the rank of
major
Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
, participating in the siege of
Peschiera del Garda
Peschiera del Garda (; vec, Pischera; la, Ardelica, ''Arilica'') is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Verona, in Veneto, Italy. When Lombardy-Venetia was under Austrian rule, Peschiera was the northwest anchor of the four fortified tow ...
; he also served in a similar capacity in the
Second Italian War of Independence
The Second Italian War of Independence, also called the Franco-Austrian War, the Austro-Sardinian War or Italian War of 1859 ( it, Seconda guerra d'indipendenza italiana; french: Campagne d'Italie), was fought by the Second French Empire and t ...
, as a
colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...
. Afterwards, he became director of the foundry of the Turin arsenal.
Promoted to major general in 1860 and to lieutenant general in 1862, he served on the ''Comitato d'Artiglieria'' (Artillery Committee), and from April 1865 as commander of the Royal Academy of Turin. He retired in July 1879, dying in Turin shortly after.