The active or standing army comprises 18 battalions of infantry, 12 regiments of cavalry, 8 regiments of artillery, and 4 battalions of engineers.
In addition there are 22 Alpini battalions and 15 mountain batteries stationed on the Alpine frontiers.
Nevertheless the whole of the infantry of the ith Division was on shore before dawn, and its leading battalions had driven off the Turkish detachments met with in the immediate vicinity of the points of disembarkation.
It was commanded by Prince Alexander of Hesse; the 1st division (3 infantry brigades, i cavalry brigade, 6 batteries) came from Wurttemberg; the 2nd division (2 infantry and I cavalry brigades, 5 batteries) from Baden, the least anti-Prussian of all these states; the 3rd division (2 infantry and i cavalry brigades, i rifle battalion, 4 batteries) from Hesse-Darmstadt; the 4th division consisted of an Austrian brigade of 7 battalions (three of which were Italians), a Nassau brigade, and two batteries and some hussars of Hesse-Cassel.
At the end of the year, when Marshal Serrano left Madrid to take command of the northern army, General Martinez Campos, who had long been working more or less openly for the king, carried off some battalions of the central army to Sagunto, rallied to his own flag the troops sent against him, and entered Valencia in the king's name.