Charles Camillo DeRudio (born Carlo Camillo Di Rudio; August 26, 1832 – November 1, 1910) was an Italian aristocrat, would-be assassin of Napoleon III, and later a career U.S. Army officer who fought in the 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Early life Carlo di Rudio was born in Belluno, Italy. He was the son of Count and Countess Aquila di Rudio. (Shortly before his death, he was interviewed by Walter Mason Camp, and showed him family records going back to 1680.) As a teenager, he attended an Austrian military academy in Milan, today known as Military School "Teulié". At the age of 15, di Rudio left to join the Italian patriots during the uprising in 1848, and participated in the defense of Rome, and, later of Venice, against the Austrians. He was shipwrecked off Spain in an aborted attempt to sail to America. By 1855, he was living in east London (England) and had married Eliza, the 15-year-old daughter of a confectioner. They eventually had three daughters and two sons. French imprisonment On January 14, 1858, during a visit to the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opera, three bombs were thrown at the royal procession of Emperor Napoleon III. Eight people and a horse were killed and one hundred and fifty injured. Four men were arrested: Felice Orsini, the leader of the plot, Giuseppi Pieri, Antonio Gomez, and a Portuguese beer salesman named "Da Selva," who turned out to be di Rudio. (See Orsini affair for details). Orsini and Pieri were guillotined on March 14 and Gomez was sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. Di Rudio was initially condemned with Orsini and Pieri, but someone pleaded clemency for him and the sentence was commuted to life on Devil's Island. Several months later, he and twelve others escaped from the prison and made their way to British Guiana. From there, di Rudio made his way back to London and his wife and went on the lecture circuit. His name was anglicized as 'Charles DeRudio'. American Civil War DeRudio immigrated to New York City in 1860. He became a private in the 79th New York Infantry Regiment, serving about two months with them at the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia, between August 25 and October 17, 1864. On November 11, 1864, he was commissioned second lieutenant, 2nd U. S. Colored Infantry Regiment. DeRudio served with