The colonial period saw alumni participate in operations in Africa and among the fallen in this period remembers the captain Andrea De Benedictis, was killed in 1887 during the battle of Dogali; and on 26 January 1891 a plaque was dedicated to him in the Great Courtyard of the Nunziatella. This period was also of great importance for the history of the school, mainly as a result of the disastrous Battle of Adwa on 1 March 1896: it was during this fight, in fact, that was assigned to a former student the first gold medal for military valor after the Italian unification. The artillery captain Eduardo Bianchini, son of the eminent economist of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies Luigi Bianchini, sacrificed himself in place with its mountain battery to allow the Italian main force to fold in front of the enemy offensive from Adwa.