He again joined the Risorgimento and participated in the popular revolt against the Austrian garrison in Milan known as the cinque giornate of 1848. He joined the Bersaglieri di Manara in the defense of the Republic of Rome in 1848, but returned to painting by 1851. The urge to battle resumed in 1859, when he rejoined the army fighting in Lombardy.
Again returning to art after his stint in the militias, he painted Presa del cimitero di Solferino, a battle in which he participated.[1] In 1872, his painting of Maramaldo (referring to Fabrizio Maramaldo), awarded a prize at the Milan Exhibition, was sold to the Khedive of Egypt. Pagliano also won prizes for works at the 1867 Exhibitions of Parma, Turin, and Paris, and a gold medal at the Berlin Exhibition. Among his main works are: La Ragione di Stato (Reasons of State); The Divorce of Napoleon I; Tintoretto paints his dead daughter's portrait; L'inventario (The Inventory); La lezione di geografia (Geography Lesson); San Luigi, and the large canvas of Il passaggio del Ticino (1859) commissioned by Antonio Traversi of Verona. He painted large tempera paintings for the first-class waiting room at the train station of Milan. He also helped decorate theatres in Como and Verona. He was made an official in the Order of the Crown of Italy, Knight of the Order of Saints Maurizio e Lazzaro, knighted by King Leopold of Belgium, and knighted with the Legion d'Onore, and as a Commendatore of the Order of the Medjidie by the Ottoman rulers of Egypt.[2]
Eleuterio Pagliano died in Milan at the age of 75. During his lifetime his paintings had failed to make a great stir; however, his reputation increased when, shortly after his death, an exhibition in his honour was mounted in Milan.