Garibaldi and His Red-Shirts
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Permission to use Heritage History documents or images for commercial purposes, or more information about our collection of traditional history resources can be obtained by contacting us at [email protected] THE MEETING OF GARIBALDI AND VICTOR EMANUEL. Original Copyright 1915 by F. J. Snell. 2 Distributed by Heritage History 2010 PREFACE TABLE OF CONTENTS Our brief sketch of Garibaldi and his comrades has been based, as far as possible on G. M. Trevelyan's notable TRUANT AND REBEL ...................................................... 4 trilogy—Garibaldi and the defense of Rome, Garibaldi and teh BLISS ON THE PAMPAS ................................................... 6 Thousand, and Garibaldi and the Making of Italy. Mr. RETURN TO ITALY ........................................................ 10 Trevelyan's very full and highly picturesque narratives do not RED ROME ................................................................... 13 take in, or only cursorily, the later phases of his hero's career, in with Garibaldi appears to less advantage. Here we have HEROES ALL! ............................................................... 16 been compelled to fall back on Garibaldi's autobiography, A BOLD RETREAT ........................................................ 20 which as been satisfactorily translated by Mr. A. Werner, JACK OF ALL TRADES .................................................. 23 supplemented by Signora Mario's recital. OLD FOES, NEW FRIENDS ............................................ 27 A legend which seems impossible but has nevertheless REVENGE ON THE WHITE-COATS ................................. 29 gained acceptance in some quarters represents Garibaldi as THE THOUSAND ........................................................... 33 having been killed at Aspromonte, when a 'double' named TO PALERMO! .............................................................. 35 Sganerelli, a stevedore of Genoa, was substituted for him by THE 'ENGLISH' REGIMENT ............................................ 40 the chiefs of the party for political reasons. The supposed ITH THE ONORS OF AR fraud has been put forward as an explanation for the W H W ........................................ 42 Liberator's failures after 1862. The theory is not only CROSSING THE STRAIT ................................................. 46 unnecessary, but even preposterous. " 'Tis not in mortals to "THE FALSE GARIBALDI" ............................................. 48 command success," and as it was Garibaldi's uniform MASTER OF NAPLES ..................................................... 52 experience to strive against heavy odds, it should excite no BRITISH TARS AND IRISH CRUSADERS ......................... 54 surprise that sometimes his military genius was beaten by THE FIERCEST FIGHT ................................................... 57 circumstances. What is really surprising is that a man HE RITISH EGION untrained in the arts of war should have accomplished such T B L ................................................... 59 signal results, at any period of life, with such cruelly MORE WOUNDS AND LONDON ..................................... 63 inadequate means. CAMPAIGN IN THE TYROL ............................................ 66 F. J. SNELL. SECOND DASH FOR ROME ............................................ 68 ALLY OF FRANCE ......................................................... 72 THE CLOSE OF THE DAY .............................................. 75 Original Copyright 1915 by F. J. Snell. 3 Distributed by Heritage History 2010 CHAPTER I reading, and then it was no use to try to make him join any of our schemes for mischief. He had a beautiful voice, and knew all the songs of the peasants and sailors, and a good many TRUANT AND REBEL French ones besides. Even as a boy we all looked up to him, and chose him for our umpire, while the little ones regarded Giuseppe (Joseph) Garibaldi was born at Nice on July him as their natural protector. He was the strongest and most 4, 1807. Nice is now, and has been since 1860, a French town, enduring swimmer I ever knew, and a very fish in water." but between these dates it was included in the kingdom of Piedmont, and its Italian name is Nizza. The Garibaldis were When a small boy, Garibaldi helped a washer-woman pure Italians, having come thirty years before from Chiavari, out of a deep ditch. She was the first of sixteen persons whom on the other side of Genoa. It is quite possible, however, that he saved from drowning—which shows that his skill and hundreds of years ago a forefather of theirs was one of the gallantry were not confined to the battlefield. This youthful Longobardi or German barbarians who crossed the Alps and heroism, however, hardly compensated for his backwardness settled in the north of Italy, which they won with the sword. as a student, and his education in the ordinary sense ceased The name points to that conclusion, and very fit was that name when he was fifteen. One of his masters knew English and for Italy's deliverer, meaning something like 'warrior bold.' It would have taught it to him, but the boy threw away this is first cousin, though one might not think it, to our 'Hereward.' opportunity of learning what he afterward called "the beautiful All this, however, has no bearing on Garibaldi's nationality. tongue of Byron." He did learn—and forgot—a little Latin; French he acquired quite easily, and he made some progress— Our hero's father did not spring from the ranks of the not much—in mathematics. He mastered the elementary, but nobility. He was an honest shipmaster, and not rich. Domenico necessary, accomplishments of reading and writing, by the Garibaldi, however, was resolved to give his son a good help of which he could indulge his refined tastes. His education, no matter what the cost, and it seems a pity that his independence of spirit led him to peruse the poetical works of parental sacrifice should have been wasted. His son, alas! did Voltaire, and he went so far as to commit certain passages to not love school, and was a sad truant. When he should have memory. But it was Ugo Foscolo, a living Italian poet, who been poring over his books, he with his cousin was exploring cherished noble aspirations for his country and for humanity, the mountains, or down in the harbor feasting his eyes on ships who most fascinated him and won his homage; indeed, all and sailors arrived from distant climes. through his life Garibaldi was fond of quoting that writer. He One of his early companions had a vivid remembrance himself in later years attempted verse, but though he felt the of those days, of which he thus writes: charm of poetry and music, his romantic sentiments clothed themselves more naturally in deeds than in words. His "Though Peppino [Giuseppe] was a bright, brave lad, vocation was not to compose stanzas, but to re-create a nation. who planned all sorts of adventures, played truant when he Yet it is pleasant to reflect that he was not so devoid of culture could get the loan of a gun or coax one of the fishermen to as his misspent schooldays threatened to leave him. Possibly take him in his boat, went oyster-trawling, and never missed his education might have been prolonged, had he been more the tunny festival at Villafranca or the sardine hauls at Limpia, earnest and industrious; as it was, he brought about a crisis by he was often thoughtful and silent, and when he had a book a daring act of revolt, which will be best described in his own that interested him would lie under the olive-trees for hours words: Original Copyright 1915 by F. J. Snell. 4 Distributed by Heritage History 2010 "Tired of school, and unable to endure a sedentary life, the movement with merciless severity, and the gallant Menotti I proposed one day to some companions of my own age