short stay at Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he was enthusiastically greeted
by English admirers, and given a presentation sword. When he reached
Genoa he found that his mother had died, and that his three children
were living with his cousins. A few short trips at sea succeeded in
earning him sufficient money to buy part of the little island of
Caprera, of which he was so fond. Here he established himself to await
events. Europe had grown more peaceful, but Garibaldi, hot-headed as
he was, could see that Piedmont was slowly but surely widening the
breach between herself and Austria. He began to look to Piedmont as the
hope of Italy, and little by little to understand, especially when the
small kingdom allied itself with France and England against Russia,
that Piedmont meant Cavour, and that the latter was the match of any
diplomatic strategist in Europe.
Garibaldi purchased half of the island of Caprera in 1855, and
immediately took possession. Working with his own hands he built first a
log hut and then a more pretentious villa, to which in time he brought
his cousins, the Deideris, and his children, Theresita, who was rapidly
becoming a very beautiful girl, and the boys Menotti and Ricciotti.
The general called himself the "recluse of Caprera," and worked hard
to cultivate a soil naturally barren and difficult. He was glad of the
opportunity to rest after so many years of stirring action, and day by
day grew more enamoured of the wild vegetation of his island home and
the steep cliffs that bordered it against the sea. Often he had visitors
from nearby Sardinia, simple enthusiastic folk who were delighted to
look upon him as a national hero, and confidently expected that some
day he would lead an Italian army to the greatest victories. In such
patriarchal simplicity he spent the years until 1859, hearing from time
to time news of Cavour's policies at Turin, always eager in hope that
his sword might soon be drawn in conjunction with that of a national
army.
Ten years of patient waiting and subtle diplomacy mark the decade
between the siege of Rome and 1859. In that time Cavour, by the
successive steps of the Crimean War, the Congress of Paris, and the
secret Pact of Plombières, had succeeded in isolating Austria from the
other Powers, and in allying Louis Napoleon with Piedmont. His next
step was to prepare actively for war, and with this purpose he called
Garibaldi to see him at Turin. Garibaldi went to the Minister's house,
dressed in his usual campaign clothes, wearing a loose red blouse
and broad-brimmed hat, and refused to give his name to the servant.
On Cavour's hearing of the presence of such a disreputable appearing
stranger, he said, "Let the poor devil in, he probably has some petition
to ask of me."
The meeting was most amicable, Cavour asked Garibaldi to command the new
volunteer army known as the "Hunters of the Alps," and Garibaldi was
delighted to accept. Immediately he began recruiting his forces, and so
spontaneous was the rising throughout northern and central Italy that
by May of that year he was at the head of three regiments of infantry
well-equipped for instant service. Austria was dismayed, and demanded
that Cavour dismiss the men, but by what was probably the most fortunate
coup in his whole career Cavour was able to appear willing to have
peace, and yet force Austria to war. Napoleon stood by Piedmont, and
in May, 1859, the campaign that was to redeem the inglorious field of
Novara commenced.
Garibaldi's great reputation caused friction between him and the
officers of the regular army, and he who had been used to the greatest
freedom of action found himself seriously hampered by directions from
headquarters. He hailed with delight King Victor Emmanuel's permission
to separate from the regular army and fight as he pleased, accompanied
as it was with the King's remark, "Go where you like, do what you like;
I feel only one regret, that I am not able to follow you."
The resulting campaign showed the great guerilla warrior at his best.
As with the Neapolitans in 1849, so with the Croats in 1859, Garibaldi
was credited with superhuman powers. At times the success attending his
sheer effrontery seemed almost to justify such a conclusion. Time and
again he placed himself in positions so desperate that it was only his
quickness of wit in seizing at a possible chance that saved him. Had he
failed he would have been rated as a bungler, but as he succeeded the
desperation of each chance served only to magnify his strategy. He was
a remarkable mathematician, able to estimate all possible combinations
adroitly and quickly, he never despaired, and never hesitated when
he had decided on a plan. As a result the "Hunters of the Alps," or
_Garibaldini_, as the volunteers were called, hung on the Austrian
troops all through Lombardy and the Lake country, driving them from town
after town by sudden assaults, continually tricking much larger forces
by clever misrepresentations of their own strength. Garibaldi entered
Lombard territory and took Varese. After defeating the Austrians near
there in the battle of Malnate he swept up to Cavallesca, near Como,
and, attacking a much larger force than his own, drove the enemy through
Como towards Monza. Como received the Hunters with open arms, Garibaldi
telegraphed to Milan, using the Austrian General's name, and so gained
information of the Allies. Soon afterwards he stationed his advance
guard at the Villa Medici, looking down over lake after lake, and with a
panoramic view of the Alps. Here the Austrians thought to surround him,
but by means of sending false messages planned to fall into the enemy's
hands, and by taking advantage of a heavy storm at night, he succeeded
in escaping them and regaining Como.
Meanwhile the regular army was winning victories, Montebello, Magenta,
Solferino, and San Martino were falling to the glory of French and
Italian arms. The Austrians were steadily being driven back, Garibaldi
left Como and took Bergamo, then Brescia. As he advanced the men of
the land he crossed joined his army, Brescia set to work to fortify
its walls at his command. He was ordered to follow the Austrians, and
pursued them to Tre Ponti, which he won, although at such a cost he was
obliged to fall back on the main army.
Napoleon the Third had no intention of winning too many victories for
Italy, nor of allowing the Garibaldian troops to gain unseemly power.
The plans of the general were therefore interfered with, his recruits
diverted into other channels, and the Hunters sent into the passes of
the Stelvio on the pretext of preventing an attack from Germany, but
in reality to prevent Garibaldi from crossing Lake Garda and gaining
the valley of the Adige and the Veronese mountains. The general obeyed,
and conducted a markedly successful campaign near Sondrio and Bormio,
finding himself in his true element among the Alps.
Then came the stupefying news that Napoleon had made the peace of
Villafranca. The rage of the _Garibaldini_ knew no bounds, their general
hurried to Victor Emmanuel's camp to tender his resignation. The King
would not accept it. "Italy still requires the legions you command," he
said, "you must remain!" Garibaldi returned to his troops, his hatred
for Louis Napoleon more intense than ever, but convinced that the peace
only marked a short pause in the great forward movement.
Too much credit cannot be given Victor Emmanuel for his resolution at
this time. Bitterly disappointed as he must have been at such an abrupt
end to a campaign that had promised to open Italy from the Alps to the
Adriatic, he yet managed to hide his chagrin, and held Garibaldi, even
as he a little later induced Cavour to resume the post which he had
in a burst of rage resigned. Fortunately also the formal statement of
the peace-makers that the Princes should be restored to their thrones
in Florence, Modena, and Parma, and the Pope's legates at Bologna,
Ferrara, Forli, and Ravenna was simply a statement, the people of those
cities had quite different views. They had tasted of liberty and of the
victories of a national army, and one city after another announced that
it would have no more of its foreign rulers, that its people wished to
become citizens of Italy and subjects of Victor Emmanuel. Garibaldi
heard this and was convinced that it no longer lay in the power of his
arch enemy, Louis Napoleon, to keep Italians separated. "Whatever may
be the march of existing circumstances," he said to his men, "Italians
must neither lay aside their arms, nor be discouraged. They ought on
the contrary to increase in number in their ranks, to testify to Europe
that, guided by their King, Victor Emmanuel, they are ready to face
again the vicissitudes of war, whatever they may be. Perhaps at the
moment we least expect it the signal of alarm may again be sounded!"
He was sent into central Italy, and at Florence, at Bologna, at
Rimini, he had only to appear to have volunteers crowd about him.
Napoleon learned of this and remonstrated to the government at Turin,
which attempted to check the ardor of its great general, and yet keep
him for further use. It was a time when Cavour's skill was taxed to
the uttermost to avoid a break either with the French or with the
Garibaldians.
The news of Cavour's decision to cede Savoy and Nice to France, a
decision only reached when it became evident that it was the price
Napoleon demanded for allowing central Italy to unite with Piedmont,
came like a thunder clap to Garibaldi. Born in Nice he declared that
the act made him "a stranger in his own country." He was immediately
returned to Parliament for Nice and bitterly attacked Cavour's policy
in the Chamber. He spoke at length, claiming that the cession was
both an infraction of the original charter by which Nice had become
a part of the Sardinian kingdom, and a violation of the fundamental
law of nationality. Cavour, however, carried the Parliament with him,
and Garibaldi left for Nice to take farewell of it, for he refused to
remain there and become a citizen of France. He was disgusted with the
compromises of diplomacy. "I have nothing to do with men or political
parties," he declared, "my country, and nothing but my country, is my
object."
Two other incidents of the campaign of 1859 must be mentioned, the one
Garibaldi's visit to Anita's grave near Ravenna, the scene of those
bitter days immediately after the fall of Rome, to which he now returned
as a conqueror. The other was his marriage at Como during his fighting
in the Lakes to Giuseppina Raymondi, the adventurous daughter of the
Marquis Raymondi, who persuaded the general that she was deeply in love
with him, in order that marriage might shield her sadly tarnished name.
Garibaldi would not hear of the marriage at first, and declared that
since Anita's death his heart was withered. The Marquis answered, "It
is with freedom, and with Italian unity that my daughter is enamoured,
and with you as the embodiment of it in Italy." The general could not
withstand that appeal, and consented to the marriage. The depths of the
treachery were revealed to him immediately afterwards, and he left his
new wife at once. It was years, however, before he was granted a divorce
from her.
Mazzini, Cavour, and Garibaldi each played an important part in the next
act of the great drama of Italy, but Garibaldi unquestionably held the
center of the stage. The act was the famous expedition of the Thousand
to Sicily, a performance foolhardy and rash in the extreme, which was,
however, destined to bring to a speedy fruition the long-deferred hopes
of all Italians patriots. Mazzini's part was to prepare the field, he
had early chosen Sicily as a most favorable scene for revolutionary
action, and had sent agents to smuggle arms into the island, to hold
meetings and generally to arouse the people. Cavour's part was to play
the double game of protesting against the expedition in the eyes of
the Powers, and of aiding it as best he could secretly. He foresaw the
risks that would beset it, and the even greater risk to his King of
having such a dictator as Garibaldi win many victories, yet he could
not absolutely prevent a scheme devised in all patriotic fervor. He
gave public orders to the Sardinian admiral to capture Garibaldi and
bring him back, but with a secret message which the admiral rightly
understood as meaning that Cavour wished no such event to happen. In
much the same manner the British ambassador at Turin, Sir James Hudson,
and the British fleet in the Mediterranean, although ostensibly strictly
neutral, contrived not to embarrass Garibaldi, and the fleet even went
so far as to appear inadvertently between the Neapolitan ships and
those that bore the Thousand, thereby preventing what might have been
an untimely cannonade. Though few in official places therefore openly
countenanced the expedition, many hoped that it would succeed. Under
such circumstances the general sailed from Genoa on May 5, 1860, with
some 1067 picked men, many recruited from the "Hunters of the Alps,"
henceforth to be known as the "Mille," and destined to make one of the
greatest expeditions in history, and eventually to give two crowns to
the house of Savoy.
It was an historic day when the "great filibuster," as Garibaldi was
called, sailed from Genoa. Parents, wives, and children bade the
Thousand a tearful farewell in the rocky bay of Quarto, where to-day
a marble star upon the cliff commemorates the event. At Talamone they
landed to seize some arms and to send a force of one hundred men into
the Papal States to incite rebellion. Then they set sail fairly out
to sea, and Garibaldi and his chiefs planned the Sicilian campaign.
May 11 the two shiploads reached Marsala, hotly pursued by Neapolitan
cruisers. The Thousand took possession of the town, the general issued
glowing proclamations to the citizens, and quickly recruited a corps
of over a thousand Sicilian scouts. From Marsala they went to Salemi,
a march triumphantly acclaimed by monks, priests, women, and children
who lined the roads, and with Sicilian impetuosity were carried away by
the sudden appearance of an Italian army. At Salemi Garibaldi issued
this pronunciamento: "Garibaldi, commander-in-chief of the national
forces in Sicily, on the invitation of the principal citizens, and on
the deliberation of the free communes of the island, considering that in
time of war it is necessary that the civil and military power should be
united in one person, assumes, in the name of Victor Emmanuel, King of
Italy, the Dictatorship in Sicily."
The first battle was fought in the heart of the mountains, at
Calatafimi, where numbers of ancient ruins gave Garibaldi opportunity
to use his skill in irregular fighting. The battle lasted three hours,
both Garibaldi's son Menotti, and the son of Daniel Manin of Venice,
were wounded; in the end the conflict was a victory for the Thousand.
The Neapolitans fell back on Palermo, and Garibaldi planned to take the
Sicilian capital.
Throughout the campaign the officers of the King of Naples showed the
same sublime incompetence which characterized their sovereign. Palermo
should have been easy to defend, and with this knowledge, and misled
by Garibaldi's tactics into believing him in retreat, the Neapolitan
general gave a great dinner at the capital and proceeded to forget the
war altogether. As a result, by a remarkably swift march, Garibaldi
appeared at the gates of Palermo, carried them, swept through street
after street of the city, and drove the enemy into the castle and
palace. For a few days the city was laid waste by bombs from the two
latter positions, and from the fleet in the harbor, then the Neapolitan
general asked for an armistice, which eventually ended in the evacuation
of Sicily, except at Messina and a few forts, by the army of the King
of Naples. As most of the soldiers were Austrians, they left without
any deep regret, in fact with almost as much rejoicing as though they
had been victors. Free from the foreigners, Palermo gave itself up to
rejoicing, men and women donned red shirts and acclaimed Garibaldi as a
second Cincinnatus and new Washington. All relics of the former rulers
were destroyed, Sicily felt itself at last free to join the other states
of Italy. Immediately Cavour sent agents to urge annexation to Piedmont,
but Garibaldi was not yet ready for that step. He planned to win Naples
and Rome before he gave over his independent dictatorship.
The scene now changes to Milazzo. Thither Garibaldi's army, composed
of the Thousand, of many Palermitans, of an English brigade, and of
Hungarians, Frenchmen, Italians of all ranks, all drawn to the great
general whose fame had now spread from end to end of Europe, proceeded.
There was hard fighting at Milazzo, but in time the city fell, and
Messina lay practically open to the invaders. A few more days and
Garibaldi was encamped there, resting and recuperating after the entire
liberation of Sicily.
It is no exaggeration to say that fortune had showered her richest gifts
on Garibaldi during this campaign. In a few short weeks he had driven
all the Neapolitan forces out of the island with little loss of life to
his own men, had come into possession of money, arms, boats, stores of
all kinds, had increased his army to some 25,000 men, had become the
idol of all Sicily, to whom the red shirt became the proudest badge of
man or woman, had so thoroughly frightened King Francis II. that he was
unwilling to join his own army of defense, and had so completely aroused
Italy that from each town young and old poured forth to make their
way to his invincible standard. Through it all, he, whom fortune was
doing everything to spoil, remained as simple, as unmindful of personal
comfort or aggrandizement, as in his early days. He was at his best when
he won Sicily and planned his march on Naples, it was unfortunate that
the warrior should ever have attempted to become the statesman.
Garibaldi's army remained at Messina for twenty-three days. During
part of that time the general was engaged in assuring the Sardinian
government that he had no interest in a revolutionary expedition which
was attempting to march into the Papal States. The rest of the time was
given to perfecting his plans for a descent on Calabria.
August 19 the first detachment of the army sailed from Taormina in the
_Torino_ and the _Franklin_. The Neapolitan fleet was led into the
belief that the embarkation would be at Messina, and by this ruse the
ships succeeded in crossing to the mainland unmolested. They landed
at Melito, and early the next morning Garibaldi prepared to march on
Reggio. Again speed stood him in good stead. The new Army of the South,
as the Thousand with its recruits was now called, took the Neapolitan
general by surprise. At two in the morning Garibaldi's army marched
into the city to find the garrison asleep. The Neapolitan soldiers,
thoroughly alarmed at the appearance of the devil, as they named
Garibaldi, so suddenly among them, paid no heed to their officers and
rushed to a nearby fortress. There severe fighting occurred during
the afternoon and night, but finally the stronghold capitulated, and
the Garibaldians had won an important base on the mainland. He sent
to Messina for the remainder of his troops, and on August 22 began
that celebrated "promenade militaire" from Reggio to Naples, which
bore little resemblance to warfare, as the enemy fled as fast as he
approached, and the countrymen, as well as deserters from the army of
Naples, flocked to join his march.
Matters had now come to such a pass that it was only necessary for
Garibaldi to appear before a town for it to capitulate; at Villa
San Giovanni, Garibaldi with a few hundred men back of him, ordered
12,000 Neapolitans to surrender, and they immediately did so. Again
at Soveria he ordered 1500 of the enemy to surrender and was obeyed.
It was enough for a red shirt to appear to cause the enemy to fly or
surrender, at certain parts of the march the Neapolitan soldiers walked
side by side with the Garibaldians. Town after town welcomed the great
general as the Liberator, as a second John the Baptist. Both natives
and Austrians looked upon him with religious awe. He had only to appear
to be surrounded with ecstatic multitudes, his scouts had merely to say
that Garibaldi was coming to send the enemy flying in all haste. In one
case it was enough to telegraph he was near the town of Salerno, the
defenders immediately decamped.
The road to Naples lay open, the citizens of that easily-excited capital
were fairly beside themselves in eagerness to welcome the Liberator.
The general left Salerno by train on September 7, but as far as speed
was concerned he might almost as well have walked. The people of all
the towns on the route, Torre del Greco, Resina, Portici, turned out,
covered the railroad tracks, boarded the train, climbed on the engine,
shouting with joy, singing the Garibaldi hymn, frantic with enthusiasm
as they hailed the man who they believed brought with him the millennium.
In Naples it was the same, there was no end to the uproar, to the
enthusiasm, to the adulation. Every one wore red, every one cheered,
even the troops of King Francis, who had retired to the castle and
fortress, could not resist the enthusiasm, and flung up their caps and
cheered for Garibaldi.
Naples had no government, Garibaldi appointed a temporary governor, and
issued a proclamation glowing with patriotic fervor.
"People of Naples--
"It is with feelings of the profoundest respect and love that I present
myself before you in this center of a noble and long-suffering people,
whom four centuries of tyranny have not been able to humiliate, and
whose spirit could never be broken by a ruthless despotism. The first
necessity of Italy is harmony and social order, without which the unity
of Italy is impossible. This day Providence has conferred that blessing
upon you, and has made me its minister. The same Providence has also
given you Victor Emmanuel, whom from this moment I will designate the
father of our country.
"The model of all sovereigns, he will impress upon his posterity the
duty that they owe to a people, who have with so much enthusiasm chosen
him for their king. You are supported by the clergy, who, conscious
of their true mission, have with patriotic ardor and truly Christian
conduct, braved the gravest dangers of battle at the head of our Italian
soldiers. The good Monks of La Gancia, and the noble-hearted priests of
the Neapolitan continent have one and all assisted us in the good fight.
"I repeat that harmony is the one essential thing for Italy, and let us
freely forgive those who, having disagreed with us, are now repentant,
and are willing to contribute their mite to build up the monument of our
national glory.
"Lastly, we must make it apparent to all that, while we respect the
houses of other people, we are determined to be masters in our own
house, whether the powers of the earth like it or not.--G. Garibaldi."