(1807-1882)
[Illustration: Guiseppe Garibaldi. [TN]]
Garibaldi has not left the world without some account of his birth,
parentage, and early life. Not a little of his great, naive, and
enthusiastic character may be studied in those Memoirs, of which his
eccentric friend, Alexander Dumas, published a free translation. He
was born July 22, 1807. He was a native of Nice, a city inhabited by a
mongrel race, but himself sprung from a purely Italian family The name
of Garibaldi, common enough throughout North Italy, betokens old
Lombard descent. He first saw light, as he states, in the very house
and room where, forty-nine years before, Massena was born. His father,
Domenico, had come from Chiavari, in the Riviera di Levante; he gives
his mother's name Rosa Raguindo. Garibaldi's father and grandfather
were seamen, and he took to the sea as his native element, developing
great strength and skill as a swimmer, an accomplishment which enabled
him to save drowning men on several memorable occasions. For what book
learning he had he seems to have been indebted to the desultory
lessons of priestly schoolmasters under the direction of his mother.
Of this latter he always spoke with great tenderness, acknowledging
that "to her inspiration he owed his patriotic feelings," and stating
that "in his greatest dangers by land and sea his imagination always
conjured up the picture of the pious woman prostrated at the feet of
the Most High interceding for the safety of her beloved."
In early life he embarked in his father's merchant vessel, a brig, and
in that and other craft he made frequent voyages to Odessa, Rome, and
Constantinople. Soon after the revolutionary movements of 1831 he was
at Marseilles, where he fell in with Mazzini, busy at that time with
the organization of "Young Italy," and with the preparations for an
invasion of Italy by sea, which, upon Mazzini's expulsion from
Marseilles, was attempted at Geneva, and directed against the Savoy
frontier. The Savoy expedition turned out an egregious failure, the
blame of which Garibaldi, on Mazzini's statement, throws on the Polish
General Ramorino's treachery. Garibaldi himself, who had embarked on
board the royal frigate Eurydice to gain possession of that vessel by
a mutiny of the crew, being off Genoa, and hearing of a plot to storm
the barracks of the Carabinieri, landed in the town to join it; but
the attack upon the barracks miscarried, and he, not daring to go back
to his ship, saw himself irreparably compromised, fled to Nice, and
thence crossed the Var and found himself an exile at Marseilles. Here
he betook himself again to his sea life, sailed for the Black Sea and
for Tunis, and at last on board the Nageur, of Nantes, for Rio de
Janeiro.
In the commentaries before alluded to Garibaldi gives the fullest
particulars of the exploits by which he rose to distinction beyond the
Atlantic during the twelve years elapsing from his leaving Europe in
1836 to his return to Italy in 1848. It is the romance of his career,
and will some day be wrought into an epic blending the charms of the
Odyssey with those of the Iliad--a battle and a march being the theme
of the eventful tale almost from beginning to end.
Garibaldi took service with the Republic of Rio Grande do Sul, a vast
territory belonging to Brazil, then in open rebellion and war against
that empire. He took the command of a privateer's boat with a crew of
twelve men, to which he gave the name of Mazzini, and by the aid of
which he soon helped himself to a larger and better-armed vessel, a
prize taken from the enemy. In his many encounters with the Imperial
or Brazilian party the hero bought experience both of wonderfully
propitious and terribly adverse fortune, and had every imaginable
variety of romantic adventure and hair-breadth escapes. He was
severely wounded, taken prisoner, and in one instance at Gualeguay, in
the Argentine territory, he found himself in the power of one Leonardo
Millan, a type of Spanish South American brutality, by whom he was
savagely struck in the face with a horsewhip, submitted to several
hours' rack and torture, and thrown into a dungeon in which his
sufferings were soothed by the ministration of that "angel of
charity," a woman, by name Madame Alleman.
Escaping from his tormentor by the intervention of the Governor of
Gualeguay, Paolo Echague, Garibaldi crossed from the territories of
the Plate into those of the Rio Grande, and faithful to the cause of
that republic, he fought with better success, winning battles,
storming fortresses, standing his ground with a handful of men, or
even single-handed, against incredible odds, beating strong squadrons
with a few small vessels, giving through all proofs of the rarest
disinterestedness, humanity, and generosity, disobeying orders to sack
and ravage vanquished cities, and exercising that mixture of authority
and glamour over his followers which almost enabled him to dispense
with the ties of stern rule and discipline. At last, after losing a
flotilla in a hurricane on the coast of Santa Caterina, where he
landed wrecked and forlorn, having seen his bravest and most cherished
Italian friends shot down or drowned, he fell in with his Anita--not,
apparently, the first fair one for whom he had a passing fancy--with
whom he united his destinies, for better for worse, in life and till
death, in some off-hand manner, about which he is reticent and
mysterious. Anita turned out almost as great and daring and
long-enduring a being as her heroic mate, and was by his side in all
fights by land and sea, till the fortunes of the Republic of Rio
Grande declined, when, after giving birth to her first-born, Menotti
Garibaldi, September 16, 1840, she went with that infant and his
father through unheard of hardships and dangers in the disastrous
retreat of Las Antas; when at last, Garibaldi, beginning to feel the
responsibilities of a growing family, and despairing of the issues of
an ill-conducted war, took leave of his Republican friends at Rio
Grande and went for a short respite in his adventurous career to
Montevideo.
After trying on the journey to find employment as a cattle-driver,
Garibaldi settled at Montevideo in the capacity of a general broker
and teacher of mathematics; but war having broken out between the
Republic of the Uruguay and Buenos Ayres, the Condottiere was
solicited to draw his sword for the former state which afforded him
hospitality, and was trusted with the command of a little squadron
destined to operate on the Parana River against a largely superior
Argentine force. This expedition was contrived by enemies high in
power in the Montevidean Government, who, jealous of the reputation
won by Garibaldi at Rio Grande, vainly plotted to have him
assassinated with his friend Anzani, and hoped to rid themselves of
him by exposing him to dangers from which it seemed impossible that he
could extricate himself. Garibaldi, however, made the best of his
desperate position, and escaped, not only with his life, but also with
"honor--the only thing that was not lost."
Presently, danger pressing sorely on the republic, he organized his
Italian Legion, which behaved well through a new series of land and
sea combats, its band of only 400 combatants often beating the enemy's
corps 600 men strong, at the close of which exploits its soldiers
refused grants of land offered to them by a grateful state, "the
stimulus of their exertions," as their commander said, "being only the
triumph of the Republican cause." The legion was afterward as a mark
of honor, allowed precedence over all the other troops of the
republic. The war continued, and under the auspices of their commander
the soldiers of the Italian Legion rose to such distinction that at
the affairs of the Boyada and of Salto Sant' Antonio, February, 1846,
Garibaldi was empowered to write to the government of the republic
that the brilliant successes of those deeds of arms were entirely due
to their gallantry.
Meanwhile, however, news from Europe came to turn the attention of
Italian patriots to the momentous events which were rapidly changing
the conditions of the peninsula. Years had passed. Pius IX. was Pope;
Sicily had risen in open and successful revolt; a republic had been
proclaimed in France; Constitutions were being wrested from the
reluctant hands of most European despots. Austria was convulsed with
insurrectionary attempts; the Milanese drove Radetsky from their city
after five days' fighting, and Charles Albert unfurled the national
standard and crossed the Ticino.
The theatre of the exploits of the hero of Montevideo was soon
changed. All who had a heart and soul in Italy were up and doing, and
could Italy's greatest heart and soul remain beyond the seas?
Garibaldi, on the first reports of the Pope's liberal leanings, wrote
to the Nuncio Bedini at Montevideo, October 17, 1847, offering the
services of the Italian Legion to his Holiness, who was now almost on
the eve of a war with Austria, "although," the letter said, "the
writer was well aware that St. Peter's throne rests on a solid basis,
proof against all human attacks and needing no mortal defenders." The
Nuncio returned thanks and praises and referred Garibaldi's tender to
the Pontifical Government at Rome. But Garibaldi, never well disposed
to losing time, after vainly waiting for further communication from
Pope or Nuncio, brooked no longer delay. With incredible difficulty he
scraped together money and means, and embarked with his brave friend,
Anzani (who died at Genoa soon after landing), having with him only 85
men and two cannon, and leaving the remainder of his legion to follow
when and how it could.
He crossed the ocean, landed at Nice, proceeded to Genoa and Milan,
and when Charles Albert, defeated at Custozza, withdrew from the
Lombard city and accepted an armistice, which saved Piedmont from
invasion, August, 1848, Garibaldi passed over to Mazzini, and at the
head of a volunteer force, of which Mazzini was the standard-bearer,
issued a manifesto in which he proclaimed the Sardinian king a
traitor, and declared that "the royal war was at an end, and that of
the people was now to begin." That proclamation was, however, only an
idle bravado. Mazzini, even if he had the spirit, lacked the physical
strength of a fighting man. The Garibaldians, on hearing the news of
the fall of Milan, lost heart, and many crossed over the frontier to
Switzerland. With thinned and dispirited bands, Garibaldi, aided by
his friend Medici, ventured on a few desultory fights near Luino, on
Lake Maggiore, but soon fell back and withdrew to Lugano in the Canton
Ticino, his health, it is said, breaking down, and his immediate
followers being reduced to some three hundred.
A few months later Pius IX., fallen from his popularity and pressed
hard by his disaffected subjects, who murdered his minister and almost
stormed him in his palace at the Quirinal, ran away to Gaeta, and a
Roman Republic was proclaimed, of which Mazzini, in a triumvirate with
two others, mere men of straw, became the head. Attacked by the French
in flagrant violation of all rights of nations, Rome undertook to
defend itself, and whatever Italy could boast of generous hearts,
regardless of party differences, rallied round Garibaldi, who drove
back the French from Porta Pancrazia, April 29 and 30, 1849, defeated
the Neapolitans in that campaign of Velletri, which was like the farce
contrasting with the tragic drama soon to be acted at Rome, and
withstood a three months' siege, in which many of the noblest
champions of the Italian cause lavished their lives in a hopeless,
yet, as it proved, not a fruitless struggle.
The French having gained possession of the city July 13, 1849,
Garibaldi left it with a band of devoted volunteers, retired via Terni
and Orvieto, gathering together about 2,000 men in his progress,
crossed the Apennines, and pressed by the Austrians with overwhelming
forces, sought a refuge at San Marino, gave the enemy the slip in the
night, embarked at Cesenatico for Venice, which was still withstanding
the Austrian siege, was met by four Austrian men-of-war, which
compelled him to put back and land on the coast near Ravenna, and
wandered ashore in the woods, where Anita, his inseparable companion
in this disastrous march, succumbed to the fatigues of the journey,
and expired in the hero's arms. Garibaldi's devoted friends Ugo Bassi
and Ciceruacchio, falling into the hands of the Austrians, were shot
by them without any forms of trial and by an act of barbarism which no
human or divine law could justify. The heart-broken hero, with a few
trusty men, made his way from the Adriatic to the Mediterranean, was
arrested by the Sardinian Carabinieri at Chiaveri, conveyed to Genoa,
where La Marmora was in command, and there embarked for Tunis; hence,
finding nowhere a refuge, he proceeded to the Island of La Maddalena,
off the shore of Sardinia, and hence again to Gibraltar and Tangier.
La Marmora received the heart-broken fugitive as a brother, supplied
him with ample means for his journey to Tunis, and obtained for him
from the Turin Government the assignment of an honorable pension,
which Garibaldi did not in his straits disdain to accept. But, in his
opinion, all seemed now over for Italy; Charles Albert's son, Victor
Emmanuel, after the defeat of Navara, had made his peace with Austria
in March, 1849. Venice had succumbed after heroic sufferings in
August, and Garibaldi, again crossing the ocean, settled at New York
as a tallow chandler, and only came back to Europe in 1855.
When Garibaldi returned from America he did not look out for Mazzini
or his Republicans in England or Switzerland, but sought a home in
Piedmont, a Constitutional State, which allowed him an obscure but
peaceful retreat in his hermitage at Caprera, an island rock on the
Sardinian coast near the Maddalena, and conveyed to him a hint that
the time might soon come in which his country's cause would summon him
from retirement. And, truly, four years later (1859) the destinies of
Italy were nearing their fulfilment. France and Piedmont took the
field against Austria. Garibaldi, leaving his island home, was met and
highly welcomed by Victor Emmanuel, to whom he swore fealty as the
only hope of Italy. He now took the command of the Chasseurs des
Alpes, aided the royal army in its defence of the territory previous
to the arrival of its great French auxiliary, and, following in the
upper region a line parallel to that kept in the plain by the conquest
of Palestro, Magenta, and Solferino, beat the Austrians at Varese and
San Fermo, bewildered his adversary Urban, by the rashness of his
movements on the mountains above Como, advanced upon Bergamo and
Brescia, and pushed on to the Valtellina up to the very summit of the
Stelvia Pass. Here the peace of Villafranca put an end to the
struggle, and Garibaldi, afflicted by the arthritic pains to which he
was a martyr all his life, travelled for a few days' rest to Tuscany
and Genoa.
At Genoa, during the autumn and winter, Garibaldi, hospitably
entertained by his friend Augusto Vecchi outside the city, busied
himself with that expedition of "the Thousand" which made one state of
the south and north of Italy. He embarked on May 11, 1860, at Genoa,
landed in Sicily, at Marsala, beat the Neapolitans at Calatafimi,
followed up his success to Palermo, and, aided by the insurgent city,
compelled the garrison to surrender. He again routed the Bourbon
troops at Milazzo, and had soon the whole island at his discretion
with the exception of the citadel of Messina. He then crossed over
into Calabria, and, almost without firing a shot, drove the Neapolitan
king's troops before him all over the mainland, compelled the king to
abandon the strong pass of La Cava and to withdraw his forces from
his capital, where Garibaldi, with only a few of his staff, made his
triumphal entry on September 7, 1860.
After a few days' rest Garibaldi followed the disheartened king to
Capua, obtained new signal successes on the Volturno, at Santa Maria,
and Caserta; but would probably have been unable to accomplish the
enterprise had not the Piedmontese, whose government had aided
Garibaldi's expedition while pretending to oppose it, overrun the
Marches, beaten Lamoriciere and the Papal forces at Castel Fidardo,
and, crossing the frontier and the Apennines, besieged and reduced the
strong places of Capua and Gaeta. Garibaldi, who, as a dictator, had
with doubtful success endeavored to establish something like rule in
the Two Sicilies, aware of the arduousness of a task which would have
exceeded many wiser men's powers, met Victor Emmanuel at Naples,
delivered the two kingdoms into his hands, and, declining all the
proffered honors and emoluments for himself, took leave of his
sovereign and embarked for the solitude of his rock-farm at Caprera.
Rome alone now remained outside of the United Italian Kingdom, and
Garibaldi, raising bands of adventurers, made two or three attempts to
capture it, but was repulsed by its French garrison, and it was not
until 1870 that, the French troops being recalled to their own sorely
distressed country, the union of Italy under Victor Emmanuel became an
accomplished fact, though in the great liberator's absence. Garibaldi
once more was seen in Rome, April, 1879. He was supposed to be
proposing great purchases of arms, to be enlisting hosts of
volunteers, to be planning thorough reforms and preparing formidable
expeditions against Austria. But Garibaldi, away from Caprera, could
not fail to have his good as well as his evil angels about him. He saw
the king; he listened to General Medici, his own right arm in so many
campaigns, and now first aide-de-camp to King Humbert, as he had
before been to King Victor Emmanuel. He listened, while they showed
him the folly of further war, and, though not convinced, he was
silenced. Although too proud to acknowledge the absurdity of his
schemes in words, he was too wise not to give them up in deeds. He
withdrew from the vain popular acclamation; shut his door against the
crowd of his visitors, and although he announced his intention to take
up his domicile in Rome, he pleaded indisposition as an excuse for
inaction and retirement. Unfortunately there was only too much ground
in the plea. The arthritic pains, of which symptoms had manifested
themselves as early as during the Lombard campaign of 1849, had been
seriously aggravated by his toils, and the sight of his helplessness
in Rome as he hobbled up the steps of Montecitorio in 1874, was
saddening to all beholders, and prepared his friends for that end
which, however, was to be put off for several years. The fatigue of
the voyage from Caprera in 1879, and still more the excitement of
incessant calls, objectless conferences, and endless exhibitions soon
entirely prostrated the hero, and before the backward spring had fully
set in it became evident that Garibaldi's life could only be a
lingering agony.
[Illustration: Meeting of Victor Emmanuel and Garibaldi.]
His life, if life it may be called, and at all events his sufferings,
were prolonged yet a few years. He left home in the spring of 1881 on
a mad scheme of liberating, "by force if necessary," his
son-in-law, Canzio, who had been arrested as a plotter for the
republic. But having obtained the man's release from the king's
government as a favor, he once more sought the peace of his hermitage
where he died, June 2, 1882.