The Life of General Garibaldi

"Garibaldi returned to Santa Maria and brought on the rest of the Brigade Eber to complete the success which had been gained. Scarcely half a mile from Santa Maria, an open space lies on the left of the road, through which a detached barrack is visible. Here the Neapolitans had placed some guns, while their infantry lined the woods. As soon as they saw the column, they opened fire. Garibaldi, not heeding, still advanced, until he came to the first body. Here he gave orders to the Hungarian legion and the Swiss company to advance and drive them away. The two threw themselves into the woods, and, scarcely using their arms, advanced with the bayonet, driving the Neapolitans before them like sheep. A cavalry charge of several squadrons followed, and did a good deal of harm to the little body of brave fellows, but did not hinder them from following up their success and pushing forward to the very edge of the Campo before Capua.

"Garibaldi still advanced with the few remaining companies in the direction of St. Angelo, sending off one after another to continue the work of the Hungarians. Medici had, in the meantime, also pushed in advance, and by 4 P.M. the Neapolitans were flying in all directions, and our men had occupied the edge of the wood at half a mile from Capua, where they remained all night.

"It was as complete a defeat as ever an army suffered.

"They had on the whole line quite 30,000, to which we could scarcely oppose 15,000.

"The losses were not so serious as might have been expected. Many wounded, but few dead.

"The column which was cut off by Bixio showed about Caserta, and next morning Garibaldi went to give them the finishing stroke.

"We have five guns which were left by the Neapolitans early in the day, but could only be secured toward evening. Two British sailors distinguished themselves in removing them."

The king's troops had erected strong defensive works along the right bank of the Volturno, where they had, besides the formidable fortress of Capua, on the margin of the water, every favorable point occupied with forts or batteries. They entirely commanded the river, which is there only a ditch, with bridges crossing from the castle. From San Clemente to Cajazzo their bank was covered with well masked batteries, redoubts and barricades of trees; while the low parts of the shore were full of impediments and dangerous, concealed obstructions; and the whole was supplied with numerous chosen troops, well intrenched, excited by the promise of rewards.

We here translate Garibaldi's Order of the Day, after the battle of Volturno:

"On the 1st of October, a fatal and fratricidal day, when Italians fought, on the Volturno, against Italians, with all the energy which man displays against man; the bayonets of my companions in arms found also on that occasion the victory in their gigantic footsteps. With equal valor they fought and conquered at Maddaloni, St. Angelo and Santa Maria. With equal valor the courageous champions of Italian independence led their brave men to the conflict.

"At Castel Morone, Bronzetti, a worthy rival of his brother, at the head of a handful of Cacciatori, repeated one of those deeds which history will surely place by the side of the combats of Leonidas and the Fabii. Few, but splendid with the crown of valor, the Hungarians, French and English, who attended the southern army, worthily sustained the martial fame of their countrymen. Favored by fortune, I have had the honor, in the two worlds, of fighting against the first soldiers; and I have become convinced that the plant Man grows in Italy not inferior to any country; I have been made to believe that these same soldiers whom we have fought in southern Italy would not be placed behind the most warlike, when assembled under the glorious standard of emancipation.

"At dawn on that day, I arrived at Santa Maria from Caserta, by the railroad. While entering the coach for St. Angelo, Gen. Milwitz said to me: 'The enemy have attacked my outposts of San Tamaro.' Suddenly, beyond Santa Maria, toward St. Angelo, was heard a lively fusilade; and near the posts of the left of the said position, they were powerfully engaged with the enemy. A coachman and a horse of the coaches in my train were killed. I might, however, pass freely, thanks to the bravery of the Simonetta brigade, Division Medici, which occupied that point, and courageously repulsed the enemy. I thus reached the crossing of the Capua and Santa Maria roads, the centre of the position of St. Angelo, and there were the Generals Medici and Avezzana, who, with their accustomed courage and coolness, made their arrangements to repel the enemy, breaking in upon their whole line. I said to Medici, 'I am going alone to observe the field of battle. Defend the position at any cost.' I had hardly proceeded toward the heights behind, when I found the enemy were masters of them. Without loss of time, I collected all the soldiers at hand, and placing myself on the left of the ascending enemy, I endeavored to prevent them. I sent, at the same time, a company of Genoese Bersaglieri toward Mount St. Nicolas, to prevent the enemy from gaining possession of it. That company and two of the Sacchi brigade, which I had demanded, and which made their appearance opportunely on the heights, arrested the enemy.

"Then moving myself toward the right, on their line of retreat, the enemy began to descend and fly. Not until some time afterward, I learned that a corps of the enemy's Cacciatori, before their attack in front, had got to our rear by a covered way, without being known. In the mean time, the battle was warm on the plain of St. Angelo, now favorable to us, and then compelling us to retire before so numerous and tenacious an enemy. For several days unequivocal signs had announced to me an attack; and therefore I was not left to be deceived by the different demonstrations of the enemy against our right and left; and this was of much importance, because the royalists had collected all their disposable forces against us on the first of October, and attacked us simultaneously in all our positions.

"At Maddaloni, after varying fortune, the enemy had been repulsed. At St. Maria equally; and at both points they had left prisoners and cannon. The same happened at St. Angelo, after a fight of more than six hours; but, our forces at that point being very inferior to those of the enemy, he had remained, with a strong column, master of the communications between St. Angelo and St. Maria. I was, therefore, obliged, in order to get to the reserve which I had asked of General Sistori from Caserta, to pass to the east of the road leading from St. Angelo to the latter point. I reached St. Maria near 2 P.M., and there found our troops commanded by the brave general Milwitz, who had bravely repulsed the enemy at all points. The reserves sent for from Caserta reached us at that moment; and I placed them in column of attack on the St. Angelo road; the Milan brigade, at the head, followed by the brigade Eber; and I ordered in reserve part of the brigade Assanti. I then pressed to the attack the brave Calabrians of Pace, who were in a wood on my right, and fought splendidly. The head of the column had hardly issued from the wood, about 8 P.M., when it was discovered by the enemy, who began to fire grape. This caused a little confusion among the young Milanese Bersaglieri, who marched in front; but those brave soldiers, at the sound of charge from the trumpets, rushed upon the enemy, who had begun to retire toward Capua. The lines of the Milanese Bersaglieri were soon followed by a battalion of the same brigade, which fearlessly charged the enemy without firing a shot.

"The road from St. Maria to St. Angelo forms, in the direction of St. Maria to Capua, an angle of about forty degrees; so that, while the column was proceeding along the road, it must always be on the left, and alternate forward. When, therefore, the Milanese brigade and the Calabrians were engaged, I sent forward the brigade Eber against the enemy on the right of the former. It was fine to see the veterans of Hungary march under fire with the tranquillity of a parade-ground, and in the same order. Their fearless intrepidity contributed not a little to the retreat of the enemy. With the movements in the front of my column and on the right, I soon found myself joining with the column of Medici, which had bravely sustained an unequal contest through the whole day. The courageous Genoese carabiniers, who formed the left of the division Medici, did not wait for any command to charge the enemy again. They, as always, performed prodigies of valor. The enemy, after fighting obstinately all day, toward 5 P.M., reëntered Capua in disorder, protected by the cannon of the place.

"At evening I had noticed in St. Angelo, that a column of the enemy of 4,000 or 5,000 men was in Old Caserta. I ordered the Genoese carabiniers to be ready at two in the morning of October 2d, with 350 men of the corps of Spangaro, and 60 mountaineers of Vesuvius. I marched at that hour on Caserta by the mountain road and St. Lencio. Before reaching Caserta, the brave Colonel Missori, whom I had directed to discover the enemy, with some of his brave guides, informed me that the royalists were on the heights between Old Caserta and Caserta, which I was soon able to verify. I went to Caserta to concert with General Sistori, and not believing the enemy bold enough to attack that city, I combined with him to collect all the forces at hand, and march against the enemy's right flank, and attack him by the heights of the park of Caserta, thus placing him between us and the division Bixio, which I had ordered to attack him on that side.

"The enemy still held the heights; but discovering only a small force in Caserta, had projected its capture, ignorant, no doubt, of the result of the battle of the previous day, and, therefore, pushed half his force upon that city. While I was thus marching under cover, on the right flank of the enemy, he attacked Caserta in front, and would, perhaps, have gained it, if General Sistori, with his accustomed bravery, and a band of valorous men, had not repulsed him. With the Calabrians of General Stocco and four companies of the northern army, I proceeded against the enemy, who was charged – resisted but little, and was driven almost at a run to Old Caserta. There a small number of the enemy sustained themselves for a moment, firing from windows, but they were soon surrounded and made prisoners. Those who fled in advance fell into the hands of the soldiers of Bixio, who, after fighting bravely on the first at Maddaloni, arrived on the field of battle like lightning. Those who remained behind capitulated with Sacchi, whom I had ordered to follow the movement of my column; so that, of all the enemy's corps, few were able to escape. This corps, it appears, was the same which had attacked Bronzetti at Castel Morono – and that his heroic defence, with his handful of brave soldiers, had restrained them the greater part of the day, thus preventing them from getting into the rear all that day. The corps of Sacchi also contributed to detain that column beyond the Park of Caserta on the first day by repulsing it bravely.

"G. Garibaldi.

"Caserta, October, 1860."

GARIBALDI'S PERSONAL HEROISM.

A correspondent of the Paris "Journal des Débats" says:

"The most brilliant episode of the action of the 1st of October was the recapture of the battery at the foot of Mont St. Angelo. When I left Santa Maria, I knew that this battery had been very much disabled in the morning. Garibaldi arrived at nine o'clock, when the enemy was thundering at it with all his strength, because it took him in flank, and was causing him severe loss. The triple battery courageously resisted the attack, and never slackened fire, when all at once the one situated at the foot of the hill became silent. The royalists, to the number of 2,500, got round the hill, and rushing upon the guns, spiked five of them, and killed several of the men at their pieces. Garibaldi, on the San Tannaro side, soon observed the silence of his favorite battery, and an aid-de-camp from General Milwitz soon informed him of the disaster, which would probably have lost him the battle. Garibaldi at once started off, crossed Santa Maria, followed by Medici and his staff, and collecting what men he could, cried out in a voice which caused all to shudder, 'We are going to die, but the Italians must win the day: at all other points we have conquered.' Followed by one hundred men, at a rapid pace, Garibaldi leading the way in a small, disabled carriage, went right forward. But just as they got near the Casino of St. Angelo, some Neapolitan Chasseurs, who were lying on the ground, rose and fell upon them. The coachman drove his horses into a ditch and formed a barricade of the carriage. Garibaldi jumped up, indignant, and went up to the Chasseurs, shouting, 'Viva Italia!' Some of his men coming up at the same time, the enemy became demoralized and took to flight. Garibaldi was slightly wounded in the stomach, and his trousers were riddled by two or three bullets. 'If I only had another pair,' he said, and without further remark he continued his march toward a battalion of one hundred and fifty Hungarians, commanded by General Mogyorady. He pointed to the Neapolitans who were in possession of the battery, and cried out to them, 'Forward, my lads, disperse that rabble for me!' This 'rabble' consisted of a regiment of the line, a squadron of Cavalry, a company of Chasseurs, and a company of Artillery. The Hungarians, without waiting to count the numbers of the adversary, rushed forward and charged with the bayonet. After a contest of twenty minutes, the battery was retaken, and once more it poured its storm of grape on the Neapolitan troops, who fled in confusion across the fields. The Hungarians, in this encounter, had thirty men put hors de combat, the Neapolitans about two hundred. Garibaldi did not wait to dress his wound, but hurried elsewhere. The day, however, was now won."

CHAPTER XIX

"This Pius the Ninth for us, Romans, has madeShort joy and long grief by his treacherous trade.Beguil'd and oppress'd, we have lost ev'ry hope:Then unpope him, unpope him, unpope the false pope."G. Rossetti.

"Priests of Italy! we can conquer without you, but do not wish to. Are you not our brothers?" —Manzini.

"Have the Roman people submitted quietly to the Popes' temporal power? History records more than one hundred and sixty rebellions against it in ten centuries." —An Italian writer.

"Curia Romana non petit ovem sine lana." —Modern Roman proverb.

THE POPE URGED BY FRANCE AND SARDINIA TO DISMISS HIS FOREIGN TROOPS – INCONSISTENCIES OF LOUIS NAPOLEON – MARKED CHANGES OF TIMES, DOCTRINES, AND MEASURES – VICTOR EMANUEL'S DEMANDS PRESSED ON THE POPE – CONSPIRACIES AND INSURRECTIONS IN THE POPE'S REMAINING DOMINIONS – THE ULTIMATUM REFUSED – GENERAL CIALDINI MARCHES – BATTLE OF CASTELFIDARO – CAPTURE OF SPOLETO, ANCONA, PERUGIA, AND OTHER PLACES – VICTOR ENTERS THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES

We must now leave Garibaldi for a time, and devote a chapter to the affairs of the Pope and Sardinia.

The Emperor of the French and Victor Emanuel had long since advised and urged the Pope to dismiss his foreign troops, with which he garrisoned his fortresses, and not only kept the people in awe, but oppressed them intolerably; but he, under the influence of his prime minister, Antonelli, stubbornly refused, as well as persisted in denying every proposition for the removal of abuses. Adhering to the old and impious claim of divine right, as the vicegerent of God on earth, and hoping, no doubt, that Austria would be able to come to his aid with her armies, when every intelligent eye saw that Austria was hardly able to stand alone, the pope had excommunicated Victor Emanuel, and even Louis Napoleon in fact, though without naming him, at a time when the latter was still upholding with his army the papal power in Rome, which he had restored by besieging that city in 1849. There was an abundance of inconsistencies and self-contradictions on all sides; and it would have been difficult to point out any way in which either of the three sovereigns could consistently move, speak or even stand still. But good men rejoice when good is done, and sometimes the more when it is effected in an unexpected quarter. In 1849 the Roman republic was overthrown by French cannon, though created by the free suffrage of the Pope's subjects; and, in 1860, most of the Pope's territory and fortresses were to be captured in siege and battle, in order to drive out foreign troops, whose presence was "an insult to Italy," and to allow the inhabitants freedom to vote for annexation to Piedmont.

England had often protested to the kings of Naples against their inhumanity toward their subjects; and thus she was prepared to approve, as she has done, of the invasions of her territory by Garibaldi and Victor Emanuel.

We can find here but little space to notice the events which followed the Pope's final refusal to accede to the demands made upon him. How unreasonable soever they appeared to him, or however inconsistent they may have seemed to the world, especially the appeal to free, universal suffrage, which would be hardly submitted to in any other country in Europe, no alternative was left.

After the iniquitous overthrow of the republic by Louis, the occupation of Rome by his army in fact conciliated the entire papal priesthood of the world, and the population which has remained under their spiritual influence; and it has prevented Austria not only from taking that place, but of every excuse and possibility of aspiring to obtain it. While the Pope has been surrounded by French troops, he has appeared to be under safe guardianship, even although during the few months which have passed since the fulmination of the Bull of Excommunication against Victor Emanuel, Louis Napoleon himself has also been, by plain innuendo, laid under the ban by the same instrument, and has been transformed from "the eldest son of the church – the beloved in Christ," as the Pope used to denominate him, to an enemy, delivered over to Satan, and anathematized, in every part and member of his soul and body, from the crown of his head to his accursed feet.

But now things have changed wonderfully, and we have indications that the French emperor is about to change his position accordingly. If events take such a course as we may anticipate, the Pope's temporal power will soon be entirely gone, and his respectability in the eyes of the world will be only such and so much as can be bought with two millions of dollars a year, and by a train of cardinals, with ten thousand dollars apiece. This is the plan now proposed for the future position of Pius IX., which Victor Emanuel seems likely to carry into operation, with the approbation of Louis Napoleon. There is now no longer any danger from Austria, weak as she is by bankruptcy, the loss of most of her Italian possessions, threatened with the invasion of the remainder by Garibaldi on "the ides of March," and with Hungary ready to rise at the first signal. The Italians can now take charge of the Pope and of Rome, without fear of Austria or assistance from France; and, either before any more fighting in Lombardy and Venetia, or, if need be, after it, the kingdom of all Italy is likely to be proclaimed, according to Garibaldi's announcement, from the Quirinal, one of the seven hills of Rome.

When this shall have been done, the anticipations of the Italian patriots will be realized, who have long regarded the loss of the Pope's temporal kingdom as surely involving the destruction of his spiritual; and many of them were early advocates of the doctrine preached by Gioberti twenty years ago, although he was a devotee of popery and they were its radical enemies, because they had sagacity to foresee the necessity of this act, which was beyond his perception. They knew full well, what millions of the unwilling subjects of the papacy have known for centuries, that nothing but severe and cruel oppression could ever keep the human mind submissive to such a system of tyranny, spiritual and physical, and that, whenever force and fear were removed, individuals, communities and nations would throw off the galling and degrading yoke. This the world has seen proved within the past few months, in ways and modes, in a degree and to an extent, which only those who were acquainted with popery, with human nature and with Italy would have expected. As soon as freedom of speech and action was granted to the people of Lombardy, the Duchies, Tuscany and Emilia, and a free, universal suffrage was proclaimed, the inhabitants rose in a mass in city, villages and country, and proceeded, with banners, music and acclamations, to the election urns, and voted unanimously for immediate annexation to the constitutional kingdom of Victor Emanuel. And this expression of the universal and enthusiastic popular will was greatly enhanced by the circumstance that the king had just before been excommunicated by a Bull of the Pope, which consigned him to outlawry, persecution, torture and death in this world, and to eternal misery in hell; and yet many Italian archbishops, bishops and priests, of all degrees, have openly approved the rejection of allegiance to the papacy, and urged and even led their people to the polls, themselves, in many instances, putting in the first votes.

But not only have the hopes of good Italian patriots been gratified: the prophecies of God himself have been fulfilled, by the recent astonishing course of events in Italy. So striking is the resemblance between those changes and the scenes recorded in the Bible, that the mind is filled with solemn awe and grateful adoration while contemplating them in comparison. "The souls under the altar" introduced to the reader of the book of Revelation, with their purity, faithfulness, patience, but earnest inquiry: "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not avenge our blood?" how much do they resemble the victims of the Inquisition, whose horrible secrets were disclosed by the opening of that infernal edifice in Rome by the republican government in 1849! And how much does the present period resemble that described in chap. xviii. ver. 13 of that book, where the destruction of Babylon the Great is described, and one of whose chief articles of traffic were not "the persons of men," as in Tyrus (Ezekiel xxvii.), but their "souls!"

And how Garibaldi appears like the agent by whom that destruction is to be accomplished, when we hear him repeat his open and tremendous denunciations against the papacy, now, recently, standing in Naples, almost in the same words which he wrote in New York in 1850, for this volume, and recorded on page 233.

Before the war with Italy the States of the Church were divided into four legations, not counting the district of Rome. The first comprised the provinces of Bologna, Ferrara, Forli and Ravenna, and was called Romagna. This is the portion which had been already annexed to Piedmont. The second, which separates the Romagna from the Neapolitan states, is composed of the provinces of Urbino, Pesaro, Macerata, Loreto, Ancona, Fermo, Ascoli and Camerino. It is this portion of the Roman territory which is commonly known under the name of the Marches, and is bounded on the north by Romagna, on the east by the Adriatic, on the south by the Neapolitan territory, and on the west by the provinces of Spoleto and Perugia. The third legation was composed of the provinces of Spoleto, Perugia and Rieti. The first two corresponded to what is generally known under the name of Umbria. The fourth legation comprised Velletri, Frosinone and Benevento, the last province being surrounded by Neapolitan territory. The district of Rome was placed under a special régime, and consisted of that city, of Viterbo, Orvieto and Civita Vecchia.

The course of policy recently adopted by Sardinia had now been made known by what was deemed a semi-official announcement by a Turin gazette, under the direction of Cavour. It was this: that the cabinet of Turin, in placing itself in the position of the representative of Italian nationality, had a right to reproach Austria for not having given to Venetia, either a separate government or an Italian army. This violation of the treaty of Villafranca had very naturally disquieted the Sardinian government, which, however, had no intention of provoking an imprudent war. On the contrary, it desired to prevent this, and demanded to this end, the dismissal of the foreign hordes which had been united by General Lamoricière. "It cannot be permitted," says the paper in question, "that Italy should be made the camping ground of twenty-five thousand foreign mercenaries, who entertain toward the Italians feelings of hatred and aversion." The Sardinian government cannot look on with indifference at the renewal of the massacres of Perugia. It owes protection to the populations of Umbria and the Marches, who are subjected to a military dictation which they hate, and it is better for the government to take the responsibility of energetic measures, which will be too late if it waits for the attack. Such was the substance of the article written while the people of Umbria and the Marches were in a state of insurrection. For, before that time, the following accounts had been received from different parts of the Pope's dominions. At Fano, Sinigaglia and Ancona, the government of Pius IX. were in serious danger. The last-named town in particular, which had revolted, and had been brought back to obedience rather by stratagem than by force, was said to be the centre of agitation and the hotbed of revolutionary incendiarism. A correspondence had just been discovered which compromised a great number of persons. Many had been arrested. It was connected with a conspiracy, the ramifications of which were said to be so widespread, and included men so high placed in society, that the authorities admitted that they were incapable of guarding against the storm without the assistance of an armed force. Advocates, officials, private individuals, and even a certain number of Roman officers, were compromised in the affair, but no general arrest could be attempted for fear of leading to a most dangerous collision. The mass of the people only waited as a signal the arrest of some eminent personages to rise in insurrection, and the police were well aware that a large depot of arms existed, but they were ignorant of the spot. Such was the situation of Ancona, which, it would appear, regulated the movements of the towns on the coast of the Adriatic, such as Sinigaglia, Fano and Pesaro, and of those in the interior, as Osimo, Loretto and Recanati, and as far as Macerata. In this state of things the Roman government had just ordered troops to proceed by forced marches on Ancona from Pesaro, Perugia and Rome.