The Life of great hero Giuseppe Garibaldi

14th Part) With France (from 1870 to February 1871)


Two days after the defeat of Sedan during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 which signs the fall of Napoleon III, Paris protests and the Third Republic was proclaimed. Garibaldi following events closely. At the proclamation of the Republic, it sends a message to the Government of National Defence that remains unanswered "What's left of me is at your disposal, have." Fringe conservative Catholic and sees him as a revolutionary opponent of 1849 and 1867. Finally, some support of the Popular Committees and government figures, Garibaldi, although weakened by arthritis, sailed to Marseilles, where the reception was enthusiastic. He reiterated his support for Republican France: "I come to give France the rest of me. France is a country that I love, "" I was too unhappy when I thought the Republicans fought without me. "

After joining Tours, serving as its capital, and Léon Gambetta, Minister of War and defender of the resistance against the Prussians, it is offered by a small one commandment, no French officer agreeing not be under his command. Because of the fear of starting Garibaldi, Gambetta gave him the command of all the corps area Vosges, Paris to Strasbourg and a brigade of mobile guards as he is accustomed, are poorly armed and ill-equipped to deal with a particularly cold winter.

Garibaldi up his staff to Dole (October 14), and on 11 November, he organized the army into four brigades under the commandment of his two son, Ricciotti and Menotti, Delpech will be replaced by Cristiano Lobbia and Polish Jozef Bossak-Hauke. Bordone is meanwhile Chief of Staff and the son of Garibaldi, Stefano Canzio, chief of headquarters before becoming commander of the 5th Brigade.

November 19, Ricciotti inflicts defeat to the Prussians General Werder Châtillon-sur-Saône, but the theater remains Dijon. On 26 November, the city has been occupied since October 31 can not be reversed to the Prussians. They are repulsed at a cons-offensive on December 1st. It was not until 21 January 1871 for Garibaldi moved to Dijon, evacuated by the Prussians December 17, the latter being informed of the arrival from the north of the French regular troops led by General Bourbaki.

21, 22 and 23 January 1871, Dijon is attacked by the Prussians 4000: Garibaldi emerges victorious while Ricciotti grabs a flag of the 61st regiment Pomeranian. An armistice enter into force 28 January 1871 terminating the participation of Garibaldi.

Military operations by Garibaldi heavily criticized by the military authorities. In 1903, Foch publishes principles of war. He points out that Garibaldi, when he could use a single brigade, stopped his 000 men from 20 to 30 deal with the Prussian brigade of 4,000 men instead of to the aid of the army of the East Bourbaki, as he had ordered. Foch then makes the pride of Garibaldi responsible for the disaster of the Army of the East.

In February 1871, Garibaldi was elected on the lists of the Republican Union without being a candidate, the French National Assembly as a member of the Côte-d'Or, Paris, Algiers and Nice. In Paris, he came in fourth place behind Louis Blanc and Victor Hugo Gambetta. Because of his Italian nationality invalidating the election against libel and the new monarchist majority in the House who are accused of not having fought, he accepts his terms to appear before the National Assembly from which he went to defend the cause of the men he commanded. Right violently opposed to any intervention, as Garibaldi retired.

Garibaldi was re-elected in Algerian suppletive elections, that the Assembly invalids, in March, because he does not have French nationality.

Victor Hugo démissionnede its own mandate as a sign of support.
On March Garibaldi dissolves the volunteers and returns to Caprera.

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The life of great hero Giuseppe Garibaldi - 11th Part

It is impossible for these men to remain in the Republic, the Austrians also impose strict conditions to their exit; for Garibaldi they are unacceptable. His wife Anita, who joined him in Rome on June 26 and has chosen to follow in his fight, dressed as a man, falls ill. Nevertheless, with 200 men, he decided to join Venice still resisting the Austrian army.

On August 2, 1849, Garibaldi seizes, in Cesenatico, 13 fishing boats to reach with his men, who fell Venice on July 22. On August 3, during the attack of an Austrian brigantine, eight boats fell to the Austrians, 162 legionnaires were captured, a number is executed. Garibaldi docks in one of the islands in the lagoon of Comacchio. The health status of Anita worsened, they join a fisherman's cottage, where she died on August 4 and is buried there.

 The same night he hit the road to reach the Kingdom of Sardinia. After a long journey, September 5, he reached Chiavari, Liguria.

La Marmora, special commissioner in Genoa in the kingdom of Sardinia, anxious to make politically harmless Garibaldi, had him arrested. Authorities inform him that they want him to leave the territory, which he accepts after realizing in Nice with his family. On 16 September he sailed for Tunis who refuses, then Cagliari, the archipelago of La Maddalena, before reaching Gibraltar, November 14, at Tangier. He resumed writing his memoirs, begun at La Maddalena and after a few months, June 27, 1850, he moved to New York hoping to resume his duties as a seaman. Until March 1851, he worked in the factory of candles of Antonio Meucci, known for inventing the telephone before Alexander Graham Bell. He leaves for Peru to engage as a captain in the Navy and traveling the world. In January 1852, he obtained citizenship and the Peruvian vessel command Carmen, with whom he went to China and then sell the guano he went to Manila and Australia. In January 1853 he is in Lima and back in Boston on September 6 and then to New York where he is stepping down as captain because of a financial disagreement with the owner. His mother died March 20, 1852.

January 16, 1854, Garibaldi,  sailed from Baltimore. He arrived in London on February 11 where he met Mazzini. Mazzini has in mind to send Garibaldi in Sicily he feels ready for insurrection. However Garibaldi does not intend to get involved in an adventure compromised from the outset, and wishes to endorse his action by recognized authorities. In February 1854 he told the Russian revolutionary Alexander Herzen, exiled in London, as against an organized army and equipped like that of France or Austria,  an army well equipped is  required, as he gives his support Kingdom of Sardinia.On May 6, Garibaldi sails  from Newcastle to Genoa. The disagreement between Mazzini and Garibaldi is made public by the press and it ends up taking his distance.

Back to Italy, he moved to Nice before buying, in December 1855, half of the island of Caprera (Sardinia island in the archipelago of Maddalena) for the price of 35,000 lire from the inheritance he received after the death of his brother Felice. He began building a house with friends, then he resumed his seafaring. He commanded a ship Sardinian, Salvatore. In 1857 he moved to Caprera, where he is a farmer, blacksmith and farmer, with olive trees and vineyards.


 In 1865, his admirers will buy the rest of the island.

... to be continued...

The life of Giuseppe Garibaldi - 10th Part

On December 12th, 1848, Giuseppe Garibaldi enters in Rome while his legion of volunteers came to be stationed at Rieti. Garibaldi was politically active: on the  21st of   January 1849, he was elected to the Constituent Assembly of the future Republic which is organized around a triumvirate with Carlo Armellini, Giuseppe Mazzini and Aurelio Saffi, who arrives in Rome on March 6.On February 8, 1849, the Roman Republic was proclaimed.

The other major event of March is the resumption of fighting against the Austrians by Charles Albert and the Austrian victory at Novara (22-23 March 1849) that seals the final defeat of the Piedmontese, the return to those borders of before the conflict started and the abandonment of Milan.

Pope Pius IX called for international help: Austria, France, Spain and Naples give an answer to his call. Louis Napoleon, anxious to gain the support of French Catholics, reserves to himself the honor of restoring the Pope and, on April 25, 7000 men commanded by General Oudinot landed at Civitavecchia. Garibaldi, who was appointed brigadier general of the Roman Republic shows to be the most brilliant general of the Roman army. He defeats the French on April 30 but he does not use his victory, by order of Mazzini and for political reasons, what he strongly criticized after the landing of new French troops. This is the first confrontation between the two men and from  then Garibaldi will start keeping his distance against the man he calls his "master."

On May 9, Garibaldi triumphantly confronts the Neapolitans before returning to Rome because of Oudinot's movements . French forces are increased to 30,000 men, he can then animate the resistance due to the disproportion of forces. He faces the well trained and equipped French troops but  resists only a month, from June 3 to July 2, in fierce fighting in which many of his friends fall: Emilio Morosini, Luciano Manara, Andrea Aguyar. He becomes fiercely anticlerical because of the position of the clergy, mostly loyal to the pope that support the French and Austrians.

The Italian and international press follow the actions of Garibaldi:   the British newspaper The Times, sends a special envoy who does not hide his admiration for Garibaldi.

With the end of the Roman Republic, Garibaldi refuses the proposal of the Ambassador of the United States to board an American ship and left the city, with 4,700 men he harangued with shouts of "Who Loves Italy follow me! "With the intention of bringing the war in Umbria, Marche and Tuscany. A number of supporters went into exile in Uruguay, where the war is still, with the complicity of the Uruguayan consul in Genoa. Surrounded by the armies of different nations, Garibaldi crossed the Apennines and must show trick to avoid a direct confrontation. Pursued by the troops of Field Marshal of Aspre Constantine, with only 1,500 men, he takes refuge in the Republic of San Marino, July 31, after having laid down their arms, and declared himself a refugee. He acknowledges that "the Roman war for Italian independence is over."

...to be continued...

The life of great hero Giuseppe Garibaldi - 9th Part

3) The Roman republic and the death of Anita with his second exile (1849-1858)

On 23 June 1848, after 14 years of absence, Garibaldi lands in Nice with his companions war has already begun.
 On 29th of the same month he leaves Nice for Genoa with 150 volunteers. Garibaldi, whose reputation has preceded his coming, offers his sword to the King of Sardinia, while repeating that he is a Republican, anxious at first to fight against the Austrians. Charles Albert was challenged by Democrats who suspect him of wanting to annex the Milanese State, and have not committed when the Austrians were driven out.



When Garibaldi, which has always kept in touch with the Italian patriots, learns the changes taking place in Italy, inauguration of liberal Pope Pius IX, insurgency in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, he is so anxious to get back to Italy, especially as peace seems imminent in Montevideo. He leaves the Italian legion in the hands of Antonio Susin.

In January 1848, Anita returned to Nice with his children followed by Garibaldi in April along with 63 companions while initially 150 men were to follow.

In the late nineteenth century, Montevideo has six streets in the name of the hero and the country has at least five monuments. July 4, 1907, the centenary of the birth of Garibaldi, President José Batlle y Ordóñez decreed a national holiday commemoration in front of 40,000 people. On June 2, 1882, five days before the death of the hero, the Círculo Legionarios Garibaldinos  is created which still exists as an association.

Europe experienced during the year 1848, a series of revolutions by which the people demand more freedom, and is known as the springtime of the peoples. It begins in France and gave birth to the Second Republic, extends to Germany, Romania, Hungary, Poland and Austria. States of the Italian peninsula, the Papal States, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Sardinia Kingdom of Piedmont are engaged in constitutional reforms. Milan at the "Five Days of Milan", known to turn his insurgent movement against the Austrian Empire which then directs the Lombard-Venetian kingdom created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. King Charles Albert of Sardinia, were initially supported by some states of the peninsula, taking up the cause of the Milanese state and declares war on Austria.

On 5th of July  our hero goes to  Roverbella  near Mantua, to offer himself as a volunteer with the King Charles Albert, who receives him without enthusiasm and refuses to see him fight alongside the regular army. Garibaldi goes to the provisional government of Milan that made him a General and where  he finds Mazzini. Although there have been exchanges of mail, the atmosphere of the game is cold, the two men are on divergent paths; Mazzini aims unitary republican revolution, Garibaldi wishing to free themselves from Austrian has chosen to put aside, temporarily, the Republican ideas.

Garibaldi must join Brescia with the legion which he organized and which he calls "Battaglione Italiano della Morte" (Italian Battalion of Death) when takes place theCustoza's defeat of Piedmont,   on 25 July. On 9 August 1848, an armistice was concluded between Austria and Piedmont, that Garibaldi violently reproached Charles Albert.

Garibaldi refuses to stop fighting despite the king's order and called on the youth: "Italy needs you ... Hasten, concentrate around me." It gets a little success over the Austrians who decide to destroy them, he must also renounce to face of Austrian power. On August 27, Garibaldi goes to Switzerland and then to France to join Nice. On Harsh, commander of the second Austrian army composed of 20,000 men, is impressed enough to praise him during a meeting with an Italian magistrate, "the man who would powerfully served your cause, you did not recognize: He's Garibaldi. "

In September, Garibaldi was elected Member of Parliament for the college of Cicagna, near Chiavari, he joined Genoa on 26 after passing through various locations throughout the reception was enthusiastic. It follows a period of uncertainty: where to intervene? He decides to join Sicily, changes his mind, and thinks to resist returning to Venice  but when he is on his way, he is informed of  the departure of Pope Pius IX to Gaeta,  and decided to join Rome. Indeed, after having supported the Milanese's, Pius IX turns around and points his troops, causing anger among Italian patriots.

 He appoints prime minister Pellegrino Rossi but he's assassinated on November 15, paving the way for the riot, the flight of the Pope and the proclamation of the Roman Republic.

... to be continued...

The life of Giuseppe Garibaldi - 5th Part

 The  11th  fébruary 1834, he's supposed to  participate to the  insurrectionnal mazzinian movement in the  Gênoa's arsenal; this one is meant to be jointed  with the général Ramorino's   military opération in  Piédmont in order to overthrow  the savoia's monarchy.

Garibaldi disembarks to take a  contact with the mazziniens, but the failure of Ramorino's revolt  in Piedmont and the police's alert cause the flop of the all opération.

The young hero, not going back  on bord of the Comte of Geneys, is to be considéréd like a déserter. Identified as one of the bosses of  conspiration, he's sentenced to death  by default, and considered enemy  against the Country and the State itself.

Garibaldi becomes then a« criminal ». He quickly repairs  to Nice, and afterwards crosses the  frontièr to joint Marseille, guest of his friend Giuseppe Pares.

He changes his name as Joseph Pane; on june he embarks direct to the Black Sea, and on march 1835 he's in Tunis.

 On june 1835 he joints the Jeune Europe, a mazzinien association, taking as nick name Borel,  in the memory of a  martyr of the révolutionnary cause.

Italy has become for him inaccessible because of his death sentence, that's why he starts looking for further horizons. An opportunity comes to him: the brigantin Nautonier commandéd by the Capitaine Beauregard is directed to  Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.  The 8th of septembre 1835, Garibaldi embarks in Marseille, under the name of Joseph Pane: he will arrive to Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil on novembre of the same year.

...to be continued...

The life of Giuseppe Garibaldi - Fourth Part

At the time Garibaldi was born (we are in the first decade of 1800 ) the  italien peninsula was split under a multitude of small independent states.  A strong national sentiment lived  nevertheless  in the Italian's souls.

Some insurrectional and republican movements started in 1820 up to 1831. Garibaldi, like  mostly of his  génération, had built up the  conscience of a  national unity, ground since the split of the   Roman Empire.

For Garibaldi, the Mazzini's thèses to  unify Italy   (Mazzini was, as matter of fact, the other great Joseph of the italian risorgimental épopée),  look like the  directe conséquence of  Barrault's ideas, initial moment of the  rédemption of all reprimed  people.

This last voyage changes Garibaldi's life; in his mémories, he writes:« Christophore Colomb didn't certainly feel pas as satisfactied  déscovering lAmérica as I felt finding someone who was engaged on the  rédemption of our  italic country».

The officiel historiography wants Giuseppe Garibaldi meeting Giuseppe Mazzini in 1833 à Marseille where he jointed The " Giovine Italia" (The Young Italy), the political secrèt  Mazzini 's association whose objectif was to transform Italy into a démocratique unitaire république, without the king of  Tourin, and without the Pope of  Rome, making the  etèrnal town the capital of the new republican state.

In his quality of mariner, Garibaldi must face five year military  service in the royal sardinian  navy; he joined on décembre 1833. Respecting the tradition, he adoptes as nick name Cléombrote, greek  héro from  Sparte.

 Within his friends Edoardo Mutru and Marco Pes, he tries to make some  prosélytist for the cause, risking on the front of the police. As matter of fact the three friends  are foresigned to the police by whom they are surveilled ; Mutru and Garibaldi are moved on the ship Comte de Geneys, the 3rd of  fébruary; the ship is on the edge to   départ with destination Brésil.

In order to understand these  évents, we need to remind that   Mazzini and the Jeune Italie, were controled by the king of Sardinia and by his own governement, because of their républicain ideas.

Nevertheless Garibaldi, for the sake of  the  liberty of his  people, will renounce  the républicain idéals, becoming the king of  Sardinia's friend and of his premier count Camile de Cavour, the others great  autors  of the italien Unification with Mazzini and our héro Garibaldi. 

...to be continued...