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The Lombard Bersaglieri, when
they fought at Palestrina at the beginning of May, consisted of one
battalion of about 600 men. On their return to Rome, between the
battles of Palestrina and Velletri, another weak battalion, about
350 strong, succeeded in joining them, having embarked secretly from
Spezia.
 The
first (the original) battallion, 600 strong, consisted of four
companies — the 1st under Ferrari, the 2nd under Enrico Dandolo, the
3rd under Massi, the 4th under Rozzat. On June 3 these four
companies of the first battalion together comprised 600 men, minus
their small losses in the Palestrina and Velletri campaigns. As
regards the first attack made by this battalion on the Corsini,
there is a discrepancy between the accounts given by Hoffstetter and
Emilio Dandolo. Dandolo, pp237, states that the 1st company was sent
by itself to charge the Corsini, and that after it had been repulsed
the 2nd company (Enrico Dandolo's) was sent alone on a second charge
(pp. 239, 240). But Hoffstetter (who was then present, while Emilio
Dandolo was still behind the walls) makes it perfectly clear that
the 1st company, to which he himself was at the moment attached, and
the 2nd (Enrico Dandolo's) company, were together in the first
charge, headed by Manara; this was the charge in which Enrico
Dandolo was killed {Hqf. 117-121) Hoffstetter also states that
Rozzat's company was with them, but this is more doubtful. Rozzat,
indeed, was there, but certainly without all, perhaps without any,
of his company (the 4th) ; for Emilio Dandolo (pp 242) states that
Rozzat went forward alone without his company, and Emilio Dandolo .himself,
who was in Rozzat's company, was imdoubtedly left behind during the
first charge. To sum up, the first attack by the Bersaglieri on the
Corsini was made by a considerable body — the ist, 2nd, and possibly
part of the 4th company of the First" Battalion. |
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| That is to say, this charge was
made by some three hundred men together, and not in small handfuls,
as Emilio Dandolo says (pp. 236, 237). But the attack was premature,
as the villa had not been subjected to a sufficiently prolonged fire
of cannon and musketry. Hoff., 118, puts on Manara the
responsibility for the too early beginning of the attack, but it is
not possible entirely to exculpate Garibaldi, who was on the spot.
Hoffstetter and Dandolo between them give us an admirable account of
the operations of the Bersaglieri on June 3. We have, unfortunately,
no such record of the equally heroic charges of the Garibaldian
Legion. Where Dandolo and Hoffstetter differ, we must rely on the
testimony of that one of them who took part in the event in question.
They were apart from each other during the day, except during the
tragic scene in the Casa Giacometti, when Manara gave Emilio Dandolo
definite news of his brother's death. The correspondence between
Hoffstetter's and Dandolo's accoimt of the place and circumstances
of that scene, at which they were both present, increases the redit
of each as a witness to the details of what he alone saw.There are
two mistakes in detail in the long account given by Hoffstetter of
the day's battle. The Bersaglieri arrived on the scene not ' shortly
after four o'clock ' (p. 108), but some four hours later; indeed,
Hoffstetter's own statement that they had been kept waiting two
hours under arms in the Forum makes it likely that this is a
misprint. Secondly, the casual mention of Emilio Dandolo as among
the wounded in the first charge (p. 119) is an error. He was then
inside the walls, and was wounded in the charge described by himself
[Dandolo, p. 245). Possibly Hoffstetter gives himself too much
credit for seeing on the spot all that ought to have been done and
was left undone by Garibaldi and Manara ; but otherwise he seems to
me an admirable witness, and I think his narrative has not always
been treated with sufficient consideration by historians.
Garibaldi in sembianze di Redentore: Quando nel 1882 Garibaldi muore, una delle riviste che pubblicavano la sua necrologia, La Riforma, dichiarò: "Questa influenza, nessuno dopo Cristo la possedé come lui… Le moltitudini si sollevavano alla sua voce, come a quella di un Messia" (a dx sopra) |
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