Garibaldi's use of the BERSAGLIERI on
JUNE 3
da Garibaldi's Defence of the Roman Republic Di George MacAulay
Trevelyan (1876-1962).
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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.
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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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