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

  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.
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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