Giuseppe Garibaldi

Italian military leader

• Born: July 4, 1807
• Birthplace: Nice, France
• Died: June 2, 1882
• Place of death: Island of Caprera, Italy

The hero of the Risorgimento, Garibaldi inspired Italy to unite under the leadership of Victor Emanuel of Piedmont and Sardinia. His victory over Naples was the key achievement in bringing about a unified Italy and capped a life devoted to wars of liberation.

Early Life

Giuseppe Garibaldi (gahr-ih-BAHL-dee) was the son and grandson of sailors. At the time he was born, his birthplace, Nice, was a French town, but it was ceded to the Kingdom of Sardinia and Piedmont in 1815. Garibaldi is said to have learned to speak and read Italian from a priest, who also taught him the history of Italy and filled him with an enthusiasm for his country. His youth was marked by numerous events, some difficult to distinguish from the legends that naturally arise around a charismatic figure. One such story describes an escape with friends from school at the age of fourteen, including the seizure of a sailboat and embarkation in it for Constantinople. Garibaldi’s disinclination toward disciplined intellectual activity induced him to leave school at an early age and to embark upon a career as a seaman, and he first pursued a sailor’s life working on cargo ships in trade with the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea.

On one of his voyages, a shipmate informed him of an organization inspired by the Italian nationalist leader Giuseppe Mazzini, Young Italy , pledged to the cause of liberating Italy from foreigners. By 1834 an ardent member of the society, Garibaldi participated in a plot to seize a ship in the port of Genoa; the plot was discovered and Garibaldi fled to Marseilles, where he learned from an Italian newspaper that he had been condemned to death.

From Marseilles, Garibaldi sailed for South America, reaching Rio de Janeiro. Brazil and the republic Rio Grande do Sul were at war. After talking to some prisoners, Garibaldi quickly resolved to help the small state in its war, and the rest of his twelve years on the continent were spent fighting for Rio Grande in its war with Brazil and for Uruguay in its war with Argentina. He fought primarily at sea as a pirate, attacking Brazilian shipping until 1843, when he formed an Italian legion, whose “uniform” consisted of red shirts (from a happy opportunity to buy at a good price shirts otherwise destined for workers in slaughterhouses). During this time, he carried off (1839) and later married Anna Maria Ribeiro da Silva, who shared his exploits and glory until her death in 1849.

In South America, Garibaldi practiced and mastered the techniques of guerrilla fighting that were to serve him in Italy. He also learned how to command and inspire men. In later life, he was criticized for being a rather lax disciplinarian, but it may be said in his defense that comradeship is perhaps better than strict discipline at inspiring a volunteer guerrilla army. Surely he gained more experience in military matters than any other Italian of his generation.

Garibaldi’s greatest battles were perhaps fought toward the end of his South American exile, in behalf of Uruguay. His victory at Sant’Antonio in 1846 won for him fame in Italy, where a sword of honor was inscribed for him. In 1847, commanding the defense of the capital, Montevideo, he met Alexandre Dumas, père, whose life of Garibaldi added adventures to an already adventuresome life.

Life’s Work

Early in 1848, news reached Garibaldi of the revolutions taking place in Europe, and, together with his wife and children and many members of his Italian legion, he set sail for Italy, intending to participate in the war for independence against Austria. In Italy, his offers to fight were rebuffed first by Pope Pius IX , then by King Charles of Piedmont-Sardinia. Garibaldi and his men fought for Charles anyway and engaged in several bloody fights at Como, Varese, and Laveno. His troops were finally scattered, and Garibaldi retired into Switzerland. Soon afterward, he made his way to his childhood home of Nice, where he and his wife enjoyed a few months of domestic life.

The intense fervor to unify Italy, still seen as a visionary and quixotic dream by all but the most ardent followers of Mazzini, stirred Garibaldi to go to Rome when, with the pope in flight, an opportunity presented itself in late 1848. There he tried to organize Rome’s independence, but, when the French planned to reinstate the pope as head of the government, Garibaldi fought against the French siege of the city. Although victory was highly unlikely, Garibaldi, his men, and indeed the people of Rome fought gallantly for nearly three months, ringing the bells of the city at the approach of the French and erecting barricades in the streets to prevent or delay their entrance. Eager not to fall into the hands of French and papal supporters, Garibaldi and about four thousand of his men began a retreat across Campagna to the Adriatic. The enemy pursued him hotly, and Garibaldi was compelled to hasten his retreat. He managed to escape, but at the cost of his dear wife, who died from the exertions.

A fugitive again, unwelcomed by the king of Piedmont-Sardinia, hunted by the Austrians, Garibaldi left his children with his parents in Nice and went to live and work on Staten Island, New York. He soon returned to sea and became the commander of a Peruvian sailing vessel. Learning in 1853 of the death of his mother and the repeal of the order banishing him from Italy, he returned to Nice. In 1856, he bought a parcel of land on the island of Caprera, between Sardinia and Corsica, and planned to retire. In 1859, when the war of France and Sardinia against Austria broke out, King Victor Emmanuel of Piedmont-Sardinia and his minister Count Cavour invited Garibaldi to form an army and fight with them. He formed the Cacciatori delle Alpi and achieved notable success by guerrilla maneuvers in the Tirol region of the Alps.

In May, 1860, Garibaldi set sail for Sicily with about one thousand volunteers, who were later to be celebrated in Italian history as the mythical Mille, who made the Italian peninsula into a modern nation. His aim was ostensibly to aid an insurgent revolt against Sicily’s master, Naples. Garibaldi landed at Marsala amid artillery fire from several Neapolitan frigates and at once met with success. With additional volunteers constantly joining his ranks, he defeated the Neapolitan army at Calatafimi and marched toward Palermo, the largest and most important city in Sicily.

Palermo was well fortified with Neapolitan soldiers, but, after several feints, Garibaldi entered the city in the dawn of May 26 and had the city in his control by mid-morning. Additional volunteers kept coming from all Sicily to join him, and the Neapolitan troops withdrew. He declared himself dictator and established provisional governments throughout the island. Taking advantage of his victories, he hastened across the Strait of Messina and charged through Calabria to Naples, which he entered on September 7, 1860. As “Dictator of the Two Sicilies” he fought a battle against a Neapolitan army in October. By then, his army had increased to thirty thousand, the largest number of men Garibaldi had ever commanded, and it held the line victoriously at the Volturno River.

Plebiscites conducted throughout the southern peninsula and in Sicily gave Garibaldi the authority to present these lands to Victor Emmanuel. When the king arrived in November, Garibaldi met him ceremoniously, but when the king and his court—perhaps anxious about some of Garibaldi’s radical and revolutionary ideas, perhaps envious of Garibaldi’s enormous popularity—would not grant him powers over these newly added lands, Garibaldi retired to his home in Caprera. His retirement was short-lived. In April, 1861, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, where he opposed Cavour and the king.

Garibaldi also caused embarrassment when in July, 1862, he appealed to Hungary to revolt against Austria. When some of his officers were arrested, Garibaldi threatened to attack Rome. Slipping through a blockade of Napoleon III, he landed in Italy and, with more than two thousand of his followers, fought a battle near Aspromonte. Garibaldi was badly wounded and imprisoned but was soon released and returned to Caprera. Though he had seemed to be independent, it became clear that he was working with the king to effect Rome’s accession to the kingdom. Between 1867 and 1871, Garibaldi participated in two more campaigns, another unsuccessful expedition to the Papal States and an attempt to help France in its war with Prussia. He then retired to his home in Caprera, wrote his memoirs, and tried to overcome the infirmities of age and of a body scarred with thirty battle wounds. He died in 1882.

Significance

Few in their own lifetimes enjoyed as much repute as did Giuseppe Garibaldi. Abraham Lincoln invited him to take a command at the beginning of the Civil War; unhappy with Lincoln’s refusal to take a stronger stand against slavery, however, Garibaldi refused. When in 1864 Garibaldi went to England, he was received by thousands of well-wishers. The peoples of the world recognized in Garibaldi a man sincere in his love of freedom, a man selfless in his devotion to his cause, a man absolutely incorruptible. Because he was uncompromisingly idealistic, he was an inspiration to his people; indeed, more than Mazzini, Cavour, or even Victor Emmanuel himself, Garibaldi represented the spirit of Italian unification.

Garibaldi’s military successes were perhaps also a manifestation of his character and most particularly of his courage. What academy-trained military man would have ventured the risks he did and against such overwhelming odds? Indeed, the very riskiness of his adventures often secured their success, for surprise was easier to achieve when the hazards seemed overwhelming. Garibaldi stands as one of the great patriots of all time, a “hero of two worlds” and for all times. If he was at times overcredulous and naïve, such may be attributed to his good heart, the same good heart that was the source of his heroic splendor.

Bibliography

Davis, John A., ed. Italy in the Nineteenth Century: 1796-1900. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Collection of essays, including “Garibaldi and the South” by Lucy Riall.

DiScala, Spencer M. Italy from Revolution to Republic: 1700 to the Present. 3d ed. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2004. Part 3 of this history of Italy focuses on the Risorgimento, including Garibaldi and the Thousand. There are other references to Garibaldi throughout the book that are listed in the index.

Garibaldi, Giuseppe. Autobiography of Giuseppe Garibaldi. Translated by A. Werner, with a supplement by Jessie White Mario. London: W. Smith and Innes, 1889. A two-volume translation of Garibaldi’s memoirs, certainly the starting place for serious study of Garibaldi. The supplement provides insights by one of the subject’s friends.

Hibbert, Christopher. Garibaldi and His Enemies: The Clash of Arms and Personalities in the Making of Italy. Boston: Little, Brown, 1966. Deliberately not a social history. The subtitle suggests its focus: the personalities and events out of which came the Risorgimento. A less flattering biography than older accounts.

Mack Smith, Denis. Garibaldi: A Great Life in Brief. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956. A readable biography, providing a portrait of Garibaldi as more a passionate than an intellectual figure.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗, ed. Garibaldi. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1969. A biography put together from original documents, here all conveniently translated into English.

Ridley, Jasper. Garibaldi. New York: Viking Press, 1976. A highly detailed and massive biography, perhaps relying too much on secondary sources for Italian history, but vivid in its portrayal of Garibaldi as a personality.

Trevelyan, G. M. Garibaldi’s Defence of the Roman Republic, 1848-9. 1907. London: Longmans, Green, 1949.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Garibaldi and the Thousand, May, 1860. Reprint. London: Longmans, Green, 1948.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Garibaldi and the Making of Italy, June-November, 1860. Reprint. London: Longmans, Green, 1948. For many years the most widely read books about Garibaldi in the English-speaking world. Notable for their romantic portrait of Garibaldi as hero.

Valerio, Anthony. Anita Garibaldi: A Biography. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2001. A biography of Garibaldi’s wife, the illiterate daughter of a poor Brazilian herdsman. Describes the couple’s life in South America and Italy.