Page 101 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE 1849 CAMPAIGN 99

Amadei had been completed; some ways of access to the French positions had
to be built, as well as some covered passageways towards the Corsini and
Pamphili lodges to attempt their reconquest. Sadly enough, these works were
the cause of a serious incident that occurred between Garibaldi and Amadei,
perhaps due most of all to the weakness of the command in chief and the lack
of attribution of specific tasks to each person. The fact is that Garibaldi, exas-
perated by the slow progress of these works, and the continuous and persist-
ent requests of men by Colonel Amadei, and most of all believing that
Amadei had given orders to some soldiers of the «Unione» regiment to join a
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skirmish with the enemies, on the morning of June 12 , ordered without
delay the arrest of the colonel and sent him to the minister of war with the
order of shooting him accusing him of «negligence to his duties in the most
advanced post of a besieged city». Although the arrest ordered by Garibaldi
seemed quite illegal, and since Amadei as commander of the Engineers was
subordinated to the commander in chief, he confirmed his arrest but sent
the colonel to Castel Sant’Angelo; however, after a detailed investigation, he
found a way to solve the incident and acquit the colonel of all charges.
This new disagreement, however, caused some repercussions on the defence;
Colonel Amadei was replaced by Engineer Major Odoardo Romiti, but, since
the latter was judged as too compliant with Garibaldi’s officers and also as a sign
of solidarity towards Colonel Amadei, some officers of the Engineers were
pushed to the point of abandoning the works of fortification, and the disagree-
ment did not diminish when Amadei was restored as commander.
Therefore the works that had just begun to be carried out and also the
construction of some entrenchments were aborted – its seems to carry out
Garibaldi’s will – although they had already been planned, along the old
Aurelian walls and the ramparts, to the left of Porta San Pancrazio, and the
demolition of the Savorelli house, a tall building located inside the gate,
where Garibaldi had established his headquarters and that, due to its high
position, would have been better to transform into a redoubt. It is anyway
true that the completion of these works could not have changed the situation
of the siege; at most, it could have prevented the French from seizing the city
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in such an easy way, as was the case on June 21 .
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Immediately after June 3 , General Oudinot had ordered the start of
construction of parallel pathways to access the city, with the intention of
advancing slowly under the walls and opening some breaches through which