Page 11 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE AMERICAN CAMPAIGNS 1836 - 1848 9

expressed itself through a rare harmony of strength and kindness, extraordi-
nary courage and generous altruistic spirit, austere lack of personal interest
and eager tendency to always take the side of the weak and oppressed and to
join with enthusiasm, without giving it too much thought, all those causes
that seemed to be noble and just to his very high sense of human idealism
and to which he was always ready to dedicate his virile energy and, if neces-
sary, his life.

In this soul so sincere and vigorous, the love for the homeland took on the
shape of a superior ideal beauty, but supported by a vigilant and positive
practical sense, particular of the expert sailor. The thought of the distant
homeland, oppressed and divided, was not only a source of acute pain; but
when comparing the glorious memories of the ancient greatness of Rome,
from which his spirit had received sustenance in is youth, inflamed, in his
manly and resolute spirit, the steady purpose to dedicate to the cause of the
Italian resurrection all that tumultuous energy, still undefined, that was
already seething inside.
At that time, he probably only had a vague and uncertain sensation of his
vocation as a warrior. A brave sailor, he fought with constant shrewdness
against the assault of the waves and against the fury of the wind; still he had-
n’t had a chance to prove himself in the art of fighting, hand-to-hand, against
an enemy on the field. The superb natural fighting qualities that vibrated in
that generous heart, tempered and refined by the harsh twelve-year period on
the sea, had nevertheless prepared him to become, when circumstances
allowed it (as in fact happened), despite having no knowledge of technical
doctrine, one of the most singular and popular captains in history.
And for him, as we will see, America was precisely his true, unique and
magnificent school of war; a very particular school of war it may be argued,
but maybe exactly because of this in keeping, as no other, with his very par-
ticular warrior temperament of simple and straight lines; broad-minded on
the always vast field of action; pervaded by meditated and resolute dynamism
and genial aptitude in obtaining the best results, even in the most different
and often rudimentary lack of means available to him.
The natural character of his amazing American deeds as a warrior marked
with an indelible sign, his long and subsequent career as a commander. In
fact, wherever he was involved in combats, always according to his considered