Page 111 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE 1849 CAMPAIGN 109

one had a coat or a tent. A 4-pounder cannon and its ammunition wagons
were all the artillery they had, 80 cartridges and their individual armaments.
At 8pm, Garibaldi signalled to leave, and the column started to march
slowly through the arches of that Porta San Giovanni from where, a few
months later, Pope Pius IX would return to Rome to take back a throne that
foreign bayonets had secured for him.

THE RETREAT

Garibaldi could not march along the right bank of the Tiber, towards
Tuscany, since the bridges on that side were in the hands of the French, and
therefore he decided to lure his enemies in the opposite direction and then,
with a rapid counter march, make them loose his tracks.
To do so, he set off with his column along via Casilina, directed towards
Valmontone, and spread the news that his intention was to march against the
Spanish; once arrived at Zagarolo, however, he suddenly turned north,
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towards Tivoli, where he arrived at 7am on the 3 .
In the meantime, General Oudinot, informed that Garibaldi had left the
city, immediately ordered two columns, led respectively by General Mollière
and General Morris, to follow him. The first went towards Albano and
Frascati, the second towards Civita Castellana. The way towards the Abruzzi
was blocked by General Nunziante, who had detached two Bourbon brigades
at Tagliacozzo, near L’Aquila; in Velletri, and in the surrounding area,
Fernandez de Cordoba and his Spanish regiments were garrisoned. The
Austrians were camped with large armies in the Marche and Umbria regions.
It was a difficult enterprise to escape so many enemies, scattered in all
directions, well armed and equipped, and all animated by the same hatred
towards that unswerving hero. Yet, Garibaldi faced that situation with confi-
dence, and succeeded in saving himself and his men with really ingenious
ability and almost miraculous mobility and quickness of movements.
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From Tivoli, that he left at sunset on the 3 , he went upstream the course
of the Aniene and spread the news that, through Ascoli and Tagliacozzo, he
was directed to the Abruzzi, but, once arrived at San Polo dei Cavalieri, he
directed his column along a very bad cart road going uphill towards the town;
he therefore preceded with the main body of his army, descended towards the