Page 13 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE AMERICAN CAMPAIGNS 1836 - 1848 11

mander, in the uninterrupted variety of situations and scenes of war, in which
he found himself involved. And since his art shines brightly especially in the
field of action, that is in the development of some admirable episodes of sea
or land battles, connected by a guiding thread only when he had (as in the
second period) absolute and effective responsibilities and independent lead-
ership. We therefore will limit ourselves to do what one does when intending
to better understand the personality of a great artist: showing some of the
most expressive sketches of his hand in the fervour of the first inspiration,
which often is of more value than a systematic and complete exhibition of
finished paintings.
We will therefore give a brief mention of only the most significant of the
feats of arms in which he took part in America and we will linger over each
of them only for the necessary time to better highlight, with a few comments,
the artistic temperament of the commander and his personal style of leader-
ship.

Garibaldi got his baptism by fire on the sea, just a few days after starting
with singular good luck his privateering against the Brazilian ships on the
oceanic coasts and in the great estuary of the Plata. He got it in a naval bat-
tle, short but violent, between his modest sumaca (a type of gorget) with a
crew of only twelve men and two big and well armed enemy cutters that
attempted to board his ship. À tout seigneur tout honneur, this man who had
to come out unscathed from a thousand fights (so much so that a legend says
that the cannon balls stopped in the folds of his poncho), in this first battle
in the perilous breakers of the Uruguay coasts, he nearly died from a tremen-
dous gun wound in his neck he got when he took the place of the helmsman
fallen a few moments before. This because since this first encounter with the
enemy he demonstrated that he knew how to be everything: captain, look-
out, helmsman, valiant combatant and charming animator of that small
bunch of people from every corner of the world and of every colour that
chance had placed under his command. And from that first very modest war
action, he immediately revealed the eminently aggressive character of his per-
sonality that would guide him later in the bitterest events of his war period
and would determine, near the end of that period, the admonition to his son
Menotti, which remains one of his more significant aphorisms: “When
attacked, you should always fight vigorously, even when your strength is infe-