Page 135 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE 1859 CAMPAIGN 133

the young volunteers, who had fought like old soldiers were fully recognised
and praised by the command of the Sardinian Army in the orderly book of
June 8, for which was awarded the gold medal for military valour to the gen-
eral and several prizes to officers and hunters.
If from the tactical side the results of the brilliant battles of Varese and
S.Fermo was not outstanding, given the few forces involved, the strategic
result was, on the other hand, very considerable, because particularly the
occupation of Como by a leader like Garibaldi, that was supposed to be at
the head of 10-12,000 volunteers, constituted a very serious threat for the
communications of the Imperials, who were induced to move to Milan the
entire Corps of Marshal Clam-Gallas, already sent to Piacenza were it was
feared that the principal attack of the allies would take place. It can therefore
be said that 3000 volunteers kept in check not only the three Brigades of the
Urban Division, but also an entire Army Corps.
If Varese constitutes a good example of defensive combat, the action of S.
Fermo, that Garibaldi prepared and directed with that quiet courage that was
his second nature, constitutes a clear example of offensive combat. Instead of
attacking the adversary that was blocking the road to Como, the General
kept them occupied marching from an outpost to another, later carefully
retreated and marched with the bulk of the forces diagonally against the right
of the Austrian front. Here too he threatened the enemy’s flanks while break-
ing the centre and then with the bulk of the forces in hand, completed the
success attacking an already shaken enemy that could no more than seek shel-
ter in a quick retreat and the exploitation – very skilfully considering the time
and space – of rail transport, that had been kept ready in case needed.
The tactical behaviour of the young soldiers could not have been better.
To put it in the words of Nino Bixio in one of his letters to his wife, the
march, the combat and the courage of the Hunters were extraordinary and
the Genoese Carabinieri excided expectations. Garibaldi communicated by
signs and the Hunters ran like a torrent.
If these actions give the idea of the great moral prestige that Garibaldi’s
men and the leader had by now acquired with the enemy, way superior in
terms of forces, not less great was the influence the leader had on the volun-
teer and the masses. Giovanni Visconti Venosta, who followed the General as
Royal Commissary for Lombardy, gives a suggestive picture in his “memoirs
of youth”. He says that “one of the characteristic and moving displays of