Page 144 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

142 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

who had entered Bergamo secretly, that the garrison was about to leave, on
the dawn of the 8 th he ordered the entire Brigade to burst into the city, cap-
turing about twenty men who were late to flee and taking different goods
abandoned by the enemy.
In that day of June 8, when the Emperor and the King did their solemn
entry into an exultant Milan, Garibaldi was among the first to enter
Bergamo, among ovations, public acclamation and continuous throwing of
flowers. Here too, as in Varese and in Como, the city appeared suddenly full
of tricolours that had been kept well hidden at serious risk since 1848. With
regard to this, Simonetta wrote in his journal that the apparition of a great
number tricolour flags was believed to be a planned reception rather than a
sudden and unexpected resurrection.
Leaving a regiment in the city and having sent the Bronzetti company
towards Seriate, on the road to Brescia, the general – with his characteristic
swiftness of decision and moves – prepared to chase, with the rest, the
Imperials retreating on the road to Crema, when he was informed that a train
loaded with enemy troops was arriving from Brescia to the station of
Bergamo. The prospect of capturing those divisions on arrival got everybody
running and the two regiments quickly occupied the building of the train sta-
tion: but the enemy, having been warned in time, got off in Seriate. Garibaldi
then quickly moved there. Meanwhile the brave Bronzetti arrived there, who
without counting the number of enemies - there were about 1500 – attacked
them at the point of bayonet with his small forces, forcing them to seek shel-
ter in Brescia.
That day, Garibaldi was 40 kilometres away from the nearest friendly
troops and 15 kilometres behind the right flank of four entire enemy
Brigades gathered on the Adda who didn’t dare even then attack the brave
leader. The Austrian troops facing the volunteers were in fact so exhausted
that Urban telegraphed the command of the Army that the troops under his
command were in such a bad shape that because of the forced marches that
they needed five days rest to get supplies of money, clothes, shoes and be
again in a fit state for a battle.
Nino Bixio described with a few words in the letters he wrote to his wife
and that are kept in the archives of the University of Genoa, the adventurous
and brave life of the Garibaldians in that period. On June8, in fact, he wrote:
“You will have heard of the beating taken by the Austrians more than us who