Page 146 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

144 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

Como and Lecco. It was Garibaldi’s intention to bring the battalions of his
regiments to four, as soon as possible, since they still had two and neither very
strong. However, as soon as he learned that the Sardinian government was
about to recruit the 1839 contingent in Lombardy, he asked the ministry of
war for detailed instructions, which he would have followed strictly because
- as he wrote to the Count of Cavour – if it was important to him that the
Brigade under his command would reorganise and grow in order to better
serve the noble cause that everybody aimed for, it was his desire that the
recruiting of the Hunters of the Alps wouldn’t be a hindrance to the conscrip-
tion for the standing army. This was a high sentiment, equal to the sublime
altruism and the boundless love for the homeland that always compelled him
to put his interest and that of his men after that of the great national cause
for which the Italians took up arms so many times.
When he arrived at the Canzona tavern, at the junction of the Brescia
trunk road with the road to Martinengo, the general ordered the Cosenz reg-
iment to continue the march on Palazzolo, while he and the rest of the
Brigade went to Martinengo, with the idea of creating problems for the
retreat of the Urban Division, that on that particular day of the 11 th amount-
ed to 15,000 men. At the same time he ordered Lieutenant Pisani to go at
th
once to Brescia where the able officer entered on the dawn of the 12 , occu-
pied the castle, opened voluntary recruiting and, with the help of citizens,
ordered the defence, while waiting for the Brigade. This, since the troops of
Urban had retreated with the rest of the Army to the southeast, gathered in
th
Palazzolo on the evening of the 12 , with the aim of continuing to Brescia
in the night, because despite the tiredness of the volunteers, Garibaldi was
keen to get there as soon as possible to threaten the retreat of the enemy and
to spread the revolution on its flanks and the rear.
The imperials were very worried by the news of the occupation of Brescia
by those few volunteers. Since the right flank of the Austrian Army was in
Chiari and Coccaglio and Lieutenant Pisani was 20 kilometres behind the
enemy who – as the official Austrian report tells us – was informed that it was
no less than 12,000 men under the command of Cialdini and Garibaldi! As
a result of this news Gyulai, fearing that the army Corps of his right flank
th
could be attacked during the march fixed for the 13 , changed his orders,
delaying by one day the array of the Army on the line of the Chiese.
On the night, the volunteers, despite being totally exhausted, marched to