Page 147 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE 1859 CAMPAIGN 145

Brescia and crossing north of the Orfano Mountain, in order to avoid the
road trodden by the imperials, entered Brescia at nine in the morning of the
th
13 , among the overwhelming enthusiasm of that patriotic population, that
still had a vivid memory of the heroic ten days of ’49. Garibaldi addressed a
vibrant proclamation to this population, highlighting the sublime spectacle
that the city presented at the first sound of the alarm and encouraging the cit-
izens to come and join the rank of volunteers to vindicate the brothers who
had died on the battlefields or in the prisons of Mantua, and concluded: ‘No
effort should seem too little to regain your independence. The tricolour flag,
idol of our soul, waves over our heads and demands the devotion and the love
for the homeland”.
th
The Urban Division that was around Chiari on the 12 , went to Azzano
through Maclodio, about ten kilometres southwest of Brescia, with a march
parallel to that of the Hunters of the Alps, but twelve hours later. These had
done 60 kilometres, marching for two nights and one day continuously, with
very short stops, through rough roads and continuous rain: their leader, who
they adored and who never missed the chance to keep their spirits up, partic-
ularly when their bodies were tired, pointed out with electrifying words their
effort in an orderly book.

The advance of those two thousand Garibaldians on Brescia had led the
enemy to believe that 25,000 men were marching on the city with Generals
Niel and Cialdini, so that they worried about being surrounded from the
north before reaching the Chiese.
On June 14 – the day after Garibaldi entered Brescia – the entire
Sardinian Army arrived near the city, preceding the French Army by 40 kilo-
metres, forced to proceed more slowly because of difficulties in getting sup-
plies. In the evening the Cialdini Division entered Brescia and the Hunters
of the Alps left for S. Eufemia della Fonte, three kilometres from the city, on
the road to Verona. The imperials that evening were between Mella and
Chiese and more on the east, with the Urban Division, in Castenedolo, about
8 kilometres southeast of Brescia, turning north.
On the evening of that same day, the command of the Sardinian Army,
following the wish expressed by the Emperor to the King that the Sardinian
troops should be pushed over the Chiese, disposed that the Hunters of the
Alps Brigade and the Sambuy cavalry Division – subject to previous agree-