Page 17 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE AMERICAN CAMPAIGNS 1836 - 1848 15

He boldly sailed with this shell of a fleet and started his attacks on the
large and well-equipped Brazilian war ships.
All in all, here too he was engaged in a pirate style war: but the extraordi-
nary results that he soon achieved, were due less to the reckless courage of his
men, than to the very ingenious exploitation that Garibaldi was able to make
use of the particular conditions of that scene of naval action, to compensate
with astuteness and ability in manoeuvres, the very considerable inferiority in
available resources and men he was confronted with by the enemy.
In Fact, across the big lagoon and latitudinally, an extended strip of shal-
low water (puntal) stretched out, one that coming away from the western
bank almost touched the right bank, leaving just about open, next to this, a
narrow and deep passage through which only big draft Brazilian ships could
go from the southern area of the lagoon to the north and vice-versa. Taking
advantage of this singular situation and the small draft of his very light ships,
Garibaldi found a way to use this to his great advantage, training his men to
cross the strip of shallow water wherever it was more convenient in term of
manoeuvres, and pushing the ships by hand whenever they ran aground.
Hard work that his exceptional crew took on with enthusiasm, encouraged
by the brilliant inspiring virtues of their commander, who knew how to lead,
with inflexible energy mixed with a deep sense of humanity, that bunch of
bold soldiers of fortune who followed him blindly under the spell of his
charisma.
As was his custom, he provided an example to all, being the first to take
on hard work and confronting the most serious situations, in order to take
the enemy by surprise. The events soon demonstrated that the usefulness of
that manoeuvre that Garibaldi, with his figurative style, called “ducking”
(same as twenty-eight years later, on the cliffs of Trentino, when he told his
men to “do the eagle”). Meanwhile, the ducking or shallow waters’ tactic
secured unhoped for success for his small and heroic fleet of Los Patos, a
thing that would not have been possible to achieve with the disparity of
resources and means set greatly against the people of Rio Grande in that
strange lagoon campaign that lasted several months.

It was in the course of this naval campaign, and precisely during a day of
rest on land (17 April 1839) that Garibaldi and his people nearly fell victim
of a sudden incursion by a large band of enemy horsemen that attacked by