Page 23 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE AMERICAN CAMPAIGNS 1836 - 1848 21

Garibaldi a chance to give another brilliant proof of his bravery.
Laguna was on the point of being surrounded by the enemy by land and
sea. Garibaldi, who was in charge of sea defence, and at the same time had
the difficult task of ferrying across the lagoon the Rio Grande forces under
enemy fire, had at his disposal only his three small vessels and a battery, badly
served by the gunners, at the exit of the lagoon into the sea, where the far
more numerous and powerful imperial war vessels were directed as reinforce-
ments. Garibaldi, who in the critical moment had rushed to his position of
command on the Rio Pardo, found that his incomparable Anita had already
organised and inspired the defence.
The battle was short but very bloody. All the officers of the ship died;
Garibaldi and Anita were miraculously safe. At some point, left on the deck
with a skeleton crew of soldiers, the Hero sent Anita on land to ask for rein-
forcements, but forbade her to return on board. General Canabarro was
unable to provide reinforcements and replied that it was necessary to bring to
land the survivors and burn the ships. Anita with heroic courage decided to
bring the answer to Garibaldi in person. The blaze of the ships under the
destructive fire of the enemy that at this point had forced his entry into the
lagoon, was the most tragic event imaginable. The commanders of the other
two ships of Garibaldi had been killed. It was nightfall when Garibaldi land-
ed with the bedraggled remains from the terrible battle and finally joined the
Rio Grande Division already retreating, along the coast, towards Torres, on the
border with the province of Santa Catarina and the Republic of Rio Grande.
After such memorable proof of audacity, of tactical knowledge and sub-
lime military valour, Garibaldi’s fame as commander of armed fleets in war
markedly increased on the vast theatre of action of that bloody war. The
humble sailor from Nice, in the course of these hard events around Laguna,
revealed himself as a superb naval commander, overcoming situations that
anybody else would have considered desperate. His military qualities had the
distinctive marks of a first class warrior: an audacity leading to temerity; a
hawk eye and acute intuition of the time and space to act by surprise; heroic
steadfastness and the power, once engaged, to stay the course to the point of
victory or until the right moment to escape the enemy’s grasp. Yet, in the far-
sighted and sharp calculus of probability and the accurate measuring of the
effort necessary to achieve the desired aim, the mature man of war started to
emerge from the warrior. That certain pleasant aura of romantic heroism and