Page 288 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

270 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

Mountain, had to stay in bed for a few days and then use a carriage, he had
to trust the reports of his lieutenants (not all in possess of his hawk eye) and
the aid of maps, that in mountainous regions can tell very little even to men
like him who had – according to those close to him – a singular ability to get
from maps the relief of the terrains and their ratio with each other. This abil-
ity, not very common at that time even among experts, is in fact one that
makes one of his biographers state that “we do not hesitate to state that
among all the battles fought until then, that of the Tirolo was the one in
which the genial power of our Captain appeared the most” (Guerzoni). But,
unfortunately, the astuteness of the leader was not enough to supply the
shortcomings in military technique in some subordinates, one of the most
common of which was the inability to make full use of the prominent later-
al positions flanking the valleys.
However, after a few days of putting out feelers during which some small
skirmishes took place at Londrone in the Val di Ledro and in Darzo, the
Austrians abandoned the right of the Chiese in order to concentrate further
behind between Lardaro and Tione; and Garibaldi advanced right away in
the Val di Chiese and in Val d’Ampola, setting his headquarters at Storo
where the two valleys met. General Kuhn saw the danger and decided to
oppose it, through the concentric march of several columns aiming at encir-
cling Garibaldi’s men between Condino and Storo and push them over the
border through a manoeuvre or battle.
Between 7 and 8 o’clock of the 16 of July the Austrians clashed at the
Cimego bridge with the vanguard of the Nicotera Brigade, that went too far
into the Val Chiese without arranging some protection from the surrounding
high ground. The volunteers bravely responded to the enemy’s fire in front of
them, but “after a short time … attacked by all sides, crammed in some sort
of well, while from above bullets were raining on them, unable to move and
to respond, even the more courageous started to waver” (Guerzoni). It was at
this precise moment that Major Agostino Lombardi “heroic soul from
Brescia” hurled himself with some braves on the Chiese to hold back one of
the branches that threatened to block irreparably his brothers in arms; but, as
soon as they crossed the bank, he was shot in the head, as for his brave com-
panions, some were dragged by the current, others shot and killed by
Austrian hunters. The generous courage of major Lombardi however served
to slow down the enemy’s encircling and give the volunteers a chance to
retreat “disorderly but not running away”, backed up by reinforcements rush-