Page 29 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE AMERICAN CAMPAIGNS 1836 - 1848 27

wind and will slip out of the hands even of the most energetic and resolute
commander. This is the deep and clear warning that the legendary man left us
as legacy, he who, because of his extraordinary prestige as populist command-
er, should have felt less than others that moral restraint that we call “discipline”,
because it sufficed that he showed himself in the midst of danger in order to
magnetize with the simple power of his look and tone of voice even the least
determined urging them with irresistible energy through the hardest trials.

The descent from the Sierra, through cow paths, and being continuously
harassed by peasants hostile to the Republican Party, proved a hard and
painful operation. The small army under the leadership of Garibaldi had to
defend itself from terrible ambushes, particularly during the roughest pas-
sages through steep slope’s paths, but overcoming all with incredible ability
and good luck. In this way the small army was able to reach without too
many losses the camp of Malacara, the site of the republican headquarters,
only two miles from Porto Alegre, and where also president Bento Gonçalves,
still general in charge of the Rio Grande army, had set up camp.
It was there and despite the enemy’s suspicious vigilance, that with many
land and sea forces was still in control of Porto Alegre that general Gonçalves
was able to gather together all republican forces that were still scattered
around this vast area, and in this way, put together an army of 1000 foot sol-
diers and 5000 horsemen (horsemen were always predominant in Rio
Grande) with which he intended to confront the enemy’s army that with
4000 foot soldiers, 3000 horses and much artillery, had been able to get out
of Porto Alegre to fight the Rio Grande army in a pitched battle.
Gonçalves marshalled his forces in the vicinity of the Taquari river that
runs in an arch shape north of Porto Alegre and flows into lake Viamao, on
the banks of which is this city. In the line up the cavalry took the position of
the two wings and the reserve, the foot soldiers that of the centre, particular-
ly good position was that of the soldiers of colour. Garibaldi was at the cen-
tre, in a dominant position with his foot soldiers and sailors. The desire to
prove themselves with the enemy was strong in the entire Rio Grande’s army;
most of all the cavalry and in particular the proud black freedmen, armed
with long lances and famous horse-breakers, burning with the desire to join
in the action. But suddenly the enemy, maybe shocked by that array of the
Rio Grande army, refused to fight and, instead of advancing, retreated taking