Page 327 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE 1867 CAMPAIGN 309

taken on the command of the rearguard from the beginning of the battle.
Later he personally led the counterattack of two companies towards Casa
Manzi to successfully stop the advance of Frémont; finally, later on, he retired
to the tower of Palazzo Piombino in Monterotondo where he remained until
night, when he mounted his horse and went to Passo Corese.
Towards the night then, the French-Papal troops had stopped, reorganis-
ing and surrounding the inhabited area of Mentana: the French in the first
line and the Papal troops behind.
The weather that in the afternoon cleared threatened rain again during the
night.
The French-Papal headquarters is in Casa Santucci; the ambulances are at
the Romitorio, in Casa Santucci and at the Conventino. The removal of the
wounded to Rome starts the same evening at about 18:00.
According to Fabrizi the Garibaldians of Monterotondo had no ammuni-
tions; but even if they had had some, in the condition they were in, having
missed their target of Rome and having been repelled at Mentana, there was
no point in continuing an unequal battle without hope. Garibaldi who does
not know that Mentana is still resisting, would like, as some said, to prolong
the resistance in Monterotondo and gives some directives to that effect, but
dissuaded by his men, decides to retreat towards Passo Corese and return with-
in the borders of the Kingdom giving up the failed venture; at about 20:00 the
retreat from Monterotondo starts. Camp is set up at Passo Corese still on
Papal territory but the hero, as he himself said was wounded to the heart!
th
In the early hours of the morning of the 4 , Colonel Frémont enters in
st
Monterotondo with the 1 line regiment and the II battalion of Hunters well
received by the population; the village had suffered because of the attack and
the presence of the Garibaldians and were worried to the heart that there
could be a new assault from the French-Papal troops.
The Garibaldians that were still in Mentana were about 500. At their
command was now Captain Luigi Maggiolo commander of the V battalion
(Frigyesy column). Having completed the barricades at all exits, second
Lieutenant De Aprà was sent to see if the road of Monterotondo was free; he
bumped into the enemy; Maggiolo then, leaving some houses occupied and
the barricades fortified, retreated to the castle; if the barricades were attacked
everybody had to concentrate on the castle.
On the morning of the 4 th Maggiolo sends parlayers to the enemy’s head-
quarters in Casa Santucci to negotiate the surrender. The Garibaldians ask for