Page 332 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

314 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

Giuseppe Garibaldi accepted, though he understood that his presence in
France was tolerated and endured more than desired; nevertheless, he accept-
ed because he had offered his sword not to the new rulers of France but to
the ideal that in that historical moment a France freed from Bonapartism and
engaged in a fight against the Prussian invader embodied.
On October 14, 1870 Garibaldi arrived in Dôle, a place he had deliber-
ately chosen to organise and take on the leadership entrusted to him. The
choice of Dôle as the centre of his future war activities already demonstrated
his clear understanding of the military importance of that place in the gener-
al situation in which he had to operate to perform his initial duty of prevent-
ing the enemy from marching south. It was that far-sighted choice, that pos-
itive assessment of the further course the events would take that later on
demonstrated beyond any doubt how more advisable would have been to
defend Dôle instead of Dijon, as he was ordered to do by the war leaders.
Manteuffel, in fact, to finish off Bourbaki’s defeated Eastern Army, aban-
doned Dijon and relied on Dôle.
Dôle was the cradle of that Army of the Vosges that Garibaldi organised and
led in that French campaign that concluded his legendary military life. As
always, he created it out of nothing, by a simple act of his will, piece after piece,
with all kinds of people, while facing and clashing with an overwhelming and
chasing enemy. He had to fight against the indolence of some people, the
malevolence of others, the indifference of all of them; an example, perhaps the
only one in the lives of the great Captains, of an indomitable personality, an
iron will, an unwavering faith, since in this new glorious undertaking he did
not have the support of politics and the consensus of public opinion.

THE FIGHTING TOOL: THE ARMY OF THE VOSGES
th
On October 16 , two days after his arrival in Dôle, a Corsican Corporal
and twelve bewildered snipers that Bordone, the future Chief of Staff, had
gathered at the railway station upon the arrival of Garibaldi in that city
formed the so-called Army of the Vosges. The beginning was not very prom-
ising; but the general was not worried at all: the Army was formed all the
same and he set about his work with the certainty of achieving it.
Unfortunately, Garibaldi had to fight against men but also against the