Page 41 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE AMERICAN CAMPAIGNS 1836 - 1848 39

tage of the pause to escape the chase and place between his people and the
enemy a small stream affluent of the Paranà that served as a temporary line
of defence to protect the next encampment where were gathered the large
number of suffering wounded men of that day. On the other hand, the
enemy also, tired from the long and hard battle and the numerous casualties
didn’t dare bother further the feared adversary. Garibaldi, with what was left
of his people, continued his march on land among all kind of difficulties,
until the nearby Esquina, the first inhabited place of the province of
Corrientes, where he found a friendly population and some food and rest.
This magnificent Paranà campaign, a work of art rich of the military
virtues of the man that saw it to the end through so many difficulties, could
not be better praised that in the words of Guerzoni when he sums it up:
«The Paranà campaign is one of Garibaldi’ most glorious and militarily,
even more prodigious than that of the Mille (The Thousands). Thrown with
inadequate means into a senseless undertaking, he made it look almost fea-
sible, through his ability and heroism. Having managed to escape the cross-
fire of a stronghold and cruise ships, he run for five hundred miles, between
two banks full of danger and bristling with enemies, and sailing for about
two months under an unrelenting tempest of fire, and in the middle of a
constantly renewed network of obstacles; fighting to open a way; fighting to
rest; fighting to get food supplies; fighting, manoeuvring, running always
close to his target.
«And when in the end, stopped more by the adversity of the elements
than the art of the adversary, had no other choice but to accept in unequal
conditions, a decisive battle, he put up his defence for three days and three
nights; beaten, shattered, decimated, continued to fight; with the ships
reduced to wrecks and flooded by a thousand gaping holes, with the crew
thinned out by the massacre and worn out by fatigue, continued to fight;
and when finally he run out of ammunitions, he threw into the worn jaws
of the few guns left, the chains of his anchors, and when he had vomited
against the enemy, certainly not proud, the last piece of iron of his ships, he
set fire to them, and he only left the ashes of a fire and the smoking waters
of a river in the hands of the stunned victor.
«The excellent event seemed the most illustrious of naval deeds and this
was the opinion of both friends and enemies. Admiral Brown himself, going