Page 53 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE AMERICAN CAMPAIGNS 1836 - 1848 51

turned around and returned to Salto;
- Most of all he recommended his men not to worry about the enemy cav-
alry, although numerous, but to set themselves the objective to defeat the
enemy infantry as soon as possible, since they constituted in fact the major
danger being three times stronger and better armed of Garibaldi’s infantry;
this spurring on too was valiantly followed by the brave legionnaires and
resulted in the bloody defeat of the Argentinian infantry, definitely put out
of action in the first few hours of the battle, partly due to the death of its
commander;
- After this first reported success, although it was still daylight, the
Garibaldians forced to defend themselves from the still very strong enemy’s
cavalry, already broken by exhaustion, tortured by terrible thirst and shocked
by the large number of dead and wounded, would have been pleased to see
the beginning of an ordered retreat to the river; while Garibaldi, with his very
fine intuition as leader, understood very well that to retreat before night-time
with the large enemy cavalry right behind them, and in that terrain so
favourable to them, would have resulted in certain slaughter;
- Therefore, as he usually did in the most tragic moments of his warrior
deeds, imposed his will on his men with that voice, that look, that sublime
charm that he emanated and that revived the broken-hearted and turned
them into lions;
- At night-time, with a rare and unique knowledge of susceptibility,
obtaining miracles from his men, taking the wounded with him, managed to
free himself from the enemy and reach the river, with a retreat carried out
fantastically well;
- The dawn found him already in position along the margin of the wood,
where he managed to definitively repel with fire causing great losses to the
enemy cavalry which dispersed humiliated;
- In this way he could enter triumphant and glorious in Salto, strongly
defended in the meantime by Anziani against fruitless simultaneous enemy
assaults.
This is in brief all that there is in military substance in the various tales
written and published of that famous day.
A battle, in the end, not dissimilar from many others, taking place at var-
ious times and in various places, and from which, in all honesty there no
much to be learned.