Page 54 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

52 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

On the other hand, the new magnificent success of the incomparable
characteristic leadership qualities of our Hero is today a very important
teacher.
Garibaldi clearly reveals, in this very hard day of San Antonio, three of his
more typical leadership qualities:
- The fast intuition and understanding of the situation, even when things
happened suddenly and unpredictably threatening;
- The precise and certain perception of what was needed to address it and
hope for a positive outcome;
- The unshakable resoluteness with which, true to his constant motto of
“never despair”, he employed his extraordinary will power against the enemy,
even with inferior means, and instils it in his men with sublime art, and the
power of moral suggestion that his exceptional nature as a man of action and
leadership commanded.
We can state that the marvellous Garibaldian campaign of the Uruguay
and the bloody and victorious day of San Antonio (no need to indulge in nar-
rating other, less interesting deeds of Garibaldi up to April 1848) give the
definitive mark to the figure of the Hero from Nice as leader and the numer-
ous, enthusiastic jubilations that, for that campaign and that victory, took
place in Montevideo in the presence of so many foreign residents and which
carried the echo of those deeds to America and Europe and particularly in
Italy, where Mazzini’s party, then enthusiastic about Garibaldi, provoked a
massive demonstration for the offer of a sword of honour to the Hero, invok-
ing his coming to Italy to place his extraordinary ability as leader of volun-
teers at the service of the Italian cause.

This vow could not be immediately granted, partly because Garibaldi
could not just leave, while still at war, that heroic nation to which he had
dedicated his work as leader and also because in reality, things in Italy were
still not favourable to his longed for redemption.