Page 87 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE 1849 CAMPAIGN 85

Nonetheless, working feverishly, and cleverly, Colonel Amadei could in
just a few days organise a considerable defensive setting and strengthen it also
by a second line, mostly leaning against the old Aurelian walls.
The line of the ramparts was divided into several sectors: Garibaldi
received Avezzana, the most important one, by the minister of war. It was the
Gianicolo one, from Porta Portese to Porta Cavalleggeri. In this stretch, the
position of the defenders presented a clear inferiority, since on the external
side of Urban VIII walls, the ground was at the same level with the defence
line, if not higher: at Porta San Pancrazio, for instance, Villa Corsini domi-
nated the area. That was the reason why Garibaldi, once arrived there and
realised what the situation was, thought it necessary to move the defence out-
side the walls, on the small hills of Villa Corsini and Villa Pamphili.
Thanks to the general’s prompt intuition and the splendid behaviour of
his legionnaires, the defenders of Rome could achieve victory, unfortunately
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an ephemeral one, on April 30 .

THE DAY OF APRIL 30

As we said, after leaving a detachment to guard his way to the sea, General
Oudinot marched on Rome, with about six thousand infantrymen and a
good amount of field artillery; he did not bring with him siege artillery or any
means to climb the walls, as he was convinced that the city would open its
doors straight away, at the first sight of the pantalons rouges. «We – he wrote
in his proclamation to the troops – will not find enemies either among the
population or among the Roman troops, since they both welcome us as lib-
erators».
The first doubts on the Roman welcome probably arose in the French
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general on the night between April 29 th and 30 , when a small squad of
mounted hunters he had sent to scout, led by his brother, a cavalry captain,
was attacked and got shot by a squadron of Dragoons not far away from
Castel di Guido, receiving one casualty and leaving one man as prisoner.
The main body of the French forces reached the walls of Rome the morn-
ing after and at first went towards the highest part of the Vatican walls, with
the intention of bursting into the city through Porta Pertusa, located there,