Page 91 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE 1849 CAMPAIGN 89

his cavalry and artillery.
In Rome, however, it was impossible to rejoice for the victory gained by
Garibaldi, since the Romans lived hours of great anguish and uncertainty;
Oudinot had advanced again to Castel di Guido, and a new assault was
feared; sad news came mostly from the north, where after a desperate resist-
ance Bologna was about to be forced to open its gates to the Austrians.
Garibaldi was therefore urged to come back to Rome on the evening of
th
the 10 , and he reached the Capital in only one night of marching, taking
with him the injured and carefully avoiding coming into contact with the
Bourbon troops. But his hurried recall soon proved useless, since the arrival
in Rome of a special French envoy, de Lesseps, on the 15 th seemed to
announce a sudden change in the situation.
Since his arrival, de Lesseps showed conciliatory intentions, but, in reali-
ty, the subsequent events showed that his real intention was to take time, so
that the reinforcements demanded by Oudinot could arrive and the French
Catholic party could get a majority in the forthcoming political elections.
However, the negotiations between de Lesseps and the Roman govern-
ment led to a cease-fire that the Triumvirate took advantage of to get rid of
the Neapolitans once and for all before the Spanish could join them. But,
strangely enough, this time they decided to entrust the command to General
Pietro Roselli and not to Garibaldi. Roselli, who had been a colonel till the
eve of that event, was promoted to major general and appointed as supreme
th
commander of the republican forces by a decree dated May 13 , in which
this same rank was granted also to the hero of Montevideo, then brigadier
general. The very unusual promotion of Roselli and his appointment as
supreme commander of the republican troops were justified by some as evi-
dence of the consideration that the new leader was Roman, and therefore
welcomed by the citizens. Anyway, this was another mistake of the
Triumvirate, who in this way would painfully embitter the already existing
difference of opinions between Garibaldi and Mazzini, and fatally affect the
future defence. «I will calmly talk about Mazzini – Garibaldi wrote later –
but I do not want to lie to my conscience; and when I say Mazzini, I mean
the dictator of Rome, a title for which he didn’t want to take responsibility,
but which power he was known to have…. He relegated Avezzana in Ancona,
and I was left to defend Porta San Pancrazio. Colonel Roselli was appointed
as General in Chief, who I believe would have not failed his duty at the head