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24 - Garibaldi and the Making of Italy by George Macaulay Trevelyan · Garibaldi and the Making of Italy

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  Speaker 1: Appendixy of Garibaldi and the Making of Italy by George
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  Speaker 1: McCauley Trevellion. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: The arms of the campaign, the following three statements can
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  Speaker 1: be made with confidence. One that practically the whole of
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  Speaker 1: the Bourbon infantry were armed with rifles. Two that the thousand,
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  Speaker 1: except the Genoese carabineers, had smooth bore muskets of an
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  Speaker 1: obsolete pattern. Three that after the arrival of Medicia Palermo,
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  Speaker 1: one part of the Garibaldini had rifles and another part
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  Speaker 1: smooth bore muskets. The doubtful problem is whether among the
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  Speaker 1: Garibaldini the rifles were the general rule and the muskets
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  Speaker 1: the exception or vice versa. I will place before the
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  Speaker 1: reader all the pieces of evidence which have been able
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  Speaker 1: to collect on this point. One my friend, mister J. A. Dolmage,
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  Speaker 1: an officer in the British Army both before and after
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty, was on leave from his regiment and traveling Cecily.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty. He joined Garibaldi's forces in June, was
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  Speaker 1: unofficially attached to Tours Brigade saw most of the fighting
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  Speaker 1: in the campaign and was professionally well fit to speak
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  Speaker 1: on its technical side. He sends me the following notes, smoothbore.
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  Speaker 1: The thousand were armed with military smooth bore muskets. These
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  Speaker 1: had evidently been sold as obsolete by Piedmont and other
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  Speaker 1: European countries, and could be purchased very cheaply, I should think.
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  Speaker 1: The Sicilian and Calabrian volunteers were armed with smoothbore muskets,
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  Speaker 1: many of these being weapons which had been disposed of
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  Speaker 1: by our own army and the East India Company. They
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  Speaker 1: were purchased for probably from ten to fourteen shillings apiece.
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  Speaker 1: The smooth boar weapon was not at all an unsuitable
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  Speaker 1: firearm for the tactics of Garibaldi, which was to get
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  Speaker 1: as quickly as possible to close quarters with the enemy.
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  Speaker 1: When the bayonet became of use. These muskets were sighted
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  Speaker 1: up to three hundred yards, but after the first hundred
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  Speaker 1: yards or so it was quite a matter of chance
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  Speaker 1: if men hit what they aimed at. On the other hand,
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  Speaker 1: the rifle was not of service to a soldier until
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  Speaker 1: he had been properly trained to use it. The squadron,
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  Speaker 1: the Sicilian irregular bands had a very primitive and curious
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  Speaker 1: gun of their own. It could make a noise and
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  Speaker 1: kill bird or man, but at no very great distance.
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  Speaker 1: It was not in any way suited for a bayonet,
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  Speaker 1: and was fired by means of a percussion cap rifle.
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  Speaker 1: The men of Peer's company were armed with revolving rifles. Colt,
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  Speaker 1: an American, the inventor of this weapon, had presented one
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  Speaker 1: hundred of these to Garibaldi. Not only were they troublesome
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  Speaker 1: to load, but the user in firing would sometimes have
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  Speaker 1: his left wrist badly scorched from the breach. The Colt's
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  Speaker 1: revolving rifle was the only thing like a breach in
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  Speaker 1: Garibaldi's army. Medici's expedition brought the first infield rifles. Major
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  Speaker 1: Wolf received one hundred and thirty five of these for
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  Speaker 1: his foreign company, and they were the only rifles of
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  Speaker 1: any kind with Ebers Brigade in Sicily. Though it was
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  Speaker 1: of course a muzzle loader, the infield was an excellent
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  Speaker 1: rifle and was sighted up to nine hundred yards. The
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  Speaker 1: men of Kozan's brigade, whom I met at Mulazzo, were
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  Speaker 1: in possession of enfields. The English legion had them. Also,
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  Speaker 1: I should say too, that others had been placed in
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  Speaker 1: the hands of the best Italian volunteers. Neapolitan army. The
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  Speaker 1: Bourbon forces were very well equipped and armed. They were
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  Speaker 1: strong in cavalry and had excellent artillery. Also, at the
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  Speaker 1: operations before Capua they had several rifled field pieces, very
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  Speaker 1: unusual at that time. The infantry soldiers were armed with
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  Speaker 1: a good serviceable mini rifle with a large boer. This
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  Speaker 1: boar struck me as so large that I made inquiry
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  Speaker 1: on the subject, and was told that the weapons were
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  Speaker 1: muskets which had been sent to Austria to have the
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  Speaker 1: barrels grooved and so converted into rifles. I do, not, however,
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  Speaker 1: vouch for the truth of this story. The Catiatory light
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  Speaker 1: infantry sharpshooters, in fact had a shorter rifle, but with
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  Speaker 1: the same bore. There were several regiments of Cachiatory which
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  Speaker 1: were looked on as picked troops. It is possible that
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  Speaker 1: there may have been smooth bore muskets in the Neapolit's army,
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  Speaker 1: but I never saw any in Sicily. On such occasions
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  Speaker 1: as the surrenders at Palermo and Melazzo, the Neapolitans marched
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  Speaker 1: out with their arms, which they retained by agreement. In Calabria, however,
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  Speaker 1: where many surrenders took place, the arms must have been
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  Speaker 1: handed over to our people, but I do not know
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  Speaker 1: what became of them, nor whether any were given over
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  Speaker 1: for use to our volunteers. We took a large number
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  Speaker 1: of prisoners on the first and second of October, and
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  Speaker 1: several thousand stand of arms thus came into the possession
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  Speaker 1: of Garibaldi's people, But as Capua surrendered during the first
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  Speaker 1: days of November following, these came to us a little
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  Speaker 1: late for use. Two. Mister A. B. Patterson writes to me,
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  Speaker 1: Dune's men were certainly armed with Enfield rifles. I remember
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  Speaker 1: my own perfectly. I believe all the men in Medici's
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  Speaker 1: command were so armed. It is problematic that Dune's Sicilians,
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  Speaker 1: a regiment which of course had little training, should have
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  Speaker 1: been selected for arming with rifles in preference to the
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  Speaker 1: pick troops of which Medici's command was mainly composed. Most
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  Speaker 1: of these had been in service in eighteen fifty nine,
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  Speaker 1: either under Garibaldi or in the Sardinian Army. My belief
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  Speaker 1: is that rifles were the rule. At Mulazzo, probably only
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  Speaker 1: the newly raised squadre, who were not I think engaged
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  Speaker 1: at Molosso, were armed with smooth boars. I may add
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  Speaker 1: that dune'smen had no target practice at Palermo. They had
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  Speaker 1: blank cartridge practice only, so they were not able to
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  Speaker 1: make the best use of their weapons. But it did
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  Speaker 1: not matter much. Everywhere the contest was decidedly at close quarters.
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  Speaker 1: The enemy was so sheltered by walls, trees, et cetera
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  Speaker 1: that we did not see him until very near, and
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  Speaker 1: the firing was mainly at close quarters. Success was obtained
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  Speaker 1: by the constant, determined advance, always under heavy fire, and
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  Speaker 1: against a brave enemy in a strong position, superior in
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  Speaker 1: numbers and of course in training. Only the heroic leading
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  Speaker 1: of Garibaldi and his lieutenants made the victory possible. I
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  Speaker 1: venture to claim Doon and Wyndham among the best of
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  Speaker 1: these three. In Times August, fourth page ten, column two,
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  Speaker 1: the special correspondent who took part in the Battle of
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  Speaker 1: Mulazzo said that Medici's men were then armed with Enfield rifles.
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  Speaker 1: Four Mariotte, a veteran of Malancini's regiment. The Tuscan part
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  Speaker 1: of Medici's expedition, which came out of the Franklin, in
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  Speaker 1: his detailed and generally accurate memoir says our fire arms
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  Speaker 1: were those of the million rifles fund rifles come from America,
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  Speaker 1: small boar, with the barrel's varnish black. They were technical
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  Speaker 1: perfection for that period. Mister Dolmaide says, these are clearly
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  Speaker 1: the enfields, and that Mariotte mistook in supposing they came
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  Speaker 1: from America. They came from England. Five Captain C. S.
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  Speaker 1: Forbes r N, who arrived at Mulatso from Palermo within
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  Speaker 1: a few days of the battle, was familiar with Garibaldi
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  Speaker 1: and many of his principal followers. Rights of the victors
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  Speaker 1: in that battle. Generally speaking, the entire force was armed
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  Speaker 1: with enfields, but few knew how to develop the use
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  Speaker 1: of those deadly weapons, the sites being deemed a superfluity.
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  Speaker 1: But he adds a muscular rifle, sixty rounds of ammunition,
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  Speaker 1: a water bottle, and for the most part, an empty haversack,
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  Speaker 1: and you have the impedimenta of a Garibaldian six GOURDSONI
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  Speaker 1: speaks of Medici as bringing with him to Palermo in
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  Speaker 1: June eight thousand carben rigate or English rifles. But in
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  Speaker 1: a footnote on the same page the lists supplied by Gustalla,
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  Speaker 1: the secretary of the Million Rifles Fund, we read of
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  Speaker 1: four thousand, eight hundred fifty Fakili Francesse, two hundred carbine enfield,
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  Speaker 1: two hundred faduci de liigre. Now, the word fuccili may
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  Speaker 1: either mean rifles or smooth bores. Seven Finci, a director
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  Speaker 1: of the Million Rifles Fund, in his letter of September
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  Speaker 1: sixth eighteen sixty nine, says that the directors had given
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  Speaker 1: the preference to French Fuccili model of eighteen forty one two,
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  Speaker 1: which that government had abandoned, but which had done good
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  Speaker 1: service in the campaign of eighteen fifty nine. Besides fuccili
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  Speaker 1: of the Prussian Army, which had also been changed, the
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  Speaker 1: directors had also obtained a good number of Karbini and
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  Speaker 1: Austrian rifles, besides two thousand new infield Karabini. This leads
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  Speaker 1: me to suppose that the statement in Gersoni's note about
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  Speaker 1: two hundred infields is a misprint for two thousand, especially
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  Speaker 1: as in that case the numbers four thousand, eight hundred
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  Speaker 1: fifty plus two thousand plus two hundred would amount to
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  Speaker 1: something near the eight thousand spoken of in Gersoni's text.
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  Speaker 1: Later in his letter, Finci speaks of two hundred excellent
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  Speaker 1: Austrian rifles and three thousand, seven hundred forty four Prussian
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  Speaker 1: fucili as the property of the fund eight. Medici himself,
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  Speaker 1: in his letter to Garibaldi, uses the ambiguous term eight
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  Speaker 1: thousand fucili, but he speaks of ten thousand fucci imolte
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  Speaker 1: munizioni altre les carbini enfield destin nati ademari lamas peedizioni
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  Speaker 1: over and above the enfield rifles destined to an army
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  Speaker 1: my own expedition, which consisted of twenty five hundred men. Nine.
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  Speaker 1: In the letters of the ministers to Di at Zelio
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  Speaker 1: about the weapons in the million rifles frond Armory at Milan,
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  Speaker 1: the ambiguous word fuchili is employed. Ten after the Battle
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  Speaker 1: of Mulazzo, the British steamer Queen of England brought to
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  Speaker 1: Garibaldi's camp at Faro on August fifteenth, a few days
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  Speaker 1: before he crossed the Straits of Messina, twenty three thousand
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  Speaker 1: and five hundred Enfield rifles from England in one thousand,
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy five cases and several rifled cannon.
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  Speaker 1: This bears out Times August twenty third, page nine, c four,
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  Speaker 1: and Forbes one forty one. The rifled cannon were not
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  Speaker 1: used in Calabria, but there there were rifled cannon at
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  Speaker 1: the Volturno on both sides. Putting together these various pieces
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  Speaker 1: of evidence, I am inclined to believe that Medicis and
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  Speaker 1: Kozin's men and Dune's regiment were at the Battle of
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  Speaker 1: Mulazzo armed with good rifles which they had not yet
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  Speaker 1: learned to use properly, but that most of Eber's column
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  Speaker 1: and a great many of the Sicilians and subsequently the
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  Speaker 1: Calabrians were armed with smooth boars and of Appendix E