The Story of Garibaldi and the Italian Unification

Our brief sketch of Garibaldi and his comrades has been based, as far as possible on G. M. Trevelyan's notable trilogy—Garibaldi and the defense of Rome, Garibaldi and teh Thousand, and Garibaldi and the Making of Italy. Mr. Trevelyan's very full and highly picturesque narratives do not take in, or only cursorily, the later phases of his hero's career, in with Garibaldi appears to less advantage. Here we have been compelled to fall back on Garibaldi's autobiography, which as been satisfactorily translated by Mr. A. Werner, supplemented by Signora Mario's recital.


A legend which seems impossible but has nevertheless gained acceptance in some quarters represents Garibaldi as having been killed at Aspromonte, when a 'double' named Sganerelli, a stevedore of Genoa, was substituted for him by the chiefs of the party for political reasons. The supposed fraud has been put forward as an explanation for the Liberator's failures after 1862. The theory is not only unnecessary, but even preposterous. " 'Tis not in mortals to command success," and as it was Garibaldi's uniform experience to strive against heavy odds, it should excite no surprise that sometimes his military genius was beaten by circumstances. What is really surprising is that a man untrained in the arts of war should have accomplished such signal results, at any period of life, with such cruelly inadequate means.