GARIBALDI THE HEART OF ITALY .( Viva Lippi and the "azzurri" who gave their all)

starting French army setting out for  for Italy

The King's instinct told him that his young daughter, pious and simple and destitute  would derive no compensation from the marraige.french engineers vital for the pontoon bridges in Italy

French Minie rifle

Apart from bullets italian plonk awaited the French soldiers

When the king was persuaded of the importance of the marraige , he said to Cavour: 'I am making a great sacrifice, but I yield to your arguments.
Still my consent is subordinate to the freely given consent of my daughter.' The matter was referred to the Princess, who answered: 'It is the wish of my father; therefore this marriage will be useful to my family and my country, and I accept.' The marriage was celebrated at Turin in January.

Hubner

Though warlike rumours circulated off and on, the secret of the understanding arrived at in the Plombières interview was well preserved, and the words spoken by Napoleon to the Austrian Ambassador at the New Year's Day reception fell on Europe with the effect of a bombshell.
Turning to Baron Hubner, he said: 'Je regrette que les relations entre nous soient si mauvaises; dîtes cependant à votre souverain que mes sentiments pour lui ne sont pas changés
Even Cavour was startled. Probably till that moment he had never felt sure that Napoleon would not after all throw the Italian cause to the winds.
 The Emperor's invariable method in dealing with men was to mystify them. He was pleased to pose as a faithful ally, but human intellect was insufficient to fathom what he meant.

Austrian artillery 1859


 Now  there did appear a chance of Italy making herself a free nation.
 Each student of history may answer for himself.
What is plain is, that France and Sardinia together were to find it an exceedingly hard task even to drive the Austrians out of Lombardy.

Hungarian infantry

Mazzini  knew  that the bargain of Plombières was on the principle of give-and-take.
How Mazzini was for many years better informed than any cabinet in Europe, remains a secret. 'I know positively,' he wrote on the 4th of January 1859, 'that the idea of the war is only to hand over a zone of Lombardy to Piedmont, and the cession of Savoy and Nice to France: the peace, upon the offer of which they count, would abandon the whole of Venetia to Austria.'
 A month before this he had disclosed what was certainly true, namely, that Napoleon wanted to place a Murat on the throne of Naples, and to substitute Prince Napoleon for the Grand Duke of Tuscany.
 The point that is doubtful in the above revelation is the statement that the Emperor never meant to emancipate Venetia.
The probabilities are against this. He may, however, have questioned all along whether his troops, with those of the King of Sardinia, would display a superiority over the Austrian forces sufficiently incontestable for him to risk taking them into the mouse-trap of the Quadrilateral.
 In this one thing Napoleon was amply justified—in having no sort of desire to take a beaten army back to Paris.

Garibaldi, the man who of all others most nearly represented the heart of Italy, rejoiced and was glad that the french were coming.but he did not believe a word about the proposed cession of Savoy and Nice; no one did, except Mazzini and his few disciples.

Caprera

In December 1858, on a summons from Cavour, he left Caprera (the island which he had bought with a little inheritance falling to him on the death of his brother) and proceeded to Turin, where he was informed of a plan for a rising in Massa and Carrara, which was originally intended to be the signal of the war.
The plan was given up, but in March 1859, Garibaldi was told by Victor Emmanuel in person of the imminence of war, and was invited to take part in it as commander of an auxiliary corps of volunteers which took the name of 'Cacciatori delle Alpi.'
In this way, all his own followers, not only those in arms, but the great mass of the people which was obedient to his lead, became enrolled in the service of the Sardinian monarchy; a fact of capital importance in the future development of affairs.

garibaldi fighting in the south

antonini 54mm

If the uniforms of the thousand had any rules, they were possibly dependent on the ability of seamstresses and companions of volunteers. The rifles were not of a single model, but they were taken here and there where it happened.
Most were from Presidio of Telamon, and the only thing they had in common was to be defective and older than those of the Bourbon.
Others came from Savoy arsenal, but did not constitute the flower because Cavour , had ensured that Garibaldi was the most badly disarmed.
As to the artillery, well it consisted of a few cannons and an old springald. It was desperate  on paper but the great man felt more for the company  he kept.The greatest general of all.
Not being a regular army but a handful of volunteers of the most various types, the thousand had no official currency.
The quality of the clothing changed with the availability of each economic  situation and also the colors were often chosen at random.
However, some signs of recognition were in play¬– the shirt-for example-was often red with white metal buttons or they wore Yellow Hat s or a  floppy red kepi,cloth trousers were white or gray-blue. Around the neck many followers they tied a handkerchief coloured cloth as their Commander, above the shoes wore white or grey gaiters

Coma milano ltd. . whose logo  is an acronym for the founders courtesi and MAuri.

Born as firm moulding plastics, they had offices in via Ettore Ponti.

Early 1980s specializes in the manufacture of toys from the beach and after the crisis in the sector  saw an attempt to shift part of production in China.

 in 1998 an agreement cedes production to Cavallino Toys SpA.

Soldiers were produced in series 6 subjects in 6 different poses and in the 70 's were sold in a transparent plastic bag with cardboard post closure, at a price of 150 lire.

 A particular characteristic was that this milanese company was producing soldiers  in bakelite, a completely synthetic resin, introduced in 1925, already used by Lineol, that easily broke as a result of falls or shaking. Other articles: Sailors, followers of Garibaldi Bersaglieri, Alpine, Romans, Galli, astronauts etc.

Marca Stella - E.I. GARIBALDINI n. 15

Without it, the Italian kingdom could not have been formed.
And this fact was due to Cavour, who had to fight the arrayed strength of the old, narrow, military caste at Turin, which had succeeded in getting Garibaldi's sword refused in 1848, and wished for nothing in the world more than to get it refused in 1859.
THE SITUATION IS SIMILAR TO THE GOVERNMENT OF ITALY WHO THROUGH JEALOUSY DID EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER  TO MAKE SURE THE BOYS OF LIPPI DIDNT WIN THE WORLD CUP,TRAITORS ONE AND ALL!!!!
Near the end of his life, Cavour said in the Chamber that the difficulties he encountered in inducing the Sardinian War Office to sanction the appointment were all but insurmountable.

above are some paper soldiers once given away with the Childrens newspaper. The uniforms seem just.

regular artillery

Among the events celebrating the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy is a curious one, that honours the Risorgimento and visitors to bologna can find a a small little-known treasure: the National Museum of Steadfast, third in Europe for a  items and prestige: headquarters in Villa Mazzacorati, it was born at the end of the 1970s, now it  has over 140,000 pieces, of which 16,000 exposed in a permanent exhibition.
 At 17, in the Museum Hall of the Baraccano Conservatory (via Santo Stefano 119) there has been inaugurated an exhibition which brings together over a thousand soldiers, illustrating a path that goes from the Risorgimento to the first World War (timetables: 9-12 and 16-20, until 27 June).
Lead figurines Are exposed, hand-painted models, antique pewter figures papier-mache, pasta or kaolin, and modern pewter figures.
Curiosily the Association "puppet Riccardo" of the PuppetMaster Riccardo Pazzaglia shows two of his puppets, Ugo Bassi and Carlo Alberto.
 A second section, organized by the Museum of the Risorgimento, presents uniforms, books and documents for the first time , flanked by manuscripts and volumes of the archiginnasio Library.
On 12 June there opens , at the same venue, another show, presenting a wide  photographic survey of the Royal family in Bologna and surroundings.

Unfortunately, the jealousy of the heads of the regular army for the revolutionary captain never ceased.

As for Cavour, even when he opposed Garibaldi politically, he always strove to have the highest personal honour paid to the man of whom he once wrote 'that he had rendered Italy the greatest service it was possible to render her.

wargaming the war is basically one of buying mirliton pieces as they have a great selection. google them on the net and they have an english section

these are all 28mm

all above are mirliton painted by andrea






'True to his rôle of mystification, one week after the shot fired on the 1st of January, Napoleon inserted an official statement in the Moniteur to the effect that, although public opinion had been agitated by alarming rumours, there was nothing in the foreign relations of France to justify the fears these rumours tended to create. He continued on this tack, with more or less consistency, to the very verge of the outbreak of hostilities.

letter from the front 1862 by geralamo Induno one of the great painters of the war as well as his brother Domenicoinduno

'The Empire was peace,' as it was always announced to be in the intervals when it was not war; there was no more harmless dove in Europe than the person enthroned in the Tuileries.

The "General" with his hunters of the Alps

Domenico Induno's Bersaglieri of the Crimea

These assurances were given more credence than they deserved by the Conservative Cabinet then in power in England, and the British ministers believed to the last that war would be averted, to which end they strained every nerve.
 Besides the wish felt by every English government to preserve European peace, there was at this juncture, not only in the Cabinet, but in the country, so much fear of Napoleon's ambition and restlessness, that for the time being, sympathy with Italy was relegated to a second place.
Meanwhile there was no want of plainness in the language employed in Piedmont. In opening the second session of the sixth Sardinian Parliament, Victor Emmanuel pronounced, on 10th January, the historic phrase declaring that he could not remain insensible to the cry of grief, il grido di dolore, that reached him from all parts of Italy.
 .
 As Cavour had foreseen, Austria played into his hands. To Lord Malmesbury's appeal to evacuate the Roman Legations, and to use Austrian influence with the Italian princes in procuring the concession of necessary reforms,
 Count Buol replied in terms that were the reverse of obliging: 'We do not mean to abdicate our right of intervention, and if we are called upon to help the Italian sovereigns with our arms, we shall do so.
 We shall not recommend their governments to undertake any reforms. France plays the part of protectress of nationalities; we are, and shall be, protectors of dynastic rights.'
Finally, England proposed a congress with a view to general disarmament. Piedmont, counting on the madness of her adversary, risked agreement with this plan.

the english lord




















Austria gave a peremptory refusal to have anything to do with it.Cavour now asked Parliament to vote a war loan of £2,000,000, which was passed by a majority of 81 out of 151 votes.
 No foreign banker would undertake to negotiate the loan, but it was twice covered by Italian buyers, nearly all small capitalists, who put their money into it as a patriotic duty.
Amongst the few deputies who opposed the loan was the old apostle of retrogression, Count Solaro della Margherita, who raised his solitary voice against the tide of revolution; and the Savoyard the Marquis Costa de Beauregard whose speech was pathetic from the melancholy foreboding which pervaded it that the making of Italy meant the unmaking of Savoy.
 Speaking in the name of his fellow-countrymen, the Marquis reconfirmed the profound love of Savoy for her Royal House and her total lack of solidarity with the aspirations of Italy.
With time the Savoyards might have learnt to be Italians as their king had learnt to be an Italian king.
 Or they might not. Possibly the best solution would have been to join Savoy to the Swiss Confederation, though the martial instincts of the race were not favourable to their Conversion into peaceful Helvetic citizens.
 From one point of view, that of military defence, the retention of the province was of infinitely more moment to the future Italy than to little Piedmont.
Sardinia could keep the peace with France for an indefinite period; Italy cannot. What is true of Savoy is far more true of Nice. To have it in foreign keeping is to have a very partially reformed burglar inside your house.

He loved Italy above all else. Garibaldi's house in Caprera

post finishes here

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