Page 20 - Montana Freemason Feb 13

Montana Freemason February 2013
Guisseppe Garibaldi - Patriot - Mason
Everett L. Lynn (3,51)
True idealist and indomitable individualist;
internationalist and most successful guerilla
general of all time; professional rebel and national
hero of Italy; Guisseppe Garibaldi first saw the light
of day in Nice, France on July 4, 1807.
As both son and grandson of ship’s captains he
followed the call of great oceans and foreign lands
when he went to sea at the age 15. By 1832 he had
acquired a masters certificate as a merchant captain.
While a member of Mazzini’s “Young Italy”
movement, a secret revolutionary society, he
participated in an unsuccessful insurrection of
the Piedmont-Sardinia navy at Genoa in 1834.
Condemned to death in absentia, he escaped to South
America where in 1835 he offered his sword to Brasil’s
rebellious province Rio Grande Do Sul and fought
on their behalf until 1840 which marked a series of
victories by the Brazilians.
Following the cause of freedom he became
associated with Uraguay’s quarrel with Argentina. By
1843 he was in command of the Italian Legion, his
first “Redshirts” at Montevidio. The battle of Sant’
Antonio in 1846 and the defense of Montevidio by
the “Invincibles” in 1847 catapulted him to fame as
“the Hero of Montevidio”. His renown as a guerilla
warfare leader and a romantic adventurer was further
romanticised in Europe by Alexander Dumas, Pere,
and was considered an important factor in gaining
Uraguay’s independence.
The year 1848 found Europe aflame with revolution.
Garibaldi returned then with 60 of his redshirts to fight had come to deliver them from slavery and feudalism.
for the resorgimento or resurrection of Italy against
Austria. Refused by Pope Pius IX and Charles Albert,
King of Piedmont, he led his volunteers to Milan with
Mazzini and continued the war after Charles Albert’s
defeat at Custoza, engaging the Austrians victoriously
at Luino and Morazzone. Eventually outnumbered he
retreated to Switzerland.
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A general in the shortlived Roman Republic of 1849,
he led the valiant defence against the French attack
at Janiculum Hill and the Neopolitians at Velletri.
Further resistance became futile when Pious IX was
returned to power. Garibaldi with his insurgents were
pushed over the mountains to neutral San Marino.
His courage and determination not to surrender in
his epic retreat acclaimed him as “the Hero of Two
Worlds”.
After a second exile in Tangiers, Staten Island, New
York and Peru, he was allowed to return to Italy in 1854
by Compte di Cavour, Prime Minister of Piedmont,
trying to lure him from the influence of the republican
Mazzini. A major general in the Piedmontese army
he led in April 1859 his Cacciatory Delle Alpi
(alpine huntsmen) in the acquisition of Lombardy
by Piedmont, but was unsupported by Victor
Emmanuel II in his desire to invade the papal states.
Feeling betrayed by Cavour and Victor Emmanuel
when they bargained Nice back to France, Garibaldi
became ungovernable. A popular revolution in Sicily
encouraged him to embark on his greatest venture of
his life. On May 11, 1860 he sailed from Genoa with
1,000 men to Marsala, Sicily. By successive victories
at Calatafimi, Palermo, and the battle of Milazzo,
Sicily was secured giving convincing proof that he
could defeat the regular soldiers of Naple’s army. His
success was augmented by an irresistable personal
charm which convinced many peasants that a god
Crossing in the strait of Messina on August 19, the
immortal Redshirts moved in a lightening campaign
through Calabria and on September 7, 1860 entered
Naples where he proclaimed himself “Dictator of the
Two Sicilies”. Such a victory was considered the most
unexpected and decisive success of the risorgimento.
The Neopolitian army was further engaged north of
Naples at the Volturno river north of Naples where
Garibaldi’s largest command of 30,000 troops was
held in check.