GARIBALDI, GIUSEPPE

Italian military and nationalist leader; b. Nice, France, July 4, 1807; d. Caprera Island, near Sardinia, June 2, 1882. After receiving a Catholic upbringing, he went to sea as a youth and came into contact with exiles and conspirators. By 1832 he was certified as a ship's captain. While a member of the Young Italy movement of Mazzini, he joined the Sardinian navy (1833) and plotted to seize the frigate "Euridice" and occupy the arsenal in Genoa. For his involvement in this abortive conspiracy he was condemned to death. He escaped and went to South America, where he fought in behalf of Brazil's rebellious province of Rio Grande do Sul. From 1841 to 1847 he assisted Uruguay in its war against Argentina, organizing an Italian legion in Montevideo. This experience in guerrilla warfare proved very useful to him in Italy, to which he returned during the revolution of 1848 and led a volunteer army against Austria in the struggle to unify Italy. After the Italian defeat at Custozza, Garibaldi became the general for the forces of the short-lived Roman Republic against the Neapolitans at Palestrina and Velletri and against the French at San Pancrazio. When the republic collapsed he went into exile, landing in New York in 1850 and then following the sea as a sailor (1851–54).

Garibaldi returned to Piedmont in 1854 and purchased half of the barren island of Caprera, off the coast of Sardinia, and made his home there. During the Austro-Sardinian War (1859) he commanded a successful volunteer army (Cacciatori delle Alpi ) against the Austrians. Garibaldi's conquest of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was his most famous exploit. Despite the strong disapproval of cavour, Garibaldi and his Red Shirts invaded Sicily and defeated General Landi at Calatafimi (May 15, 1860). Suppressing his animosity toward the Church, Garibaldi participated in religious exercises and impressed the Sicilians as a defender of Catholicism. He entered Naples in September, but upon the arrival of Victor Emmanuel II in November, he surrendered his dictatorial position and retired to Caprera. When the Civil War erupted in the U.S., Abraham Lincoln offered him the command of a corps in the Union army but Garibaldi refused to accept unless the President appoint him supreme commander and abolish slavery. In 1862 Garibaldi led a march on Rome that was halted by royal troops at Aspromonte. He defeated the Austrians in several engagements in northern Italy during the Austro-Prussian War (1866). A renewed attempt by Garibaldi to overthrow the states of the church met defeat at Mentana (Nov. 2, 1867). In the Franco-Prussian War he served with the French.

Garibaldi devoted his later years to revising his autobiography, composing irreligious novels, and engaging in other literary activities. His religion was a vague compound of deism, pantheism, and what he called the religion of humanity. Bitter anticlericalism was characteristic of his outlook to the close of his life. His political testament explicitly repudiated the priesthood. Although he was a member of every Italian parliament, except one, elected after 1860, he rarely occupied his seat because of his scorn for legislative assemblies, at least as they functioned in Italy. His own preference was for temporary dictatorship. He possessed a keen sense of justice and identified himself with the common man. As a military leader he was noted for his valor and ability. For his services in the risorgimento he is honored as a national hero of Italy.

Bibliography: g. garibaldi, Edizione nazionale degli scritti di Giuseppe Garibaldi, 6 v. (Bologna 1932–37); Autobiography, ed. a. werner, 3 v. (London 1889). g. sacerdote, La vita di Giuseppe Garibaldi (Milan 1933). d. mack smith, Garibaldi (New York 1956).

[e. a. carrillo]