Garibaldi, Giuseppe (1807–1882)

Giuseppe Garibaldi (b. 4 July 1807; d. 2 June 1882), Italian revolutionary and patriot. Garibaldi was born in Nice (then in Italy), son of Domenico Garibaldi, a sailor, and Rosa Ragiundo. A member of Giuseppe Mazzini's Young Italy, he was forced to flee the country because of his revolutionary activities. After arriving in Rio de Janeiro in 1836, he supported the revolutionary movement in Rio Grande do Sul as a privateer. Garibaldi was wounded during a naval engagement with Uruguayan lighters. After obtaining medical treatment at Gualeguay, Argentina, he returned to Rio Grande to fight alongside the rebels.

In 1841 Garibaldi and Ana María Ribeiro da Silva, a native of Santa Catarina, arrived in Montevideo, with their son Menotti. There they were married (16 June 1842) and had two more children, Riccioti and Teresita. For a few months Garibaldi was a business agent and a history and mathematics instructor; then he assumed command of President Fructuoso Rivera's small navy of five ships. His attempt to challenge Buenos Aires's control of the rivers failed when his ships were destroyed at Costa Bravo by Admiral William Brown on 15 August 1842, marking the end of Rivera's naval power. Garibaldi escaped overland to Montevideo.

During Manuel Oribe's siege of Montevideo, Garibaldi, who held the rank of colonel, organized the Italian Legion of 600 men and a small fleet to protect the port. He successfully kept the bay of Montevideo free of the enemy. In 1844 he commanded one of the three columns that General José María Paz led in an assault on Oribe's position in Cerrito. In 1845 he commanded a fleet of three ships with a landing force of 700 men of the Italian Legion, 200 Montevideo infantrymen under Colonel Lorenzo Batlle, and 100 cavalrymen. Escorted by an Anglo-French squadron, he took and sacked Gualeguaychú, Colonia, and Salto.

Upon returning to Montevideo, Garibaldi was promoted to general (16 February 1846), and briefly commanded the forces defending the city. In August 1847 he returned to Europe to resume his fight for Italian unification. After his defeat in Rome by French forces (1849), he lived in Tangier, New York, Sardinia, and finally Caprera. He resumed his struggle for Italian unification in 1856. Four years later, after the death of Ana María, he married the Marchioness Giuseppina Raimondi. That year, encouraged by the Sardinian minister Camillo Cav-our, he went to the aid of the Sicilian revolutionaries. Garibaldi landed at Marsala, and from there went on to capture Palermo and Messina and to establish a provisional government. His dream finally was realized when Italian troops entered Rome in 1870. His I Mille (1874) is an account of his campaigns. Garibaldi and his sons fought for France in the Franco-Prussian War. After a brief term as national deputy, he returned to Caprera, where he wrote two novels and his Memorie Autobiografiche (Garibaldi: An Autobiography, 1860). He married Francisca Armorino in 1880 and died at Caprera.

See alsoPaz, José María; Rivera, Fructuoso.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Jacinto R. Yaben, "Garibaldi, G." in Biografiás argentinas y sudamericanas, vol. 2 (1938), pp. 747-751.

Vicente O. Cutolo, "Garibaldi," in Nuevo diccionario biográfico argentino, 1750–1930, vol. 3 (1971), pp. 263-265.

Fernando Del Corro, El Diario (Paraná), 23 September 1980. In English see Theodore Dwight, The Life of General Garibaldi, Translated from His Private Papers; with the History of His Splendid Exploits in Rome, Lombardy, Sicily, and Naples, to the Present Time. (1877); Autobiography of Giuseppe Garibaldi, translated by A. Warner, with a supplement by Jessie White Mario, 3 vols. (1889); The Memoirs of Garibaldi, edited by Alexandre Dumas, translated with an introduction by R. S. Garnett, with contributions by George Sand and Victor Hugo. (1931).

Peter De Polnay, Garibaldi: The Man and the Legend. (1961).

David Glass Larg, Giuseppe Garibaldi (1934).

John Lynch, Argentine Dictator: Juan Manuel de Rosas, 1829–1852 (1981), pp. 193, 275, 280.

Ysabel F. Rennie, The Argentine Republic (1945), p. 60.

Additional Bibliography

Arellano, Jorge Eduardo. Giuseppe Garibaldi, héroe de dos mundos, en Nicaragua. Managua: Ediciones del siglo/JEA, 1999.

Gradenigo, Gaio. Italianos entre Rosas y Mitre. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Ediliba, 1987.

Mello, Arnaldo Vieira de. Os corsários nas guerras do Brasil e o dramático batismo de fogo de Garibaldi. Rio de Janeiro: Sialul-Consultores Associados, 1992.

                                      Joseph T. Criscenti