Giuseppe Sirtori

Sirtori during the campaign in southern Italy, 1860

Giuseppe Sirtori (born April 17, 1813 in Monticello Brianza , † September 18, 1874 in Rome ) was an Italian soldier, freedom fighter and politician who fought in the Italian Wars of Independence .

Life

Early time

Sirtori was born in 1813 in a hamlet of Casatevecchio (Casatenovo) in the Lombardy province of Lecco north of Milan into a middle-class family with seven children. Intended for an ecclesiastical career, he passed the exams at the Monza seminary with honors and was ordained a priest in 1838 . He studied first at the Merate College under Father Somaschi and later at the College in Gorla Minore . During these years he also came into contact with the ideas of the national masterminds Cesare Correnti, Carlo and Alessandro Porro, who denounced a well-founded criticism of the Austrian supremacy in Italy and aimed for Italy's national unification. In 1842 he received permission from the ecclesiastical authority to go to Paris to deepen his studies in theology and philosophy at the Sorbonne . After his parents' death in 1844, he returned to his native Monticello and had a difficult inheritance battle with the older brothers. His rights to the family property were given too little pension, so he returned to Paris. The impression of the Parisian February Revolution ( February 22–24, 1848), which led to the overthrow of King Louis-Philippe I , made him return to Italy and achieve the unification of Italy with the help of the revolution.

In the revolution of 1848/49

In Italy a constitution was wrested from the rulers on February 11th in Florence, on March 4th in Turin and on March 14th in Rome. Sirtoni only arrived in Lombardy after the five-day revolt in Milan (March 18-22) and became an ardent supporter of Mazzini . The Lombard Volunteer Legion was organized until May 12th, the missing cadre was chosen from within its own ranks. Because of his eloquence and recent experience, Sirtori was chosen as one of the new captains. Sirtori's Lombard battalion was dispatched by the Provisional Government of Milan to defend Venice.

On August 11, 1848, news of the armistice from Salasco reached Venice . Sirtori began as a Piedmontese representative to prepare the city for the defense, but was stopped by the dictator Daniele Manin to surrender the city to the Austrians. When the news of the proclamation of the Roman Republic (March 11, 1849) arrived, Venice tried again to revolt against the Austrians. After the Piedmontese had defeated in the Battle of Novara and Brescia surrendered, Venice remained the last hot spot.

The Lombard Volunteers Legion and General Pepe gathered in the fortified camp of Conche, west of Chioggia , together with the officers Ulloa, Cosenz and Baldisserotto, Sirtori took part in the defense of Venice. He excelled in the defense of Marghera and was with Ulloa among the last to leave the fort to ensure the evacuation of the wounded. On August 6th, Manin approved negotiations on the surrender. After the fall of the city, over 600 fighters were evacuated by the French fleet by August 24th. Sirtori was registered as "Priest Lombard" and brought to Corfu, where the evacuees were cured in the local hospital because of the cholera epidemic that had raged in Venice.

Parisian exile

Sirtori fled to Paris again and saw with indignation how the Second Republic had already been undermined by Napoleon Bonaparte . In Lausanne he met with Mazzini, to whom he was fanatical, and became a member of a committee initiated by Mazzini in Genoa , where he agreed with the leaders Medici, Bixio and Cairoli . Although the Mazzini uprising in Milan on February 6, 1853 failed quickly, Sirtori made a first attempt to overthrow the Bourbons in Naples in 1855 from Paris. Lucian Murat , the son of the former King Joachim , was hired to overthrow King Ferdinand II of Naples . The coup took place with the approval and support of Napoleon III, but was rejected by most of the exiled Italian patriots (Manin, Mazzini) as a major blow to national unity. Prince Murat visibly annoyed the unclear situation and meanwhile broke with the completely torn Sirtori, who himself had to be imprisoned for three days by the French authorities as a "madman" in Bicetre. At the time, however, this political scandal was only known by rumors. It was not until the spring of 1859 that a new chance opened up for the restless Sirtori. He wanted to register as a simple Piedmontese soldier, but the break with Mazzini and the French prevented him from doing so. So he could not take part in the liberation of Como and San Fermo under the freedom fighter Garibaldi .

Campaign in southern Italy

In March 1860 he was elected as deputy of the Parliament of Turin to the University of Missaglia and elected as a representative of the province of Como, which also began his political activity. When General Garibaldi began preparing the expedition of the Thousand Red Shirt Volunteers to Sicily in April, the now 47-year-old Sirtori also accompanied the enterprise, which started in Genoa on the evening of May 5, 1860. After landing at Marsala , Garibaldi organized several columns. One led Bixio, the other Carini, Sirtori and Türr each served as chief of staff and advisors. Sirtori's column marched to Calatafimi , where a victory was fought on May 15, 1860, and he was wounded in the leg. On May 29, during the uprising in Palermo, an armistice request from the Bourbon General Lanza arrived, which ended the fighting. Sirtori was appointed general by Garibaldi after the victory at Milazzo and received dictatorial power in Sicily as Secretary of State for War in the government of Vincenzo Orsini on July 22nd in Palermo. But Sirtori remained de facto Chief of Staff of the Voluntary Liberation Army and, after the transition to the mainland, took part in the Battle of the Volturno on October 1 as commander of the Neapolitan Reserve Division . His troops marched towards Caserta and blocked the approach of enemy reinforcements. After Garibaldi's personal retreat to his domicile on Caprera , Sirtori became leader of the Voluntary Legion on November 11, 1860, but the task of merging it with the Italian army was so unfavorable that the legion itself dissolved. Sirtori joined the royal army, on June 12, 1861 he was given the command of the Military Order of Italy and in March 1862 he was promoted to lieutenant general. On December 22nd, 1862, the parliamentary commission in Palermo elected the new military commanders against banditry. General Cosenz became prefect of Bari, General de Medici military commander in Palermo. Sirtori was appointed as the agent for Catanzaro, with the task of eliminating the gangs of robbers who were overpowering in Calabria. His operations, which began in December 1862, also led to some successes.

In the last war of independence

Monument to Giuseppe Sirtori, Milan

In 1866, when the Third War of Independence broke out, Sirtori was appointed commander of the 5th Division (Brigade Valtellina and Brigade Brescia) deployed in the I Corps of Giovanni Durando on June 24th at the center of the Battle of Custozza . Thrown back by the Austrian Corps Rodich over the Tione to Santa Lucia, his division withdrew to Valeggio and behind the Mincio , covering Colonel Bonelli's artillery in the process . After the battle in which General Durando was wounded, he wanted to take command of the 1st Army Corps, but La Marmora transferred it to the older General Pianell, a former officer of the Bourbons. He tried to disguise his leadership errors in the battle because of the lack of support from the 1st Division under General Cereale operating near Oliosi . Ernesto Moneta, his chief of staff, tried unsuccessfully to stop him from doing this. La Marmora withdrew his divisional command from him and disciplinary proceedings were initiated against him. Struck in his pride, Sirtori resigned from the Savoy army.

It was only when another veteran of Custozza, General Govone rose to Minister of War in 1870 , that he was rehabilitated on December 12, 1871 and appointed commander of the military division in Alexandria. Sirtori died in Rome in 1874 and was buried in the Famedio cemetery in Milan. On June 5, 1892, a monument by Enrico Butti was erected in his honor in the city park of Milan .

Web links

• Biography on www.treccani.it/enciclopedia
• Entry in the Portale storico of the Camera dei deputati