Neapolitan Army

“ On the march to Capua Macdonald's soldiers suffered greatly from the constant rain and storms of snow, by the overflow of the mountain torrents, the destruction of all the bridges, and by the rifles of the armed peasantry, who mercilessly slew every straggler. The bravest men in the Neapolitan army were the mountain banditti; and many of these romantic desperadoes, who led armed bands, received the commission of colonel, and were decorated with knightly orders. ”

“ The Neapolitan army soon afterwards marched 124to Rome, and took possession of that city, after its evacuation by the French. The King of Naples entered in triumph, and appointed some members of the Roman nobility to form a provisional government during the absence of their sovereign. ”

“ While he was still in Naples, his troops, which had pushed northwards, sustained a repulse at Cajazzo. Emboldened by this success, the Neapolitan army at the beginning of October assumed the offensive. It was with difficulty that Garibaldi, placing himself again at the head of his forces, drove the enemy back to Capua. But the arms of Victor Emmanuel were now thrown into the scale. Crossing the Apennines, and driving before him the weak force that was intended to bar his way at Isernia, the King descended in the rear of the Neapolitan army. ”

“ At this juncture, by the intervention of an English admiral, an armistice was concluded, which led to the departure of the Neapolitan troops and war vessels and the surrender of the town to Garibaldi, who thus, with a band of 5,000 badly armed followers, had gained a signal advantage over a regular army of 25,000 men. This event had tremendous consequences, for it showed the utter hollowness of the Neapolitan government, while Garibaldi’s fame was everywhere spread abroad. The glowing fancy of the Italians beheld in him the national hero before whom every enemy would bite the dust. ”

“ Taxation in Naples was heavy, for the Neapolitans had to find the money for the war with their old dynasty, which was threatening them from Sicily, aided by the English fleet. To secure the kingdom against the Sicilians and English, a large Neapolitan army of thirty thousand troops had to be [39] maintained along with an auxiliary force of ten thousand French. Moreover, the Neapolitans had to pay for having a King like Joachim and a Queen Consort like Caroline. The royal household alone required 1,395,000 ducats per annum. ”

“ I declare to you, sir, that I place our sick, Valville the commissary of war, and the other Frenchmen who have remained at Rome, under the care of all the soldiers whom you command. If a hair of their heads be touched, it shall be a signal for the death of the whole Neapolitan army! The French Republican soldiers are not assassins; but the Neapolitan generals, the officers and soldiers who [Pg 317] were taken prisoners of war, on the day before yesterday, on the heights of Terni, shall answer with their heads for the safety of my wounded. Your summons to the commander of Fort St. ”

“ The Neapolitan army numbered from 120,000 to 130,000 men; of these 30,000 were actually in Sicily at the time the Thousand landed at Marsala, 18,000 being in and about Palermo, and the rest distributed over the island. At Salemi, Garibaldi reviewed his united forces: he had been joined by 200 fresh volunteers, and by a fluctuating mass of Sicilian irregulars, which might be estimated to consist of 2,000 men, but it increased or decreased along the road, because it was formed of peasants of the districts traversed, who did not go far from their homes. ”

“ Such, indeed, was the then critical state of affairs at Naples, that it required both the ablest heads, and the best hearts, to seize the favourable moment, already beginning to flit away, for effectually restoring loyalty and order in that devoted country. During the absence of Lord Nelson and Captain Troubridge, from Sicily and Naples, Cardinal Ruffo, with his army of twenty thousand Calabrese and other loyalists, aided by some hundred Russian troops, had defeated the Neapolitan republicans, after the evacuation of Naples by the French under General Macdonald, who succeeded to Championet ”

“ The fleet was as little to be counted on as the army.
In Naples itself all was confusion and contradiction in the Government. None of its members trusted the others or believed in the duration of the Bourbon dynasty. Years of corruption, tyranny, falsehood, and cruelty had undermined the whole system, and it fell before the storm as if by magic. Francis II determined to leave his capital. When he ordered the troops which still remained faithful to him to retreat upon Capua and Gaeta, two-thirds of the staff sent in their resignation, as did many of the officers of the Neapolitan fleet. ”

“ Chased ashore at Marsala by the Neapolitan war-ships, and narrowly escaping capture, he led his followers—one thousand red-shirted volunteers armed with obsolete muskets—into the Sicilian mountains, where he played such a game that within two months he compelled the surrender of a well-equipped army of nearly thirty thousand regulars. The history of warfare can show but few exploits so daring and so dramatic. ”

“ But the principal danger lies not so much in their power in the field as in the danger of their pernicious ideas, spreading among the disaffected in the Neapolitan kingdom with a knowledge of there being such a strong basis to rally on.
“It seems that their Majesties can put into the field an army of thirty or forty thousand fine troops, who will follow their leaders anywhere, and not only out of the battle-field, as they would certainly have to, if led by their own commanders. ”

“ A French army of about eighteen thousand men was to be quartered in Calabria, less for the purpose of enforcing the conditions of peace, than to save France the expense of supporting the troops, and to have them stationed where they might be embarked for Egypt at the shortest notice.{335} The harbours of the Neapolitan dominions were of course to be closed against the English. ”

“ The whole regular army of Naples numbered little more than forty thousand; and although bodies of Carbonari and of the so-called Militia set out to join the colours of General Pepe and to fight for liberty, they remained for the most part a disorderly mob, without either arms or discipline. The invading army of Austria, fifty thousand strong, not only possessed an immense superiority in organisation and military spirit, but actually outnumbered the forces of the defence. At the first encounter, which took place at Rieti, in the Papal States, the Neapolitans were put to the rout. ”

“ This is an argument of great force for placing Naples and the United States upon the same ground, and also for justifying efforts to put the weapon of information into the hands of equal rights, to be opposed to the stratagems of a mercenary and disciplined civil army. It is only like putting arms into the hands of the militia, and teaching them their use, for repelling the invasions of the other species of hired troops. ”

“ What a woman! She has been laying her preparations for a week, or two weeks past, and whenever it is necessary we shall take the Royal Family and treasure, I hear to the extent of two millions and a half, without ado. It only remains to save the ships, which it is doubtful if the Neapolitan marine wishes to save from the French. Naples will look after itself: it has quite enough traitors in it to make peace with any enemy. With the Court faction (some three thousand, including foreigners) embarked, no one would be hurt if the lazzaroni could keep quiet. ”

“ On the following day, the Portuguese squadron also arrived, and landed the remainder of the troops. In the mean time, the Neapolitan general refused to seize the French vessels at Leghorn, under pretence that the King of Naples was not at war with France; and the Neapolitan minister, the Duke Di Sangro, was likewise weak enough to maintain the same opinion. The vexation which these impolitic scrupulosities occasioned in the superior mind of our decided hero, is difficult to be described. ”

“ The French, in evacuating Naples, in their retreat to Caserta and Capua, robbed all the shops as they passed along: the Neapolitan republic, however, continued organizing their troops, as yet disinclined to give in; and the royalists remained inactive, probably waiting for the departure of the French out of the kingdom before they ventured to commence their operations. The band of brothers, in the mean time, who had so nobly fought off the Nile, were fast gathering fresh laurels on the Neapolitan coast; and inspiring, by their example, other naval heroes of merited celebrity. ”

“ Every coward, therefore, and that means a large proportion of the population of Naples, feels bound to be a rebel; and the little risk there might have been attached to rebellion is removed by the treachery of the Royal commanders, who, having no foreigners at their elbows, are indulging in the other Neapolitan weakness of selling their country. ”

“ Thus Naples was definitely placed in the ranks of France’s enemies, Austria agreeing to furnish thirty thousand men for Italy and Naples thirty thousand, the allied forces to be under the command of the King of Naples, or, in his absence, of the officer highest in rank in the Austrian army. ”

“ While negotiations were still in progress shots were fired. The troops now threw themselves upon the people; there was a struggle, short in duration, but sanguinary and merciless; the barricades were captured, some hundreds of the insurgents slain, and Ferdinand was once more absolute master of Naples. The Assembly was dissolved on the day after that on which it should have met. Orders were at once sent by the King to General Pepe, commander of the troops that were on the march to Lombardy, to return with his army to Naples. ”

“ Naples, 12th December.—No squadron up to the 26th of November arrived to relieve Captain Hood, who has long been in want of being re-victualled and re-fitted; a frigate and two or three gunboats are all that have arrived, when certainly not less than three sail of the line, four frigates with gun and mortar vessels, should have been sent. Egypt is the first object—and Corfu the second.
“The Neapolitan officers do not like fighting, and some are traitors, so says report.
“The oddest thing in the midst of wars and alarms, when a kingdom is tottering to its base. ”

“ The wars undertaken for the kingdom of Naples,—those wars which produced more monstrous crimes than glorious exploits, more revolts than battles, completed the corruption of the Neapolitan character, in which has always been remarked, on the one part, an inclination to shake off the yoke of present domination, and, on the other, an extreme resignation in submitting to the yoke of victory. ”

“ Dec. 6th.—The state of this country is briefly this: the army is at Rome, Civita Vecchia taken, but in the Castle of St. Angelo are 500 French troops. The French have 13,000 troops at a strong post in the Roman State, called Castellana. General Mack is gone against them with 20,000; the event in my opinion is doubtful, and on it hangs the immediate fate of Naples. If Mack is defeated, this country, in fourteen days, is lost; for the Emperor has not yet moved his army, and if the Emperor will not march, this country has not the power of resisting the French. ”

“ Naples, about the middle of ’98, was in a last state of ferment. Jacobinism threatened it within and without, the former but awaiting the advance of the French under Championnet to arise and hand over the city to its sympathisers. In September Nelson came sweeping to its sea-gates in his Vanguard; in October General Mack posted from Vienna to take command of its rabble army of resistance; in November its king led another army to Rome, nominally to restore the Pope his kingdom, and, having done some ineffective mischief, returned ingloriously, to find his capital in a state of anarchy. ”

“ Even if the course suggested were the best for Naples under the conditions, it is the property of ordinary men, in times of danger, to see difficulties more clearly than advantages, and to shrink from steps which involve risk, however promising of success. The Neapolitan Government, though cheered by the appearance of the British fleet, had to consider danger also on the land side, where it relied upon the protection of Austria, instead of trusting manfully to its own arms and the advantages of its position, remote from the centre of French power. ”

“ It is then ill-timed pleasantry to compare us with the Army of Naples, which is making war in the beautiful country of Naples, where they have bread, oil, cloth, bedclothes, society, and even that of the ladies. After having destroyed the Prussian monarchy, we are now contending against the rest of the Prussians, against the Russians, the Cossacks, the Calmucks, and against those tribes of the north which formerly overwhelmed the Roman empire. In the midst of these great fatigues, every body has been more or less sick. ”

“ At the same time Turkey was compelled by the invitation of Egypt to ally itself for once with Russia. Austria, convinced that the French did not intend to pay a fair price for the treaty of Campo Formio, also determined to renew hostilities; and Naples, exasperated by the sacrilege of a republic at Rome, and alarmed by French aggressiveness, enrolled itself in the league. The Neapolitan king, indeed, opened the war with some success, before he could receive support from his allies; but he was soon vanquished by the French, and his dominions were converted into a Parthenopean republic. ”