The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-14 00:00:00

GARIBALDI AND HIS FORCES.

The following is an extract from the letter of a corres-
pondent of the Daily News, at Autun, dated November
8 : Garibaldi came down before the train had commenced
forming, and some of his officers were disposed to be
angry ; but he checked them. " They have so much to
do," he said. General Michel, with 5,000 men, is on the
road. He seemed in good spirits, laughed when the Mayor
of Dole told him that there are two priests' seminaries at
Anhui, and when I asked him if this was a retreat, said,
" No, certainly not. The Prussians are at Dijon,
it remains to be seen whether they mean to make straight
from thence for Lyons, or come into the centre of France.
M. Gambetta wishes to have us near to him ; du reste
we are almost as far north as we were at Dole." He said
he thought the Prussians would probably occupy the
department of Jura, which does not displease me on
the whole, as they as yet have suffered nothing
pour la patrie, and assuredly were -anything but
enthusiastic in favour of its defenders. After
about a Couple of hours' lounging in the station, the enor-
mous train of 100 carriages got under weigh. I travelled
with the staff of the Italian Legion, old friends all. To
me there is somethingtouching in the fact that almost all the
officers were at Mentana ; that all are husbands and
fathers of families, which they have left for the Republic
or Garibaldi. The head of the Legion is Colonel
Taunaro, of Parma, who has been through all
the campaigns from '4B to Mcntana ; major of the
first battalion, Ciotte ; of the second, Erba—both of
"Mentana. Then we have Captain Manara, whom I
remember well visiting in the hospital on the night of
the 4th November, badly wounded. Captain Turba, of
the regular army, who sent in his resignation to join
Garibaldi in '67 ; Cecchini, aide-de-camp of Major
Erba, condemned to death with Barsanti for
the revolutionary plot of Milan—all picked men, in short,
friends and old comrades, and keenly anxious for the

honour of the Italian name in France. I have never
seen our volunteers better disciplined than in that
legion. The dismissal of Major Zagri, for the
affair of the refusal of the flintlocks, and the
sending back to the depot at Chambery some 80 or
100 of the ringleaders of the riot, was - a masterly
stroke. The Italians must take their cue from their
General. They are here, having offered their services to
the Republic ; they must submit to the terms on which
they are accepted, or go home. They looked very bright,
and proud of their Spencer rifles, which are here pre-
ferred to Chassepots, and delighted to consider
themselves Garibaldi's guard of honour, as he
only brought up this Legion of Tannaro and
his choice company of Genoese. That company, of which
each man is a veteran, commanded by all officers "of the
thousand," will leave a name in France if only we get the
chance, depend upon it ! Certainly the whole number
she wed their discipline yesterday in uttering no
complaint though they were left thirty hours
without food. Each man is paid a franc per
day, and caters for himself ; but along the rail for
1,000 men to supply their wants at the buffets
was impossible. So the telegraphic order had been sent
to the mayors to prepare 1,000 rations of bread and wine
at Bourg. We arrived there at 1 p.m., travelling
very slowly owing to the length of the train. Not
a crumb nor a drop. Nothing prepared even for
the General, who, however, thanks to Basso, and
a capital orderly of Friuli "Eugenio," wants for
nothing (poor Maurizio of '66 and '67 is dead). Some of
us managed to get a little hot bread and water called
potage, and some slices of very fair boiled ham, but the
miracle of the loaves and fishes would have been required
to feed the multitude. At Macon we hoped for better fare,
and I was pleased to see all the officers, from the colonel
to the captain, busy themselves to obtain supplies.
But nothing was prepared. The mayor promised to s end
rations within half an hour, but the station-master said we
must start at once or wait three hours, and to this delay
Garibaldi would not consent. So on we went, and, to
their credit be it said, none of the officers went to the
buffet, saying that they should be ashamed for

their soldiers to bee them there. At Moores the train
stopped; we are told that the bridge between that and
the next station was broken. By whom? asked Garibaldi.
By the "Civil Engineers." His face clouded over, but
he said nothing; this passion of the French for bridge-
breaking is his nightmare.