The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-22 00:00:00

GENERAL CIALDINL

M. Petrucelli della Gattina, a well-known Melll.
her of the Italian Parliament, supplies to the Press&
an interesting biographical sketch of Gen. Cialdini:
—" General Cialdini has undertaken a difficult task
—to carry on the Dictatorship with kid gloves, and
to succeed notwithstanding, lie is on ly 17 yeare ol age
and is a ' General in the Artny'—t hat is to say, equal
in rank to a French Marshal. All his steps have
been won on the field by hard fighting. Enrico
Cialdini is a Modenese. At the age of 16 he
marched with General Zuechi to aid the Romagna
insurrection at Bologna in 1831. After the Aus-
trian intervention in Central Italy he was obliged to
emigrate. His father had been arrested, and was
poisoned by slow doses of belladonna in the dun-
goons of the Duke of Modena. Cialdini went to
Paris, where he studied chemistry under M. Tre-
nerd, and was preparing to study medicine when a
proposal was made to him to go to Spain. The pro-
spect of a pair of epaulets tempted him. He went
and took part in the war of succession, and the revo-
lution of 1848 found him a lieutenant-colonel in the
Spanish service. Mazzini knows where, in any part
of the world, an Italian of courage is to be found.
He gave the name of Cialdini to the Provisional
Government of Milan, which was in want of officers,
and a letter from the secretary of that government
found him out in Aragon. Cialdini obeyed the call,
but on arriving at Milan he found the state of affairs
changed. Lombardy had given herself up to King
Charles Albert, and governed herself in his name.
It was not the moment for hesitating ; the King had
just been beaten, and Italy was about to fall once
more into the clutches of Austria. Cialdini enrolled
himself in-the corps of Gen. Durando; he marched
on Vicenza, and there received three wounds, sup-
posed at the time to be mortal. He was, therefore,
for a year reduced to a state of helplessness. The
fate of Italy had been decided at Novaro and Rome,
and it was necessary for him to again return to
Spain. Cialdini wrote to the Piedmontese Minister
of War, ' You have more officers than you can find
employment for, and as I am ashamed to be a bur-
den to you without doing anything, and to go on
half-pay at 40, I intend resuming my post in the
Spanish army. You will find me there when Italy
requires my services' The Minister replied by these
words—' Don't go.' Then came the expedition to
the Crimea. Cialdini went there with the rank of
general, and at the battle of the Tchernaia showed
what he was worth. In 1859 Cialdini was the first
in the allied army who fired a shot on the enemy,
executing the passage of the Sesia under the fire of
the Austrians, whom he drove from their position.
This corps d'artnee then went into the mountains to
act in the Tyrol. The peace of Villafranca checked
him in his career. In 1860 he defeated the army of
Lamoriciere, and gained the battle of Castelfidardo ;
and in 1861 he took Gaeta in 17 days, for the 50
days which preceded the bombardment were ex-
pended in the construction of the necessary works.
Fifteen days after Cialdini also took the citadel of
Messina. He had been made a Major-General after
the campaign of the Umbria, and the King nomi-
nated him General of the Army after Messina.
Cialdini is tall, slight, and of distinguished coun-
tenance. He unites the frank manners of a soldier
with the urbanity of a gentleman. He does not
know what hesitation means. He likes to overcome
obstacles by force rather than by delay. Time, in
his opinion, is so valuable that he sometimes carries
rapidity to the length of imprudence. His line is a
direct one, not only because it is the shortest, but the
frankest, and sometimes the boldest. His life has
been almost a continuous series of successes—fortune
has smiled on him and circumstances have favoured
him; but nothing has made him lose that evenness
of temper owing to which his brilliant career, fez
from creating him enemies even in the army, liras
given him only rivals who are friends at the game
time. In Spain he has only left comrades who, regret
him. His famous outburst against General Garibaldi
was forgotten in half an hour after, and as soon as he
shook hands with the General he regretted it. The
Legitimist and Ultrarnontnne journals represent him
as a sanguinary mate and yet in no civil war were
so many prisoners spared, even brigands taken with
arms in their hands, and whom he was entitled to
shoot on the spot."