The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-04 00:00:00

GENERAL. •CIALDLNI.

A letter from Mola Di Gaeta, dated Feb. 22,
says :—An artist came yesterday to head quarters
at Mola to take a photograph of General Cialdini
and his staff. I wish it were in my power to give
you a pen-and-ink sketch of these gallant fellows,
and especially of their leader, a man who has
already filled several pages in the book of his
country's history, and has now, by his able man-
agement of this siege, added lustre .to his name,
achieving what might seem a fit conclusion to the
career of many a man of less lofty aspirations, but
which, as the General is still in the prime of man-
hood, may perhaps turn out to be the prelude to
still nobler deeds.

Enrico Cialdini, born at Reggio, was sent for his
studies to Parma, at the time that this latter town,
under the auspices of Maria Louisa, in the early
part of her reign, was looked upon as an oasis of
lax, if not liberal Government, in the midst of the
gloom of tyranny which overshadow(' all Italy.
Young Cialdini turned his mind to the cultiva-
tion of the fine arts and poetry, and would, in all
probability, had nothing interfered with his natu-
ral progress—as he belonged to a family in inde-
pendent circumstances—have added one more to the
many harmless but useless dreamers, vapid draughts-
men, and insipid sonneteers who made up the accont-
' plished class in old Italy. Luckily for himself, and
still more for his country, the political movements
of 1831 found him still in the age of primitive en-
thusiasm. He girt on a sword for the cause of
Italy, and wore it with such youthful delight
that he determined never to lay it aside for his life-
time. He went to Spain in quest of adventures,
distinguished himself not only by the most bril-
liant valour, but also by a political tact which en-
abled him to steer safely and honourably through
the many storms in which some of his less cautious
companions perished, and came back to Italy laden
with honours and preceded by a high and most spot-
less renown. In Italy, in 1848 and 1849, he was
invariably at the head of the most dashing exploits.
Severely wounded at Vicenza, struggling with death
for three months, a bosom friend rather than a pri-
soner of war of the Austrian General Schonhals, who
hardly ever quitted his bedside, he returned at
the peace—the theme of popular songs, the hero of
the multitude. His achievements in 1859, in the
vanguard of the Franco-Sardinian army, his feats at
Castelfidardo and Ancona, are too fresh in men's
memory for me even to allude to them. Although
Fanti commanded in chief, and Della Rocca, Sonnaz,
and others had a noble share in the enterprise, still
the campaign of the Marches and the subjugation
and pacification of Naples will always justly be
looked upon as the peculiar exploit of the conqueror
of Ancona and Gaeta. La Marmora may insist on
more strict obedience; Garibaldi may arouse a
readier enthusiasm ; but Cialdini best knows how
to rely equally on the fear and the love of his sol-
diers. I believe I said in one of my former letters
how, whether he was a captain, a major, a colonel,
or a general, Cialdini invariably brought to muster
the best disciplined and most willing and ready
company, battalion, regiment, brigade, or division.
A poet and an artist still in his tastes, gentle,
refined, affable in his address, cordial, affectionate,
ever good-humoured with his friends and even his
subalterns, he has all that outward show of chival-
rous courtesy that history or romance attributes
to Claverhouse ; but no one who knows him doubts
that he can, in need, be terribly in earnest, and
that it is no sane or safe counsel so to thwart him as
to rouse his stormy anger. He walks straight to
his goal; no man would be less capable of a deed
of wanton cruelty, or even objectless severity ; but
no man would less shrink from any act of rigour by
which necessary discipline could be enforced, or
from any strong measure by which success might
be more readily or more fully obtained.
All the sternest, and, still more, the most amiable
features in this great character have had full oppor-
tunity to show themselves during the vicissitudes
of the siege now drawn to a close, He had to deal
with an enemy intended by nature to be, and likely
eventually to become, a brother; he had to divest
a patriotic war of all the horrors inseparable from a
civil contest ; he had to foil the petty wiles, the
base falsehoods of his immediate adversaries; he
had to menager the fastidious and umbrageous sus-
ceptibilities of a slippery and overbearing ally, to
' resist the demands of more or less openly hostile
Powers ; he had to compound with that fickle
chameleon which is called public opinion in Europe.
He had to do all this, and had at the same time, and
above all things, to acquit himself of the most
immediate task before him, which was to conquer,
to conquer quickly, to conquer fully.
There would be nothing in the world to compare
with the invidiousness, the downright perfidy and
lying effrontery of the Neapolitan generals—their
Royal Commander-in• Chief, Francis II:, not ex-
cepted—unless it were the forbearance, good oat ure,
and yet firmness with which the leaders of the be-
sieging forces met and actually baffled their wiles.
They appealed to him in the name of humanity, agaiu
and again asking for a few days' i espite to bury the
dead, remove the wounded, &c. He granted their
request on the sole condition that the breach
should remain as it was ; he came to their rescue to
extentmthedieeiees i theof pselnaedeinwges i
ice, leeches, lneeeecdhese,taannddatlhl
eoythe
u w
re-
quitted his patience and generosity by uselessbh eenrge
n-
dweals
bothaTo.ursEtvoenstwohpe'eup
reduced to the mere heap of ruins we now behold,
the King, who bad hoisted the white flag, asked for
a fortnight's armistice to " treat about the
gapston and in
their
fortress crumbling
bout the terms
of surrender;" but the harsh, because provident,
t
surgeon would no longer be tampered with, but
going on with his wholesome opera-
tion ; the cannon fired without intermission while
the negotiations were pending, and the last shot
was fired precisely as the parlenzentaires drew the
last stroke of the pen which signed the capitula.
tion. •

General Cialdini's staff consists of young men
chiefly belonging to the best families of Northern
and Central Italy : the names most frequently
heard among them are San Marsano of Piedmont,
Borromeo of Lombardy, Serristori of Tuscany, and
the like. More honourable feelings or more gen-
tlemanly manners, a happier blending of soldierly
assurance and youthful modesty, than are to be
seen among this new generation of Italian warriors,
I should be at a loss where to find; they make but
one family With their General and with their sub-
alterns down to the meanest private. If the
Italian nation ever comes to as full and hearty a,
fusion as their army has already attained, those
European Powers who befriended, or at least
allowed the emancipation of Italy, will never have
reason to repent their deed.

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