The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1866-10-12
italian HerOlsm --Fate Of the
Frigate PaIestrO at the Battle
OfEdssa-Her Omcers and Crew
Devote Themselves TO Death.

FLORENCE Correspondence Of the London News1
The story eff the Palestro at the bat
tie Of LISA has been-b this time told
more or less correctly throughout Eu
@TUpe. But so was the Story of the
Vengeur, the heroic French ship which,
when hard pressed by its English enc
my, mailed its colors to the mast" and
went down with its crew, refusing to a
man to surrender or be saved, and cry
ing with their last breath, "Viue la
France !" That story was not only
told throughout Europe, but lived and
was believed, and did as good service
in the world as a lie can DO, for one or
two generations, till Mr.. Carlyle, angry
that q lie should live so flourishingly,
and continue 10 cumber the earth, took
the trouble to demolish it, and show to
the satisfaction o every body that if
indeed, the .Veugeur did go down, the
crew of that heroic ship were-and
were ready and glad to be-saved by
the %"perfdious enemies who sent their
vessel TO the bottom" II was hardly
more worth the trouble Mr.. Carlyle
took TO kill it, than it is worth while to
kill a troublesome fly in summer. 1t
is not very difficult to do; but there
are so many other flies.
But since such falehoods are foisted
into what calls itselfhistory, and live
there, II is worth while to put on record
automatically a very similar story
The Palestro, and the crew and officers
ofthat ill-fated ship, really did what
the French Of the Venguer falsely as
serted themselves to have done.
The Palestro was q steamer con-
structed in France for the Italian Gov
ernment, ofthree hundred horse power,
armed with four Armstrong guns, of
which two were eighty and two one
hundred and fifty Founders, and man
ned by two hundred and fifty men,
She was commanded by Captain Luigi
Alfredo Cappellini, a Livornese, who,
at the time of the battle, was thirty
eight years ofage. His First Lieuten-
ant was Ernesto Viterbo, of Naples
The other officers were Vicenzo Gao
ciottolo, Of Procida Antello Lanso
Emanuele Barbara, Carlo Marcellieri,
all ofNaples; Fabrizio Fabrlzi, of Pal
ermo; Andrea Degostina, and Pietro
Ribaud, Of Naples Ferdinando Gar.
zilli, Of Solofra; Carlo Gloag, Of Flor.
encej and lastly, Giovanni Banner, Of
Naples. l}s tt1esL ttt
The Palestro formed, together with
the iron-clad Re d'Italia, aud the San
Martina, a group against which the
principle impetus Of the, enemy was
directed nIniattempting to- 1e4kcute {
maneuVer for tho supporting of the RI
d'Italia, which wal hardly.pressed, tn,
Palestro became surrounded by thret
vessels ofthe enemy two ofwhich wer,
iron-clads and the third partially ar
mored, The Palestro fought well anc
CALAMITY under these difficult circum
stances, and the unequal struggle hac
already lasted for a considerable time
when il was perceived that a heap o.
Goals on board had caught fire. The
First Lieutenant, Viterbo, rushed with
q body ofmen-while the action con.
tinued as hotly az. eYer-to extinguist
the.fre. But it had already got be,
yond the means available for its ex.
tilction, and VIterbo reported to the
Captain that all efforts to subdue il
were in vain. By this time the Pales.
tro had become invo lyed in so denses
body ofsmaks that the Austrians, 0
sidering that the fire on board would
do for them all that they had as yet