The National Guard summoned by
Mazzini all answered, "Present," and served enthusiastically throughout
the siege; all the troops dispersed in the Provinces were summoned to
the capital, and Garibaldi and his volunteers marched into the city amid
the acclamations of the populace, too thankful to welcome them to demur
at the strange appearance they presented.
Now that Garibaldi's military and naval genius is fully recognized, and
the extraordinary fascination he exercised over officers and men, the
enthusiasm with which he filled whole populations whom others failed to
stir, are undisputed, many historians and critics have expressed their
astonishment that he was not made at once commander-in-chief of the
Roman forces, and have blamed the Triumvirate for having failed to
recognize in the hero of Montevideo the good genius of Rome. Such
critics must be simply ignorant of the actual condition of Rome and her
Government. There existed, in the first place, the regular Roman army,
which would have served under none save regular generals; then there was
the Lombard battalion under Manara, whose members, after fifteen months
of regular campaigning, were thoroughly drilled and disciplined, who
insisted on retaining the cross of Savoy on their belts, and, until
their prowess made them the idols of the Romans, were nicknamed the
"corps of aristocrats.
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