"
Now, they had committed no "disorders" save that of carrying off the
mules and horses of the convents; but when we think of the wild, free,
peril-scorning life led in the backwoods of America, of how they
recognized no law save their commander's orders, how little used he had
been to receive command from any, it will be easily understood how this
wild, tanned, quaintly dressed band filled the inhabitants of the towns
through which they passed with terror and dismay. Garibaldi's violent
tirades against priests and priestcraft; the liberation of a gang of
miscreants arrested by order of the Roman Government, had not
prepossessed men of order and of discipline in his favor; and although
personal contact dispelled all unfavorable prepossessions, one sees how
impossible it was for Mazzini to place him in the position which he
would himself have assigned to him.
Garibaldi altered in nothing his South American modes of warfare. He and
his staff, in red shirts and ponchos, with hats of every form and color,
no distinctions of rank or military accoutrements, rode on their
American saddles, which when unrolled served each as a small tent.
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