The Ten Thousand
"Who's the general?" said Matthew Sullivan. "He's an Italian." said George Mason. The two recruits were standing, with thousands of their brethren, on parade in Washington. Matthew had been at Bull Run and seen battle there, but Mason was even greener than that. They looked at the general, who had no gold braid or fancy sash, no golden hilted sword. His horse was fine, but not white or otherwise a show horse. He did not look pompous like the Washington generals Matthew had seen, and was . . . Matthew had seen that look in other places. They had been on the faces of people he had known, in Ireland, and in America. It was the face of a person who knew what he was going to do, and would let nothing stop him, ever. "So what do you think, Matthew, will he be as bad a leader as McClellan would have been?" "I think our general will lead us to victory, if it is humanly possible." "What's his name, anyhow, this man with eyes of fire." "I think they call him Garibaldi." Mason stopped. Stopped straight. His face went white as a sheet, and said to Matthew "I think you're right."
Garibaldi surveyed the mass of soldiers, more than he had ever commanded in any battle, even at the Volturno, where the Neapolitans had been broken by his forces. The word had gone out around the world that the ancient kingdom of Naples, which had existed since the Normans had conquered Sicily, had been defeated by an army that had started out as one thousand volunteers armed with every kind of old small arm from fowling pieces to musketoons. When word reached Berlin, Chancellor Bismarck had a stroke, and when it was heard in Rome, Pope Pius the IXth passed away in his sleep. And now Italy was one country!
He had heard soon after about what was happening in America. It was utterly sad and a shame, he had thought, that the American's kept slaves. That practice was abomimable to him. It was as unchristian and wicked as anything he had ever heard of. And when the federal government had asked for him to command the Union Army, he had accepted. And what a force was his to command!
Every infantryman with a rifle musket, every cavalryman with a modern carbine, the artillery almost all new and much of it rifled. And they were to see a demonstration of a weapon that could fire hundreds of times in a minute, as well today. But first, he would give a speach.
To every American here, you have volunteered or been chosen to be part of this army, which has its purpose not in conquest, or in war for purpose of supressing religion or puting down state's rights. This war is about freedom for a population that has never known it. Does not the Declaration of Independence state: We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Are these just words, do they just mean nothing, or do they mean just men, or white men, or property-owning white men? NO these are not just words if the United States is what it ought to be. Patrick Henry himself said it better than I ever could. In a speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses he ended in saying: Is life so sweet, or Peace so dear, that they should be bought with chains and slavery? I know not what course others will take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! Let us follow those words, whatever the cost. For at the end of the night, I see a shining light and what shall come after is a country as has never been seen on gods green earth !
