Redshirts (Italy)

The Redshirts ( Italian: ''Camicie rosse'' or ''Giubbe rosse''), also called the Red coats, are volunteers who followed the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi during his campaigns. The name derived from the color of their shirts or loose fitting blouses that the volunteers, usually called Garibaldini, which were worn in lieu of a uniform.

The force originated as the Italian Legion supporting the Colorado Party during the Uruguayan Civil War. The story is that Garibaldi was given red shirts destined for slaughterhouse workers. Later, during the wars of Italian Unification, the Redshirts won several battles against the armies of the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Two Sicilies and the Papal States. Most notably, Garibaldi led his Redshirts in the ''Expedition of the Thousand'' of 1860, which concluded with the annexation of Sicily, Southern Italy, Marche and Umbria to the Kingdom of Sardinia, which led to the creation of the newly-unified Kingdom of Italy. His military enterprises in South America and Europe made Garibaldi become known as the "Hero of the Two Worlds".

The term Redshirts and Garibaldino were also used to describe Italian volunteers in subsequent international conflicts, including the Garibaldi Legion of Poland organized by Garibaldi's son Menotti during the January Uprising (1863); the Redshirt volunteers led by Garibaldi's son Ricciotti that fought with the army of Greece during the Greco-Turkish War (1897) and the Balkan League during the First Balkan War (1912-1913); the Garibaldi Legion who fought for France in World War I (1914-1915); the Garibaldi Battalion who fought for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War; and the Italian antifascist partisans in World War II. The Redshirts were very popular and influenced many armies worldwide. For example, during the American Civil War, the Union's Garibaldi Guard and its Confederate counterpart, the Garibaldi Legion, wore red shirts as a part of their uniforms.

The Garibaldi shirt also became a popular type of clothing. According to ''A Cultural History of the Modern Age: The Crisis of the European Soul'', "For a considerable time Garibaldi was the most famous man in Europe, and the red shirt, la ''camicia rossa'', became the fashion for ladies, even outside Italy".

Background

The red shirts were started by Giuseppe Garibaldi. During his years of exile, Garibaldi was involved in a military action in Uruguay. In 1843, he there originally used red shirts from a stock destined for slaughterhouse workers in Buenos Aires. Later, he spent time in private retirement in New York City. Both places have been claimed as the birthplace of the Garibaldian red shirt.The formation of his force of volunteers in Uruguay, his mastery of the techniques of guerilla warfare, his opposition to the Emperor of Brazil and to Argentine territorial ambitions (perceived by liberals as also imperialist), and his victories in the Battles of Cerro and Sant'Antonio in 1846 assured the independence of Uruguay and made Garibaldi and his followers heroes in Italy and Europe. Garibaldi was later hailed as the "Gran Chico Fornido" on the basis of these exploits.

In Uruguay, he called on the Italians of Montevideo and formed the Italian Legion in 1843. In later years, it was claimed that in Uruguay the legion first sported the red shirts associated with Garibaldi's "Thousand," which were said to have been obtained from a factory in Montevideo that had intended to export them to the slaughterhouses of Argentina. Red shirts sported by Argentinian butchers in the 1840s are not otherwise documented, however, and the famous ''camicie rosse'' did not appear during Garibaldi's efforts in Rome in 1849–1850.

Later, after the failure of the campaign for Rome, Garibaldi spent around 1850– to 1853 with the Italian patriot and inventor, Antonio Meucci, in a modest Gothic frame house (now designated a New York City Landmark), on Staten Island, New York City before he sailed for Italy in 1853. The Garibaldi-Meucci Museum is on Staten Island.

In New York City, before the American Civil War, rival companies of volunteer firemen were the great working-class heroes. Their courage, civic spirit, and lively comradeship inspired fanatical followers throughout New York, the original " fire buffs".
Volunteer fire companies varied in the completeness and details of their uniforms, but all of them wore the red flannel shirt. When Garibaldi returned to Italy after his New York stay, the red shirts made their first appearance among his followers.Garibaldi remained a local hero among European immigrants back in the city. The "Garibaldi Guard" ( 39th New York State Volunteers) fought in the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865. As part of their uniform, all enlisted men wore red woolen "Garibaldi Shirts." The ''New York Tribune'' sized them up:

A woman's fashion, the Garibaldi shirt, was begun in 1860 by Empress Eugénie in France, and the blousy style remained popular for some years and eventually turned into the Victorian shirt waist and modern woman's blouse.Young, Julia Ditto, "The Rise of the Shirt Waist", ''Good Housekeeping'', May 1902, pp. 354-357

Garibaldi's son, Ricciotti Garibaldi, later led Redshirt volunteer troops that fought with the Hellenic Army in the Greco-Turkish War in 1897 and the First Balkan War in 1912–13.

Legacy

Nottingham Forest Football Club wears the Garibaldi Redshirts since the beginning, in 1865.

Gallery

File:Garibaldian volunteers..jpeg, Garibaldian volunteers of the British Legion
File:One of Garibaldi's lancers carrying a dispatch.jpeg, One of Garibaldi's lancers carrying a dispatch
File:Truppa di Garibaldi.jpg, Truppa di Garibaldi
File:Divise delle truppe garibaldine - Museo del Risorgimento di Milano.JPG, Uniforms of the ''garibaldines'' at the Museum of the Risorgimento, Milan
File:Divisa di Antonio Fratti.jpg, Red uniform of the Italian politician, Antonio Fratti, killed in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897

References

{{Risorgimento

Military units and formations of Italy
Italian unification
Clothing in politics
Giuseppe Garibaldi