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Garibaldi and Lincoln

Giuseppe Garibaldi in his red shirt and grey neckerchief, holding a swordSilvestro Lega, Portrait of Giuseppe Garibaldi, 1861

November 19, 2024 – A frayed postcard in a Turin archive has revealed one of the most audacious gambles of the American civil war. Abraham Lincoln offered the command of the northern forces to Giuseppe Garibaldi, unifier of Italy and terror of the Pope. Garibaldi caught the world’s imagination in 1860 after invading Sicily with 1,000 lightly armed redshirts. They defeated 12,000 Neapolitan troops, took the island and, determined to unify the Italian peninsula, invaded the mainland. They occupied Naples and unleashed a wave of support.
Dr. Don H. Doyle will speak to the Dante Alighieri Society of Charleston about Garibaldi, his popularity in the United States, and Lincoln’s approach at the onset of the Civil War.

Don H. Doyle is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of South Carolina. He has taught and done research in Italy, as well as England, Brazil and France. His most recent book, The Age of Reconstruction: How Lincoln’s New Birth of Freedon Remade the World, is being launched at the Charleston Library Society in September. He has written and lectured extensively about both the American South and Italian Mezzogiorno. He currently lives on Folly Beach, SC.

Date: Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Time: 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Location: Gage Hall, 4 Archdale St, Charleston, SC 29401

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Townspeople dancing hand in hand in a street of Siena, one playing a tambourineAmbrogio Lorenzetti, Effects of Good Government in the City, c. 1338, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
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