Battle of Mentana 1867

Barbès" to an exiled republican writer The Hague, February 6, [18]69, 3 pages. In-8° on blue laid paper, in black ink Significant tears at the folds, small loss on the first sheet (without affecting the text), central browning, adhesive tape reinforcements on the two sheets (see scans) One word redacted by Barbès. Barbès protests against the French support given to the papal troops facing Garibaldi's Red Shirts during the decisive Battle of Mentana in Italy.

Thank you for treating me as a friend. And thank you for your book. I have only been able to read a few pages so far.

But I see that you are bravely charging against the great superstition that weighs on so many minds. Shedding light on the truth in these minds is indeed the true way to definitively end the influence of Rome [allusion to the hold of the papal states on Rome]. As long as the legend persists, there will always be people to exploit it for their benefit and to command crimes like the one named after Mentana.

It is an abominable thing that France found itself on the side of a tyranny capable of leaving such a stain on its history. You speak to me of my health and of great hopes rising on the horizon. I am still very unwell, almost worse than ever, as a feeling of weakness has joined my usual suffering, a feeling I had not yet experienced so deeply. It would be a cruel matter if I found myself condemned to stay lying down when I should be standing.

But this sad state of my person does not prevent me from happily noting that France is regaining an activity that cannot fail to soon bring about its deliverance. A deliverance that, by the way, I have never despaired of, and which should, in turn, change the fate of the world. Continue your work since you have, at least, the good fortune of energy and will to use these times of expatriation in a useful way. I extend my hands to you, A. The city of the province of Rome, Mentana is the site of a major battle fought on November 3, 1867, during the Risorgimento wars, opposing Giuseppe Garibaldi's Red Shirts to the papal and French troops (sent by Napoleon III) commanded respectively by Generals Hermann Kanzler and Polhes.

The Garibaldian forces, wishing to integrate the papal states into Italy and make Rome the capital of the country, suffered a decisive defeat that ended their campaign in the Agro Romano for the liberation of Rome. A politician, republican activist, and French revolutionary, Armand Barbès was an opponent of the July Monarchy.

Amnesty in 1854, in the early days of the Second Empire, he was released by Napoleon III. Barbès voluntarily exiled himself in Holland and would never return to France.

He died there on June 26, 1870, in The Hague, just a few weeks before the fall of the Second Empire on September 4, 1870.