He is considered an Italian hero but I just his name on my world history class in the high-school. Garibaldi was born on July 4, 1807 in the city of Nice and his family was involved with in coastal trade.
In 1841 he moved to Uruguay where Garibaldi worked as a trader and schoolmaster. In 1842 Garibaldi took command of the Uruguayan fleet and raised an Italian Legion for the Uruguayan Civil War against the conservative forces. The legion first wore the red shirts, said to have been obtained from a factory in Montevideo which had intended to export them to the slaughterhouses of Argentina. It was to become the symbol of Garibaldi and his followers. Although he managed to achieve celebrated victories in the battles, the fate of his homeland continued to concern Garibaldi so he decided to lead some 60 members of his legion home when he had heard the news of the outbreak of revolution in Palermo in January 1848 and revolutionary agitation elsewhere in Italy.
He returned to Italy in order to reorganize the rebellions for the unification of the peninsula. He was at the head of several troops and he was designated general of some garrisons but the short organization, the lack of weapons and equipments did not give any good result. For such a reason Garibaldi was obliged to go into exile again and return to America. The distance from his native country did not make Garibaldi to forget politics and the republican spirit. As he come back to Italy he reorganized the revolutionary action together with other patriots. After several colloquies with Cavour and the king Vittorio Emanuele he was at the head of a guard with the rank of general. In such a way started the military campaign against Austrians which concluded with the armistice of Villafranca. Afterwards Garibaldi, who was longing for action, resigned from the rank of general and removed to the central Italy in order to support the insurrectional governments. When Sicily, since 1859, showed a certain revolutionary excitement Garibaldi was invited from the Partito d'Azione and from Giuseppe Mazzini himself, to organize a military expedition. Garibaldi accepted and, after having procured a few weapons, sailed to Sicily with 1089 volunteers, who embarked on the steamers Piemonte and Lombardo.
