Garibaldi in Sant'Alberto

The Matteucci house did not have a back door so it was prudent to change their place of refuge. Towards 3 a.m. on Sunday Garibaldi with Leggero were moved to another house nearby (300 metres away) belonging to Antonio Moreschi located near the square and having exit into the fields.

Domenico Lorenzetti was on watch. Meanwhile two hundred Austrians on foot and horseback were gathering from all directions in the square. Garibaldi could see them from the window of his new refuge. To remain in the village was no longer safe and it was feared that news of Garibaldi's presence might be leaking out. Later on, after the event, it was said that the chaplain, Don Antonio Pieroni, had informed the Austrian commander of Garibaldi's presence and that the prior, Don Marco Gallamini, had denied the fact at his own risk.

Of the relics found in the Krieg/Kiegsarchiv of Vienna by the writer Umberto Beseghi and shown in his book, published by Tazzari of Bologna, it appears instead that the Austrian commander told his command that "in the locality of S. Alberto no one has any news of the fugitives; everyone believes that they are dispersed somewhere around Comacchio".

An anonymous person sent two messages to the papal police but they did not want to give credence to the information so the unknown person, feeling rather indignant, wrote again giving the names of the members of the "masnada" of S. Alberto as follows: Antonio Moreschi (leader), Pietro Fabbri, Dr. Nannini, Bunazza, Cirillo Mondadori, Francesco Franzini, Lorenzo Matteucci, Antonio Bighetti, the blacksmith Fabbrino, Ercole Saldini (known as Dighèn), Minetto Ghiselli, Ferdinando Matteucci, Lorenzo Faggioli and Clemente Pascoli, farmer of the Marquis Guiccioli. (Pascoli was of the family of the poet Giovanni Pascoli).

The masnada of Sant'Alberto, that had been accurately identified by the anonymous person but not pursued by the Papal police, meanwhile acted promptly and bravely. At 7 o'clock the sent off Garibaldi and Leggero with the guide Ercole Saldini (Dighèn) who lead them to the right bank of the Reno where Lorenzo Faggioli (Nason) was waiting to ferry the three of them across the river to the left bank (here Leggero switched the hats of Garibaldi and Faggioli).

The march along the left bank continued with great caution for about 3 kilometres as far as the guardhouse of the marshes (Ca' Bianca) (16). They went on to the Scorticata (17) where the farmer Luigi Vicari gave them some wine. At 9.30 Vicari's wife, Maria Angela Guerrini, ferried the four over the river again to the right bank of the river where they made off into the woods. 

Nason returned to S. Alberto to gather supplies and the other three meanwhile rested in the hole left by an uprooted pine tree. The march was extremely cautious because Dighèn had seen a column of Austrians during the night transporting the eleven prisoners captured at Comacchio on the nearby via Romea. (*) When Faggioli returned with food, Garibaldi sent him off again towards Mandriole to find Pietro Fabbri.

The march of the fugitives then continued through the marshes, undergrowth and blackberry bushes, tormented by clouds of mosquitoes, lead expertly by Dighèn to the scrubland of Forte Michelino (18) 6 km from Scorticata.

Setting off again towards 8 p.m. and covering another 5 km they stopped at the Taglio fishing hut (19) until the following morning with Faggioli and Saldini on watch.

(*) During the night Sadini heard the movement of a large number of people on the Romea road; he carefully approached and saw a column of Germans escorting a closed wagon and some cabriolets. It was the transport of eleven of Garibaldi's followers captured after the disembarkation of the papal police lead by that vice Brigadier Sereni whose life had been saved in Cesenatico by Ugo Bassi. Bassi was now one of the eleven prisoners.