The Mail of 1866
The stories of our Third Independence War told through a collection historical-mailbox.
A collection of letters , documents, and newspapers of 1866 to capture the spirit of the time and the feelings of people involved in historical events of our Risorgimento.
From Ferrara in Turin the July 23, 1866 franked with 20c overmolded III type.
(The following text is what appeared on the back side of the postcard)
Dear Mr. Commendatore
( … … … .) For more than days I wanted to write but what to write when we are condemned to
a life so nothing, so useless , idle so that it becomes a real stem. After the unfortunate day
of the 24 June we brought him in Cicognolo where, separated from the headquarters , in the middle of the fields and between the song of the frogs and toads, we had at least the resource to receive letters and newspapers and do some tour forced domicile with a commitment to make us to sigh the delights of Cicognolo. We are deprived of water, tormented by mosquitoes, oppressed by a suffocating heat and for surplus we have private mail of
military that below the district of Lamarmora and we don’t get that rarely the courier, i.e. every three
or four days when it pleases to S. E. to send us a mail . The little news that we are the ones that
we draw from the bulletins that you print to Ferrara and the releases that come to the King, and unfortunately the
last two were tragic, that is to say that the fleet, which he did so bad test of if is to
this morning, that announces be the Garibaldians were beaten with a loss of over a thousand of prisoners, wounded and
dead. Thus it is said that the armistice was also accepted for part of the Italy and that are also
marked the preliminaries of peace . God grant that it is true because, despite all the sacrifices and blood
paid, this campaign began with too inauspicious wishes and I fear that would ultimately not
do it too glorious. For me are not nature pessimistic but seeing things up close I feel
despairing. The King enjoys excellent greets and it makes a extremely busy life, it is very important with Venosta and receives all the day or the sent French or Prussians and many delegations that cloudy from the Veneto Region. The house military has no other aim that destroy in great steaks and pollastri and sleep and tasty long sleep.( … ……)
(The following was written by someone researching the postcard)
Chaplain greater than the King
Valerio Anzino was historical figure very powerful but poorly known. A genuine eminence gray entry in
clergy Palatine in 1848 , as a cleric added, became in time Chaplain of the King. At the death of Victor
Emanuele became Chaplain to King Umberto and became a sort of via special of which served the Church
to plead discreetly cause realizable in civil society. Specifically, the letter represents well the
despondency that hovered everywhere in the country. Even the battle of Bezzecca is lived as a
defeat in the letter to London. It must be said that Garibaldi actually lost more than 1000 men, but it was in
most of the volunteers of the 5th Regiment taken prisoner by the Austrians. The dead for the Italian side in
effects were about 100 and their sacrifice brought to victory and the reconquest of Bezzecca. In that
moment of sadness but it is understandable that every new information would be represented as
yet another disaster that would befall him on the country. The politician that Anzino refers pass
a lot of time with the King and Happy Venosta, Minister of Foreign Affairs and critics of the work of the Marmora. For
with regard to the information on the armistice finally we know that on 23 July, the King wrote to General
Cialdini informing him that even the Italy as the Prussia suspended hostilities for eight days. Very soon
would they have come to the armistice of Cormons and at the end of the war.