Sardinia and the War - Part 2

for passports were proclaimed. All with the aim of preventing evasion and to keep the home forces at an acceptable strength once the expedition left the country - necessary measures, because the enthusiasm of the people was at best lukewarm. We must keep in mind Mazzini’s appeal to the forces and the state of mind of a great part of the country. All excuses were used to escape enlistment. In the garrisons, it was noted in the diary of 2nd Lieutenant Ceresa de Bonvillaret, visits to brothels of questionable renown increased considerably; hopes were for a venereal disease, and consequent discharge on medical grounds!

On March 31st the Order of Battle was laid down. Each and every regiment in the Sardinian army was involved in the expedition. From every infantry battalion a company was detached to the expeditionary force, from every cavalry regiment a squadron (see Orbat). All in all, the expedition was 18.058 men strong, a mere three thousand above the numbers foreseen in the treaty. Except for the units that were stationed on the island of Sardinia, all troops were concentrated in Alexandria. This concentration was ended on April 14th and from the next day on, the troops went to Genoa for embarkation.

In Genoa 21 English steamships and 24 sailing ships were ready to bring them (17.000 men plus officers and 4.000 horses and mules) to the East. The transport of all the equipment and the forage was at the expense of the Sardinians themselves, for which they hired some supplementary vessels, apart from the ships of their Maritime Régie. But these ships were not adequately equipped for horses and the English co-ordinator in Genoa, Capt. Brock, hired an extra ten vessels. (Presumably this was the same Capt. Brock that George Evelyn Palmer heavily criticised in December 1854 for the poor fortification defences he constructed, as a naval officer, in the British sector at Eupatoria). Although in Genoa the behaviour of the British didn’t inspire much sympathy (daily rows with drunken sailors; hooligans ‘avant la lettre’), there was mutual goodwill between the British and the Sardinians in the preparation of the expedition. The convoys that were formed were mixed, without regard to the nationality of the ships, each steamship towing one or two sailing ships. The first units to embark were those of the Reserve Brigade (April 25th - May 2nd) followed by the First Division (May 3rd

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