Wargaming the Siege:

The entire siege could be replayed at the BNIII scale of 1" = 100 yards, but not much happened outside of the Janiculum Quarter. The French chose to assault the Janiculum because they did not want to become embroiled in prolonged street fighting, which would have been the case had they attacked another location.

The French, after receiving their reinforcements, encircled all of Rome. Due to Roselli's reluctance to weaken the over-all defenses, the Janiculum quarter was the most heavily engaged and invariably out-numbered two to one. Garibaldi was continually faced with odds of 2 to 1 against him.

An operational wargame, set at a figure scale of 50-60 to one, could involve the French operations against the Janiculum Wall. GB,GV or Thev Died For Glory would make good rules choice. At a ground scale of 1" = 50 yards, the Janiculum wall could be represented at three foot long, reaching from the Porta Portese to the walls around Vatican Hill, with the tactically critical villas just outside of the walls.

Alternately, the day-long "Battle for the Villas" could be re-fought at skirmish level. Soldier's Companion has a scale of 1 = 10, and considering that Garibaldi kept sending his men in piecemeal formations of one hundred or so, would serve quite well. We will very possibly tinker with this engagement for an upcoming issue. While the outcome of the siege may have been a forgone conclusion, the result hinged upon who retained control of the Villas.

Uniform Information:

Garibaldi's Italian Legion initially wore civilian clothing before adopting the red smock associated with their leader. The National Guard also wore a smock, probably blue and white striped like that of their Piedmontese equivalents. The Lombardese Bersaglieri had the dark blue tunic and trousers with the characteristic Bersaglieri hat and black cock's feathers.

The Papal troops very probably consisted of the two native infantry regiments. These were divided into center and flank companies. Up to 1848 the Papal army was dressed like the Austrian army, with the characteristic white coat and trouser colour. Distinctions were dark blue for the First Regiment and orange (crimson?) for the Second. Epaulettes were red for grenadiers and yellow with green crescents for voltigeurs. Head gear was a black shako Carabiniers wore green coats with white trousers and gaiters. Epaulettes were white. Head gear was a bearskin similar to that worn by British Guardsmen.

The French wore a royal blue, single breasted tunic with madder red cuffs and trousers. On campaign, the shakos were worn with a black cover and the gray-blue greatcoat was worn as service dress. It is unclear whether epaulettes were worn with the greatcoat.

Figures

For figures, use Crimean War French for the French. Sardinian Bersaglieri from the 1859 war will do for the Lombardese. As for the Italian Legion, Freicorps in the UK have Garibaldini, but they are a little smaller than our 15mm scale. British Crimean in shakos would do well for the papal troops, but you might wish to add fringe to their epaulettes. For the civilian volunteers, you are lefl to improvise as best you may, perhaps one of the Napoleonic or ACW irregulars will do?

Wargaming the Siege of Rome

600 Lombardy Bersaglieri
1000 National Guard (500 per btn?)
300 civil volunteers
1000 Italian Legion
2500 Papal Troops (Indigini) including some dismounted dragoons

Numbers would fluctuate, certainly the Italian Legion and civil volunteers grew in size. Total defenders are estimated at 20,000, which coincides precisely with the total French strength.

Back to Historical Description

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