Isola della Scala, Villa Pindemonte, Study of Prince Ferdinando - 4 April 1848, afternoon (continued)
The Count of Cavour bowed, and departed. Without any doubt with the intention of swimming in the murky waters of politics, thought Ferdinando with a smile, wishing him a good hunt.
A Royal Equerry replaced him: "Your Highness, General Menabrea is here, as you asked. We are also informed that various delegations are arriving to Isola della Scala. They should be here within two or three hours."
" Do you know which delegations are arriving?"
"A delegation from Tuscany and a second one from Sicily, Your Highness. A third one from Milan, and the last one from the Republic of St. Mark."
Quite a lot of people, mused Ferdinand. "Please look after suitable accommodations for them. I do hope we will not be too crowded."
" Count Cavour asked the majordomo to look for suitable additional lodgings a few days ago, and Villa Boschi was found to be the most suitable. It features also a very large ballroom, as requested by the Count. Everything is ready since yesterday, and we have also hired suitable servants, cooks and footmen.
"That was well done. Now ask General Menabrea to enter." Camillo-the-Spider has spun his web, mused Ferdinand, and now the flies are clamoring to enter it. Very impressive.
"My dear General Menabrea, have a seat. What was your impression of the General Staff meeting this morning?".
"It appeared to be very professional, Your Highness. Maps of every place of interest for the campaigns were available, precise numbers of our forces and estimates of enemy strength were produced on demand, and you managed to run it like a clockwork mechanism. I know by experience that it's not always easy to manage so many officers, in particular when dealing with various and distant theatres of operations."
"It's still a work in progress, my dear Menabrea. You would have not been impressed if you had been present when I first tried to build up a General Staff for the Sardinian army."
"The concept of General Staff was firstly adopted by the Prussian army during the last years of the Napoleonic wars, wasn't it?"
"That is correct, but my impression is that it was not furtherly developed over the next decades: it remained limited to a small group of officers, who were supposed to provide advice to the king on campaign. More than three decades of peace failed to produce the incentive to develop it further, but I can believe it might, and should, evolve into a powerful tool for future wars. However a Prussian general, Carl von Clausewitz, wrote extensively on the subject, although his writings were published only after his death, and I believe they have not yet been translated. I was presented the first three books by Prince Albert for my birthday in 1840. I have read them more than a few times, and they are fascinating, dealing with the political-military interfaces of making war: they are aptly titled "Vom Kriege", "On War", and while being written from the point of view of a theoretician, they would benefit also any general in the field. I have had them translated in Italian (1), and I strongly recommend that they become mandatory reading at the Military Academy. I have also procured the other 7 books written by him, and they are being translated too."
"I will be seriously considering your recommendation, Your Highness. Has my appointment as Quartermaster General anything to do with these books?"
"You are right, it has, but I am truly concerned by the hard task of keeping our armies supplied in the field. An army marches on its stomach. Didn't Napoleon say that , or was Frederick the Great to say it first? Never mind, the concept is more than sound, but unfortunately many generals do not concern themselves with these practical matters: they are convinced it's enough to snap their fingers to get all the provisions they need, or at worst they send out foraging parties and the civilians pay the price of war. This is unacceptable, and has to end. In the future, I can see the expansion of railways to be the solution, but in this war we need to make the best use of water transportation, given that we command the major rivers in Northern Italy and our allies in Venice are once again masters of the Adriatic.
However I am afraid that I will have to ask you of another couple of things on top of that. You know what they say, the reward for a job well done is always more work."
"I'm your to command, Your Highness". The answer was firm, but Ferdinando could almost feel a hint of worry.
"The first task I have in mind is training. Our army, and in particular the Bersaglieri Corps, has greatly benefitted by intensive training over the last three years. This has also to continue, but the same care has to be taken to train the Volunterr Levies that are being raised in Lombardy and elsewhere. I have also promised our allies in Venice to provide a military mission to help training their ground forces: while Venice doesn't require help in terms of their navy personnel, their experience in land combat is frankly very limited, and the few experienced military men they have are officers who fought in the Napoleonic wars, and are not just old but also find it very difficult to grasp the changes brought by technological progress."
"It shall be done, Your Highness. And the other thing?"
"You have certainly heard that the Sicilian parliament has voted to offer the crown of Sicily to my sister. She will accept, but she also need a reliable man to advise her on military matters, while the Count of Cavour will advise her on political issues. Do you accept this last task, General Menabrea?
"I do, Your Highness. How could I refuse such a honor?"
"Wonderful. Maria Cristina will travel to Palermo only after the end of this war, but do you have any suggestion for now?"
"I understand that a task force of the Sardinian navy is making ready in Genoa to sail to the Adriatic. However, since Venice appears to be in full control of the sea, I wonder if it would not be more reasonable to dispatch the task force to Palermo instead, in token of our support to the decision of the Sicilian Parliament. You will need to discuss this possibility with both Venice and the Sicilians, obviously, to avoid any misunderstanding. It might be possible to send a military mission and some artillery pieces to Palermo, to help in the training of the Sicilian army, but again this has to be discussed and agreed with the Sicilians."
"Your suggestions appear to be sound, and this proves that I was not in the wrong by selecting you for this additional role. I understand that signor La Masa, Ministry of War in the Sicilian Government, is in the delegation arriving today at Isola della Scala. He should be the right person with whom you might discuss these ideas."
Footnotes
- The first Italian translation of Vom Kriege was published only in 1942 IOTL
But he was still sensible enough to say that "Britain will probably want to annex Egypt" and that Italy would have been happy with "quelque petite chose", so probably he wasn't even drunk, he was just being himself.
