Pontelandolfo Was Not a Massacre

Written by Giancristiano Desiderio

To understand what happened at Pontelandolfo on August 14, 1861, we have always focused on the deaths. But has anyone, on the other hand, ever paid any attention to the births? By consulting the archives of the parish church, numbers emerge that have not been considered until now, but which are decisive for understanding how life in Pontelandolfo continued to flow according to its natural rhythms after being terrorized by the brigand Cosimo Giordano and then burned by the "Piedmontese". From mid-August to December 31, 1861 there were fifty-three newborns in Pontelandolfo who were recorded in the parish baptism register between 1856 and 1861. Such a high number of births contradicts what some people say about the Massacre of August 14 [i.e., that the death toll was in the hundreds or even thousands]. Evidently, pregnant women either found safety or were respected by the Carabinieri and Bersaglieri. The Libro dei Battezzati (Book of the Baptized) also provides a total number of births that is comparable to the previous year: in 1860 there were 196 births, in 1861 there were 172. The difference is irrelevant and the demographic trend would remain stable also in the following years.

The actions at Pontelandolfo are always cited as an example of the brutality of the Italian army – they have been compared to Nazi massacres – and have a "role of honor" in the "memorial day for the southern victims of Italian Unification". However, the data refutes the idea that there was a mass extermination in Pontelandolfo. As the Franciscan father Davide Fernando Panella highlighted in his essay "Brigantaggio e repressione nel 1861. I fatti di Pontelandolfo e Casalduni nei documenti Parrocchiali", published in the magazine Centro Studi del Sannio, there were no deaths in Casalduni and there was no halving of the population in Pontelandolfo. In fact, based on the communal register, it is known that in Pontelandolfo in 1857 there were 5561 inhabitants and in 1866, according to the Status Animarum, the inhabitants were 5239. This explicit data is also confirmed by other registers: in 1839, according to the Status Animarum, there were 916 houses and 4959 inhabitants and in 1866 there were 927 houses and 5239 inhabitants and, as noted by Don Michelangelo Caterini, "most of the population lives scattered throughout the country in different districts". As can be seen, reliable data from the historical sources refute the idea of a massacre. But those who claim that there was mass extermination, contrary to all the evidence, then assert that Pontelandolfo was subsequently repopulated. If this hypothesis were true then we should find different surnames compared to those who lived there prior, but as shown by Davide Panella in his study comparing the surnames of 1839 with those of 1866, no such differences exist.

In short, the history of the actions at Pontelandolfo is particularly instructive not only for what happened at the time but also and above all for what is happening today: the instrumental and propagandistic use of those actions is clear. If we open the book by Gigi Di Fiore entitled Briganti, on page 196 we read:

"More than just thirteen victims, they supported men who claimed to be of liberal faith and called themselves miserable and unhappy victims of every misfortune."

And there is no doubt that the situation was unhappy and unfortunate, but it is a certain fact that on that August 14, 1861 in Pontelandolfo there were only thirteen victims (in fact there were twelve and the thirteenth died later on the 16th): it is noted with precision in the Libro dei Defunti (Book of Deaths); it is confirmed in the letter of Catherine Lombardi dated September 3, 1861, which so far had remained unpublished and was discovered by Annibale Laudato; one can also read Antonio Pistacchio's diary; despite depicting a dramatic picture, he does not speak of any mass extermination. His memory of that day is certainly more reliable than those who assert otherwise.