Mysterious Uniform!!

Vincenzo BONELLO

Born 1847
VALLETTA




This handsome young fellow is my maternal g g grandfather.
The family legend is that he was a soldier who defended the Pope against Garibaldi.

OK, defended the pope? but his uniforms nothing like the Swiss Guards!
Even though the picture is black and white, I`m told his uniform was grey with red piping.
Having spent many hours looking at military uniform sites I came across a picture of the Zouaves.




From there I discovered the Papal Zouaves were formed in defence of the papal states by Lamoricière in 1860. The Zuavi Pontifici were mainly young men, unmarried and Roman Catholic, who volunteered to assist Pope Pius ix in his struggle against the Italian Garibaldi.
I also found a piece writen by Dr. John C. Rao called "The Last Crusade" a quotation from that piece mentions there only being 17 Maltese serving in the Papal Army.

"The recruits belonged to twenty five different nationalities. Curiously, although their country had a Protestant majority, the most numerous were the Dutch. Then came the French and the Belgians. The Italians, almost all Romans or Neapolitans, are well represented, above all in music (a question of competence). But one finds also Swiss (among them the officers of high rank), Irish, Austrians, Germans, among whom the Prussians and the Bavarians are the most numerous; Poles, Spaniards, a number of British, whether English or Scot, eight Americans, these above all from the southern states. From South America, Peru, Chile and Equator are each represented by one volunteer; Brazil by two. One finds also seventeen Maltese, one Abyssinian, a Turk, a Moroccan, and an Indian from Madras. Finally, one must speak of the one hundred thirty Canadians from Quebec, who will arrive in 1868. They will not have the chance to fight, but some will participate nonetheless in the siege of Rome. Another wave of one hundred twelve volunteers left Canada in August of 1870 to engage." (Ibid., p. 40)

In a letter from my great Uncle Joseph Bonello he states that Vincenzo fought for 3 yrs from 1867 to 1870 then returned to Malta. Uncle Joe also said that the the picture was drawn by a marmist (a marble sculptor) called M Spampinato ?
Vincenzo was also at some point a teacher and a tintore (painter) at the time of his marriage to Concetta Galea circa 1883.

A little update 24/01/2008

through further research I found a blog about the Zouaves. This blog had information about a museum in the Netherlands called the Zouaven Museum. I emailed the museum to ask for some help in tracking down the military records of the Papal Zouaves and here is the reply:

Dear,
I've found his name in the "Matricule"-book of the Papal zouaves:
Vincent Bonello, born in Talleto, Ile de Malte at 1847.
Zouave from 28 march 1868 till 31 march 1870.
His number was 7413.
That's the only thing I could find about him.
My regards,
Marijke Zonneveld-Kouters
conservator Nederlands Zouavenmuseum Oudenbosch.

I was so very excited to receive conformation of our
family's legend.


Thank you so much Marijke!! :)

(I am assuming the place Talleto is a gross mis spelling of Valletta, since there is no Talleto in Malta)