The Battle - An Eye Witness Account
CARBONI, Raffaello (1817-75), writer and poet, was born at Urbino, Italy, probably on 15 December 1817. Carboni often wrote under the signature Carboni Rafaello, a reversal of his proper name. Dedicated to the cause of Italian nationalism, he fought with the forces of Mazzini and Garibaldi to free Italy from Austria.
In London he was an interpreter and translator before going to Australia at the end of 1852. He tried his hand at a variety of jobs, including shepherding and gold mining, and was a digger on the Ballarat Fields in 1854.
Carboni supported the miners in their grievances against the repressive measures of Sir Charles Hotham, and he was a leading member of the Ballarat Reform League. He was one of a deputation to put the miners' case before Commissioner Rede on 29 November 1854.
Following the police raid on 30 November, Carboni joined the militant miners in their stand against the military and was a member of the Pike Division. He was not present during the actual attack on the Eureka Stockade on 3 December 1854, but he was arrested and spent four months in jail before being tried for high treason and acquitted. He returned to Ballarat and wrote his book The Eureka Stockade (1855), which was an eyewitness account of the Rebellion and the events leading up to it.
From July to December 1855 he served as an elected member of the miners' court. Carboni left Australia in January 1856 and he died in Rome on 24 October 1875.
A plaque commemorating his links with Australia was unveiled in Urbino in 1974.
Early on the morning of Sunday 3 December, the Government troops rushed the Eureka Stockade. The following is an eye-witness account written by Rafaello Carboni. -
"It was
full dawn, not daylight. A discharge of musketry - then a round from the bugle -
the command 'forward' - and another discharge of musketry was sharply kept on by
the redcoats (some 300 strong) advancing on the gully west of the stockade, for
a couple of minutes.
The shots whizzed by my tent. I jumped out of the stretcher and rushed to my chimney facing the stockade. The forces within could not muster above 150 diggers.
The shephers' holes inside the lower part of the stockade had been turned into rifle-pits, and were now occupied by Californians of the I.C. Rangers' Brigade, some twenty or thirty in all, who had kept watch at the 'outposts' during the night.
Ross and his division northward, Thonen and his division southward, and both in front of the gully, under cover of the slabs answered with such a smart fire, that the military who were now fully within range, did unmistakably appear to me to swerve from their ground: anyhow the command 'forward' from Sergeant Harris was put a stop to. Here a lad was really courageous with his bugle. He took up boldly his stand to the left of the gully and in front: the redcoats 'fell in' in their ranks to the right of this lad. The wounded on the ground behind must have numbered a dozen.
Another scene was going on east of the stockade. Vern floundered across the stockade eastward, and I lost sight of him. Curtain whilst making coolly for the holes, appeared to me to give directions to shoot at Vern; but a rush was instantly made in the same direction (Vern’s) and a whole pack cut for Warrenheip.
Peter Lalor was now on the top of the first logged-up hole within the stockade, and by his decided gestures pointed to the men to retire among the holes. He was shot down in his left shoulder at this identical moment it was a chance shot, I recollect it well.
A full discharge of musketry from the military, now mowed down a who had their heads above the barricades. Ross was shot in the groin. Another shot struck Thonen exactly in the mouth, and felled him on the spot.
Those who suffered the most were the score of pikemen, who stood their ground from the time the whole division had been posted at the top facing the Melbourne road from Ballarat, in double file under the slabs, to stick the cavalry with their pikes.
The old command, 'Charge', was distinctly heard, and the red coats rushed with fixed bayonets to storm the stockade. A few cuts, kicks and pulling down, and the job was done too quickly for their wonted ardour, for they actually thrust their bayonets on the body of the dead and wounded strewed about on the ground. A wild 'hurrah!' burst out and 'the Southern Cross' was-torn down, I should say, among their laughter, such as if it had been a prize from a May-pole.
Of the armed diggers, some made off the best way they could; others surrendered themselves prisoners, and were collected in groups and marched down the gully. The Indian dragoons, sword in hand, rifle-pistols cocked, took charge of them all, and brought them in chains to the lock-up."
