Redshirts (Italy)

The Redshirts (Italian: Camicie rosse or Giubbe rosse), also called the Red Coats, were volunteers who followed the Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi during his campaigns. The name derived from the colour of their shirts or loose-fitting blouses that the volunteers, usually called Garibaldini, wore in lieu of a uniform.

The force originated as the Italian Legion supporting the Colorado Party during the Uruguayan Civil War. The story is that Garibaldi was given red shirts destined for slaughterhouse workers. Later, during the wars of Italian unification, the Redshirts won several battles against the armies of the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Two Sicilies and the Papal States. Most notably, Garibaldi led his Redshirts in the Expedition of the Thousand of 1860, which concluded with the annexation of Sicily, Southern Italy, Marche, and Umbria to the Kingdom of Sardinia, which led to the creation of a unified Kingdom of Italy. His military enterprises in South America and Europe made Garibaldi become known as the "Hero of the Two Worlds".

Redshirts and Garibaldino were used to describe Italian volunteers in subsequent international conflicts, including the Garibaldi Legion of Poland organized by Garibaldi's son Menotti during the January Uprising (1863); the Redshirt volunteers led by Garibaldi's son Ricciotti that fought with the army of Greece during the Greco-Turkish War (1897) and the Balkan League during the First Balkan War (1912–1913); the Garibaldi Legion who fought for France in World War I (1914–1915); the Garibaldi Battalion who fought for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War; and the Italian anti-fascist partisans in World War II.

The Redshirts were very popular and influenced many armies worldwide. For example, during the American Civil War, the Union's Garibaldi Guard and its Confederate counterpart, the Garibaldi Legion, wore red shirts as a part of their uniforms. The Garibaldi shirt also became a popular type of clothing.