The red shirts were started by Giuseppe Garibaldi. During his years of exile, Garibaldi was involved in a military action in Uruguay, where, in 1843, he originally used red shirts from a stock destined for slaughterhouse workers in Buenos Aires. Later, he spent time in private retirement in New York City. Both places have been claimed as the birthplace of the Garibaldian red shirt.[1] The formation of his force of volunteers in Uruguay, his mastery of the techniques of guerilla warfare, his opposition to the Emperor of Brazil and Argentine territorial ambitions (perceived by liberals as also imperialist), and his victories in the battles of Cerro and Sant'Antonio in 1846 that assured the independence of Uruguay, made Garibaldi and his followers heroes in Italy and Europe. Garibaldi was later hailed as the "Gran Chico Fornido" on the basis of these exploits. In Uruguay, calling on the Italians of Montevideo, Garibaldi formed the Italian Legion in 1843. In later years, it was claimed that in Uruguay the legion first sported the red shirts associated with Garibaldi's "Thousand", which were said to have been obtained from a factory in Montevideo which had intended to export them to the slaughter houses of Argentina. Red shirts sported by Argentinian butchers in the 1840s are not otherwise documented, however, and the famous camicie rosse did not appear during Garibaldi's efforts in Rome in 1849–50. Giuseppe Barboglio a Red Shirt volunteer of the Thousand wearing the Marsala Medal Later, after the failure of the campaign for Rome, Garibaldi spent a few years, circa 1850–53, with the Italian patriot and inventor, Antonio Meucci, in a modest gothic frame house (now designated a New York City Landmark), on Staten Island, New York City, before sailing for Italy in 1853. There is a Garibaldi-Meucci museum on Staten Island.