The Life of General Garibaldi

"They little knew the man with whom they had to do, nor did the Neapolitans either – although they ought to have remembered Velletri. It was reculer pour mieux sauter. In order the better to deceive the Neapolitans, he went back to Piana, and sent his artillery even farther back, while he himself, with his chosen band, made his way over the mountains again, and, while the Neapolitans followed his track to Piana, he had arrived yesterday morning at Misilmeri, on the highroad to Catania, where he had given rendezvous to all the chieftains or captains on that side of the mountain chain.

"I was sick of uncertain rumors, which alone were to be got at in town, and which would leave your readers in darkness about the true state of things. Besides knowing a little of the gallant general's tactics, I had a strong suspicion that something was impending which could be better seen from without than from inside the town, so I determined to see whether I could not get there. Some English and American officers had been out in that direction, and had seen one of the captains, a popular man of this place, called La Maza, so I determined likewise to have a trial. Some friends in the town indicated the way, and I set off in the carriage of one of them. The road to Messina, starting from the Marina and the Villa Giulia at the end of it, skirts the sea as far as Abate, where it unites with the highroad to Misilmeri and Catania. I was advised to take this last, as the least infested by soldiers. What with their confidence in their navy, and what with the stratagem of Garibaldi, the Neapolitans had paid little attention to this road and the southeasterly side in general. Two sentries before the corner of the Villa Giulia, and a post of a score of men a little further, in the octroi building, were all that were in the neighborhood of the town. Straggling houses continue for some distance up to a bridge leading over a little stream or torrent called Orveto, which flows into the sea about a quarter of a mile further on. All along these houses there is a chain of sentries, and in the vicinity of the bridge a post of perhaps eighty men who furnish these sentries.

"I passed them without an inquiry, and was free. There had been the Neapolitan steamers cruising about every day all along this coast; no necessity was therefore felt for any further precaution. I rolled along fast enough with my two Calabrese horses, and passed some American officers, probably bound for Solento. At the very gates of the town the people had joined the insurrection, but there was a kind of neutral ground between the two, which ended in a village beyond Abate, the name of which I cannot recollect. If the Regii were careless, the insurgents were not, and at the entrance of the village one of their armed men asked me for permission to be my guide, a thing which exactly suited me. As we drove through the village the people rushed forward, and trying to kiss my hands, asked me for arms. They were all ready to join, but had no arms, which did not prevent their raising shouts for Italy, Victor Emanuel, and Garibaldi. We had to gallop off in order not to be stopped at every step. A drive of half an hour or more in a gentle descent, with a lovely valley beneath, and beautiful mountain scenery in front, brought me to the town of Misilmeri, a wretched little place, altogether wanting in character. In the little square held out on one side the committee, which forms a kind of provisional government, and on the other, up some wooden steps fixed outside, was enthroned the chief of the staff of Garibaldi's expedition in primitive simplicity. Colonel Sirtori was just giving a pass to two young American officers from the United State's steamship Iroquois, without which no one was allowed to enter the camp. As he had likewise given them an officer as guide, I joined them, and up we sauntered toward the heights leading to the Gebel Rosso and the pass the Mezzagna. We had soon left behind us the few remaining houses, and the ruins of the feudal castle to the left, the white limestone walls of which had something in them which reminded you of a skeleton. The ground all about is planted with olive-trees, vines, and different sorts of grain, which all grow luxuriantly in spite of the stony nature of the place. The general had pitched his camp on a tolerably extensive plateau just above the ruins, looking down on one side toward the plain and the range which ends at Cape Zaffarana, while on the other the peaks of the Gebel Rosso and the pass of Mezzagna were visible across a depression in the ground, looking very much like an extinct crater, and now partially filled with water, owing to the copious rains which had fallen during the last few days. It was one of those panoramas which suggest naturally your pitching your tent there – that is, if you have one. The word tent is erased from the military dictionary of Garibaldi. However, a popular general has to yield at times to his soldiers, and so he could not prevent them from sticking into the ground four of the lances with which the squadron, who have no muskets, are armed, and from throwing over them a blanket. Under the tent you could see the guacha saddle arranged as a pillow, and the black sheepskin covering as a bed. As for every one else, there were the olive-trees affording shade, plenty of stones for pillows, and perhaps for every tenth man a cloak or blanket. All around were picketed the horses, most of them entire, and behaving accordingly. The general himself was not there when we arrived; he had taken one of his morning strolls, but in front of his tent there were all his trusty followers – Colonel Turr, the Hungarian, although still suffering from the shot in his arm, received in last year's campaign, yet always ready where there is danger; Colonel Bixio, another trusty follower and well-known officer of the Cacciatori delle Alpi; Colonel Carini, the bravest of Sicilians, likewise an officer of that corps, besides a number of others, all brave like him, among them Garibaldi's young son, with a shot wound in his wrist, received at Calata Fimi, and the son of Daniel Manin, wounded in the thigh. There was the ex-priest Guzmaroli, a Romagnole, who has vowed the most enthusiastic worship to his hero, and follows him like his shadow, providing for his comforts, and watching his person in the moment of danger. There was a small cluster of guides, most of them of good Lombard families, meant to serve on horseback, but now on foot, and the foremost in the battle. Not the least remarkable among all these figures was the Sicilian monk, Frate Pantaleone – jolly, like the picture of a monk of the middle ages, but full of fire and patriotism, and as brave as any of the others. He had joined the force at Salemi, and did his best to encourage and comfort them. Several among the leading men from Palermo and its vicinity were likewise present among them, with several priests and monks, who are among the most sincere and energetic promoters of the movement. They were a strange sight, indeed, in this by no means very Catholic army; but I assure you their behavior has been such that the wildest among these youths honor and respect them, and in them their order.

"Well, all this motley crowd, increased now by the two young American naval men, and soon after joined by three British naval officers, was collected around a common nucleus – a smoking kettle, with the larger part of a calf in it, and a liberal allowance of onions, a basket with heaps of fresh bread, and a barrel containing Marsala. Every one helped himself in the most communistic manner, using fingers and knife, and drinking out of the solitary tin pot. It is only in this irregular warfare that you see these scenes in their greatest perfection. The long marches and countermarches, rains, fights, and sleeping on the ground, had made almost every one worthy to figure in a picture by Murillo, with all those grand Sicilian mountains, not unlike those of Greece, forming a background such as no picture can reproduce."

GARIBALDI IN COUNCIL

"Soon after my arrival, Garibaldi made his appearance, and received his foreign visitors with that charming, quiet simplicity which characterizes him, lending himself with great complaisance to the invariably recurring demands of autographs, and answering the numerous questions which were naturally put to him. It was only after the departure of his guests that the general resumed business. The question debated was nothing more nor less than to venture on a coup de main on Palermo the same night. There was no doubt, all the information went to show, that the Neapolitans had taken the bait thrown out for them – that they had taken a feigned retreat for a defeat, and the sending back of the guns toward the interior as a sign of discouragement. As to the flank movement to Misilmeri, they seemed to have no idea of it, for men come from Piani stated that they were in force in that place. Another considerable body of men was at Parco, and on the road beyond it. In Monreale, the reports spoke likewise of several thousand. In fact, the approaches to these two last-named places, called the Piana di Borazzo and the Theresa, both of which are close to the Palazzo Reale, in the southwest part of the town, were the points of concentration, while the outlets from the southerly and the southeasterly parts of the town were comparatively undefended. Former events had forced the Neapolitans to pay attention to the topography of the town, so as to remain masters of it in case of a popular rising. This was not very easy in such a town as Palermo, which, like a true southern town, forms a labyrinth of small and tortuous streets, flanked by high houses all provided with balconies. This was a serious drawback for the troops in a street fight. The Neapolitans did their best to repair the disadvantage. There are two streets, evidently of Spanish origin, which form the main arteries of the town. The first, called Via di Toledo, starting from the Marina at Porta Felice, traverses the town in a straight line from northeast to southwest, passing close to the Cathedral of Santa Rosalia, and ending at the Piazza Reale, the largest square of Palermo, on the opposite side of the town from which the roads start to Monreale and Parco. Besides the royal palace, supposed to be on the site of the old palace of the Emirs of Sicily, there are several large public buildings which line the square, the Archivescovado forming one corner, and the large convent of St. Elizabetha the other. The ground rises gently toward this part, which commands the whole town. At right angles to the Via di Toledo runs another street equally straight, the Strada Moquerada, which, starting from the Porto San Antonino, and traversing the whole town, leads out the road to La Favorita and to the Mole. The two intersect each other right in the centre of the town, where the octagonal place is called the Piazzi Bologni. The lower half of the town, from the sea to this place, had been almost abandoned, or rather committed to the tender care of the shipping and the Castello, which occupies a projecting height on the seashore, near the northeasterly corner of the town. A few posts at the gates of the town on this side, rather points of observation than of action, and a company or so in the building of the Finanze, situated in this part of the town, were all that remained of troops on that side.

"In order to establish and keep up the communication between the upper half of the town, the real point of defence, and the sea-shore, two large stradoni have been opened outside of the town, both of them starting from the neighborhood of the royal palace, and running down to the sea, near to the Villa Giulia, a large public garden adjoining the Marina, and the other passing through the Quartiere dei Quatri Venti, to the Mole. This latter stradone has always been considered as the line of retreat to the place of embarkation, and is flanked by large buildings, the political prison, some barracks, the criminal prison, and finally the works on the Mole itself.

"The plan which Garibaldi conceived from these dispositions, was to surprise the posts in the lower and comparatively ill-defended part of the town, to throw himself into the town, and then gradually work his way from street to street. The two roads leading to this part of the town run almost parallel, and not far from each other. That close to the sea-shore was the least guarded, containing merely a company or so, altogether cut off from all communication. The task would have been easier from this side, had it not been for the fear of the march of a long column being discovered, and thus an alarm given. The second, the highroad from the interior, was therefore chosen as the line of operations. It crosses, about half a mile from the town, the route Del Ammiraglio, leads through a large open street to the stradone on this side of the town, and enters the town at the Porta di Termini. At this gate the Neapolitans had made a sandbag barricade, which was occupied by two companies. The stradone before it was enfiladed by a couple of mountain guns, placed at the gate of Sant' Antonino. Beyond the stradone small forts extended all along the road up to the bridge, and the outposts were just on the other side of the bridge.

"With that just coup d'œil which Garibaldi certainly possesses, he had singled out this point as the most practicable. Having, with the exception of the troops he had brought with him, but rough, undisciplined guerrillas at his disposal, he saw that the best chance was to concentrate all his forces, and surprise or break through by main force. The operation was to be assisted by a general rise of the people in the town.

"Having sketched out his plan, he convoked the different guerrilla chiefs and informed them of his intention. He told them that it was not his custom to have councils of war, but he thought it for once good to consult them, as upon the resolution taken must depend the fate of Sicily, and perhaps of Italy. There were only two things to be done – either to try and get possession of Palermo by a coup de main, or else to withdraw and begin a regular organization in the interior, and form an army. He, for his part, was for a coup de main, which would at once settle the fate of the island. He told them to be brief in their remarks, and not deliberate long. Most were utterly astonished at the boldness of this plan, and some made remarks about the want of ammunition for their men. They were told for the hundredth time, that it was not long shots which imposed on the well-armed Neapolitans, but a determined rush in advance – that they ought not to waste their ammunition and fire off their guns for sport, and were promised whatever could be spared. This objection being waived, all expressed more or less loudly their approbation of the plan, and were dismissed with the injunction to animate their people and keep up their courage."

CHAPTER VIII

"I saw Garibaldi, and watch'd him nigh;I saw the lightnings that flash from his eye:He's not of the dust of which mortals are made,And what reaches his heart will not be of lead." Dall'Ongaro. T. D.PREPARATIONS TO ATTACK PALERMO – NIGHT MARCH – ATTACK – BATTLE – THE BOMBARDMENT

"The first idea was to make the attack in the middle of the night – the Neapolitans don't like to stir at night, and there was every chance of a panic among them; but there was some danger that way likewise for the Sicilian insurgents, and it was thought best to make such arrangements as would bring the force at dawn to the gates of the town. According to the original and better plan of the general himself and his adjutant-general, Colonel Turr, the movement was to have been made along the main road from Misilmeri, broad enough to admit of considerable development of the columns, and commodious in every respect. The native captains, however, suggested the Pass of Mezzagna, which descends from the heights behind Gebel Rosso into the plain of Palermo. According to their statements, it was much shorter and by no means difficult. Their statements were believed, and the whole force received orders to be concentrated by nightfall on the summit of the pass, crowned with a church.

"According to the first disposition, the troops brought by the general himself were to lead the way, and the squadre to follow; but some of the chiefs begged it as a favor for their corps to have the honor of being first in the town – a claim which could not be very well refused. The plan was, therefore, modified. The guides and three men from each company of the Cacciatori delle Alpi, were formed into an avant-garde, confided to Major Tüköri, a Hungarian, an officer who distinguished himself under General Kméty on the 29th of September, at Kars. Behind this avant-garde followed the Sicilians, commanded by La Maga, an emigrant, who had come over with Garibaldi. The second line was led by the riflemen of Genoa – excellent shots, all armed with the Swiss carbine. Behind them came the two battalions of Cacciatori delle Alpi, and in the rear the rest of the Sicilians.

"The order having been distributed, the different bands gradually worked their way toward the summit of the pass. The packing up at headquarters did not take much time; it soon after broke up its camp and followed the troops. I was mounted on a regular Rosinante, with a halter passed round the jaw, and provided with a saddle which seemed to have been formed to fit on the vertebræ of my lean black charger. A blanket was, however, found in due time, and on the whole I cannot complain. The road up to the pass winds along rows of gigantic cactus hedges, which give a thoroughly eastern character to the country. It was just sunset when we arrived on the top, where, through a gap, we could see the bay and town of Palermo and the sea beyond, looking more like a fairy picture than reality. All the mountains, with their rugged points naturally of a reddish tint, seemed to have drunk in the rays of the setting sun, and exhibited that rosy color which I had thought hitherto a special gift of the plain of Attica. While you had this charming scene before you, you looked behind, as it were, into the hearts of the mountains. It was one of the finest spots I ever saw, and all the country was fragrant with spring flowers, the perfume of which came out with redoubled vigor as soon as the sun had set. It proved a bad road for the expedition, that mountain pass, but it was lovely to look upon.

"In order to entertain the Neapolitans with the idea that all was safe on that side, the usual large fires were kindled on the tops of the mountains, and kept up long after our departure by men left behind for that purpose. Garibaldi went up to look at the position underneath, or, perhaps, to indulge in that kind of reverie to which he is subject in such solemn moments, and which ends in a concentration of all his faculties on the sole aim he has before him.

"The evening gun in the fort had been long reëchoed by the mountains, and the moon had risen clear and bright above our heads, giving a new charm to this lovely scenery, before we stirred."

THE NIGHT MARCH

"During this interval the picciotti (youngsters), as the patriots are called, were put into some kind of order, which, you will believe me, was no easy matter in the comparative darkness which prevailed; no chief knowing his men, and the men not recognizing their chief – every one acting for some one else, and no one able to give an answer. With the exception of the troops brought over by Garibaldi, all the rest seemed an entangled mass almost impossible to unravel. However, by degrees, those belonging to the same chief found themselves together, and the march began about ten, P.M. Either the Sicilian chieftains had never looked at the Pass of Mezzagna, or else they have curious ideas of a road; the whole is nothing but a track among big stones, crossing and recrossing the bed of a mountain torrent, following not unfrequently the bed of the torrent, leading over smooth masses of stones and across most awkward gaps – all this at an angle of twenty-five degrees, to be passed on horseback at night! Even the men could only go singly, which made our line a frightful length, and caused continual delays and stoppages. The general vowed never to believe another Sicilian report on the state of a mountain road. However, in the end, we reached the plain and came in among the olive-trees below, with few falls among the sure-footed horses. A halt was made until all the columns had descended, and during this halt an incident occurred which did not promise much for the future behavior of our picciotti. The horses in Sicily are left for the most part entire, hence continual fighting and considerable neighing, which was so inconvenient in a night expedition of this kind that several of the most vicious steeds had to be sent back. One of them still remained, and began its antics; the rider lost patience, which made matters worse. Those nearest threw themselves back in haste, and communicated the movement to those behind. These, many of whom had sat down and began to doze, mistook in their dreams, probably, the trees for Neapolitans, the stars for so many shells, and the moon for a colossal fireball; at any rate, the majority of them were, with one bound, in the thickets on both sides of the road, several fired off their muskets in their fright, and very little was wanting to cause a general panic. Every one did what he could to restore confidence, but the effect was produced and reacted, as you will see by and by. Another incident occurred, which might have led to the failure of the whole expedition. The Sicilian guides who were with the avant-garde missed the road, and instead of taking a by-road which led into the main road we had to pursue, they continued on the road near the hill-side, which would have brought us just where the Neapolitans were in the greatest strength. The mistake was perceived in time and repaired, but not without considerable loss of time. At last the column emerged on to the main road, which is broad and skirted by high garden walls. As we had lost considerable time with all these contretemps, and as dawn was approaching, we had to make haste, but whether from fatigue or the impression of the night panic, the picciotti could not be brought to move very fast. It was just the first glimmer of dawn when we passed the first houses, which extend in this direction a long way out of the town of Palermo. The squadre, who ought to have known the locality better, began shouting and 'evvivaing,' just as if we had been close to the gates. Had it not been for this blunder, the avant-garde might have surprised the post on the bridge of the Ammiragliato, and probably penetrated into the town without the loss of a man. As it was, the shouting not only roused those on guard on the bridge, but likewise gave an opportunity to the Neapolitans to strengthen the force at the gate of Termini, and to make all their dispositions for a defence from the flank.

"Instead, therefore, of surprising the post on the bridge, the avant-garde was received by a well-sustained fire, not only in front, but from the houses in their flanks. At the first sound of the musketry, most of the picciotti were across the garden walls, but not with the view of firing from behind them, leaving thus the 30 or 40 men of the avant-garde all isolated in the large exposed street which leads to the bridge. The first battalion of the Cacciatori was sent up, and as it did not carry the position fast enough, the second was sent after it soon after. While these were driving back the Neapolitans, every one did his best to drive the picciotti forward. It was not so easy, in the beginning especially, when the sound of cannon was heard in front, although its effects were scarcely visible. However, the picciotti, who remind me very much of Arnout Bashibazouks, can be led on after the first unpleasant sensation has passed away, especially when they see that it is not all shots that kill or wound – not even the cannon-shots, which make so formidable a noise. They could see this to perfection this morning, for although the Neapolitan rifles are scarcely inferior to the best fire-arms, I never saw so little damage done by so much shooting. Every one put himself, therefore, to work to lead and urge on the picciotti, driving them out of the sheltered places by all kinds of contrivances, and often by blows and main force. After some trouble, most of them were safely brought through the open space before the bridge, but the general tendency was to go under rather than above the bridge, which is, like all bridges over torrents, high, and was, in this instance, exposed to a heavy cross fire from the Piana di Borazzo, where the Neapolitans had a loopholed wall and some guns mounted, which threw a few ill-aimed shells. While the general himself, and many of his staff, did their best to make them leave this shelter again and proceed, the avant-garde had chased back the Neapolitans to the stradone which runs down to the sea just in front of the Porta di Termini. The Neapolitan fort at the gate, considerably reinforced, opened a hot fire, which swept down the long avenue of houses leading to the bridge, while at the same time the two guns and the troops posted at the Porta Sant' Antonino, brought a cross fire to bear on the attackers. But this was no obstacle to the brave fellows who led the way. They did not lose time with firing, but rushed on with the bayonet. The commander of the avant-garde, who was a Hungarian major, and three of the guides, were the first across the sand-bag barricade in the town, but the leader was wounded by a shot which shattered his left knee. Otherwise the loss had been trifling. While the avant-garde and the Cacciatori chased the Neapolitans from spot to spot, the Palermitans began likewise to stir, but, justice compels me to say, only in the parts which the troops had left.