Page 167 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE 1860 CAMPAIGN IN SICILY 165

In this way, the first act of this great drama had been concluded; Gari-
baldi, after many uncertainties and through many difficulties, had succeeded
in setting foot on the island. «Fortune now smiled on these valiant soldiers»,
he wrote in his «Memoirs». «The Mille - said Crispi – in their sailing could
rely on Garibaldi and on God».
In the meantime, on the island, Corleone, Campofiorito and Bisacquino
rose up and the revolt came again to knock at Palermo’s doors.

May 12 th – At 5.30am, the small army started its march on Salemi,
accompanied by some volunteers from Marsala led by Tommaso Pipitone
and by a friar named Francesco.
All the roads in the western part of the island led to the Calatafimi-Salemi
front. Along the entire course, the ground was flat with small hills and almost
entirely unprotected, a sea of small hills and pleasant plains that offered few
tactical possibilities of attack apart from the mountain area between Salemi
and Calatafimi.
This area is formed by the heights of Mount Grande, Mount Polizzo,
Mount Pusellesi, Mount Rose Mount Baronia, that connect in the north with
the highest mountain, Mount Inici, through the Calatafìmi chain. And since
this area is full of sheltered areas and depressions, its highest areas have the
shape of peaked pyramids, partly calcareous with barren sides.
The march was hard for the volunteers because of the excessive heat and
the road conditions, which presented continuous slopes without shadow or
water. At that time, the Marsala-Salemi road was not all a carriageway; it
ended soon after the former Buttagagna feud, about 15 kilometres far from
Marsala, and resumed 6 kilometres before Salemi. Between these two sec-
tions, there was a cow or mule track stretching for about ten kilometres. In
Buttagana, Baron Chitarra’s feud, the volunteers had their first stop and were
largely fed and rested, they then resumed their march. Every now and then,
they met peasants and “canpieri”, i.e. farm guardians, on foot or on horse-
back, who at first were surprised and then clapped their hands shouting
«Hurray!»; Garibaldi often stopped to hug and kiss some of them.
At 6.30pm, they stopped in Rampingallo, about 8 km from Salemi, after
about 30 hours of marching. There, in Baron Mistretta’s farm, the young
Antonino Forte, the Baron’s nephew, largely provided for their supplies. In
the night the S. Anna brothers and Baron Mocarta, arrived on horseback
from Alcamo, with about 60 men from Paceco, Mazara and Alcamo, and
joined the volunteers.