Page 170 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

168 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

In Gaeta, 4 line battalions, two light infantrymen battalions and 1 battery
under the lead of General Bonanno were embarked for Marsala. Bonanno
sailed slowly, and instead of going to Marsala, stopped in Palermo on the 14 th
to request from Castelcicala orders that he, Bonanno, had already received. In
the hope that, by that time, Landi was already pursuing Garibaldi, Bonanno’s
troops were disembarked; but Sforza received orders to go to Trapani and join
th
Landi. In the war council that Castelcicala held on the 12 th and the 13 , the
idea prevailed not to disperse their forces against the partisans, but to wait for
their attack in points not far away from Palermo; and therefore the mobile
columns operative in the hinterland were called back to Palermo.
th
Landi had left Palermo on the 9 th and had arrived in Alcamo on the 12 ,
travelling in a coach because of his old age. He commanded the 8 th light
infantrymen battalion, the 2 nd battalion of the 10 th line regiment (Lieutenant
Colonel Pini), the 2 nd Carabinieri battalion (Lieutenant Colonel Cosiron), a
squadron of light cavalrymen and half a mountain battery; in total, about
2700 men and 4 pieces.
At first he had decided to march on Salemi, where the presence of many
squads and a «Piedmontese battalion» had been reported; but he received a dis-
patch informing him that the war council had decided for all mobile columns
to return to Palermo. He then decided to keep a middle course and stopped at
the Saracen castle of Calatafimi, and from there he sent some advanced detach-
ments. Six companies with two cannons and a cavalry platoon were sent
towards Belvedere and other two companies were sent to protect the road lead-
ing to Alcamo. With these orders he probably wanted to intimidate both the
populations and Garibaldi’s soldiers, with whom he thought a decisive fight
would not be engaged
And, indeed, the fight was casual, since, as Landi later said, it was due to the
fact that, once arrived at the Vita hills, the six companies of infantrymen led by
Sforza discovered the enemy’s outposts and were welcomed by them with gun-
fire. Therefore Major Sforza had to prepare for the fight and took a good posi-
tion on a hill called Piante di Romano.
However, Garibaldi was still undecided about what to do.
He first of all feared an attack by the royal troops in Salemi, since he believed
that they would naturally drive back as soon as possible this so-called «rascal»;
then he was not yet able to decide whether it was better to attempt an act of
bravery and march on the road to Palermo, or to follow a more cautious and
apparently safer approach and set off for those pathways leading to S. Ninfa