Page 180 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

178 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

in the evening he moved with the cannons, about forty artillerymen, some
lightly wounded volunteers and 150 young insurgents as escort with Corrao.
“Poor Orsini! - Said Crispi, while seeing that scanty column march away,
knowing that at any moment they could be attacked by a large number of
enemies – He is going to sacrifice himself”. And Garibaldi repeated, with
conviction: “Poor Orsini!”.
When Orsini was a good distance away, Garibaldi started off with his
Mille and some squads. They marched along the carriageway, up to the point
where it met the mule track located between Mulino Ciaferra and the
Malanoce Bridge, almost at the 18 th mile; then led by the two Sicilians,
Petrotta and Dorangricchia, they took the mule track.
“Once left the military road – wrote Abba – we were led through narrow
tracks, in a wood, in silence, humiliated and saddened”. After walking along
Rocca del Corvo, the column reached Cascavadotti, in the Pianetto Woods,
at 10pm and there they stopped.

May 25 th – Resuming his march, Garibaldi went along the mule track
crossing the feuds of Turdieppi, Borgetto and Parcovecchio, and reached
Marineo, at about 09:30. He left the squads out of the town and entered it
with his Mille, crossed the town and climbed on the Calvario for the usual
reconnaissance. He requested information from the residents and took some
th
rest. Here he received a note from La Masa, written on the night of the 24 :
“ I struck camp yesterday to march as you ordered. When we reached the sur-
roundings of Parco, I heard of your retreat through Marineo. I believed that
it was of vital importance for our war to fall back to Misilmeri and set up our
camp at Gibilrossa, so not to alarm the country, since if we withdraw they
may believe that we have been defeated. Gibilrossa is an excellent position
that I will keep at all costs to be immediately operative on Palermo. I beseech you
to join me here. A retreat towards the hinterland would be ruinous”.
The general replied: “I hope to be in Misilmeri tomorrow”. In fact, at
6pm, Garibaldi’s column set out for that place. It was a “ruinous march,
due to the condition of the ground and the abundant rain, an extraordinary
occurrence in that season” (Caivino). In Misilmeri, although it was 10:30, the
citizens came to meet them by torchlight, “but the commander, entering the
town, calm and smiling for this moving welcome, asked for silence and dark-
ness, and that sea of lights that had appeared as if by magic, disappeared as if
by magic, and that crowd that a few moments before was frenziedly applaud-