Page 183 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE 1860 CAMPAIGN IN SICILY 181

Then, looking at Bixio, he added: “Nino, tomorrow in Palermo». And he
replied: “either in Palermo or in hell”.
Giovanni Sulli pointed out to La Masa that each person with a rifle had
four bullets. “We will launch a bayonet attack”, replied La Masa. “But there
are no bayonets, and the sabres we have cannot be put on shotguns “. And
La Masa replied: “go to the assault with the weapons you have, and God will
assist you”.
On that day many foreigners arrived at the camp and brought precious
news: they were officers from English and American vessels anchored in the
harbour, and correspondents of different newspapers, among which Eber, an
Hungarian, correspondent of The Times, that Garibaldi appointed as
colonel. Also a young man from Palermo arrived, Michele Pojero, dressed as
an American officer, bringing a map of Palermo received from the city’s secret
revolutionary committee, showing the exact location of all troop positions.
The small operation corps, in the meantime, crossing the Stoppa Plain, had
arrived in the Gibilrossa monastery. And there, among those wild hills, those
steep crags from where Palermo receives the light of the rising sun, the Sicilian
insurgents were gathered together with Garibaldi’s troops, Italians from the
north and from the south: Palermitans and Piedmontese, people from Trapani
and Lombardy, from Agrigento and Genoa. There, on those mountains “the
fiery mountains of Gibilrossa”, the Kingdom of Italy really took shape.
But what was the situation in the city?
th
Regarding Garibaldi’s retreat of the 25 th and 26 , the lieutenant, misled
by Captain Chinnici, wrote to Naples and reported groundless news in
Palermo.
To Naples he wrote: “Garibaldi’s flight, this ghost of the Italian revolution,
has exerted a healthy influence on the good people, has stressed the prestige
of the legitimate authority and now we may be sure that, chased by Your
Majesty’s valiant soldiers, he and his horde will end up slaughtered by the
populations, eager to get their weapons and the gold that rumours say they
bring with them.
It seems that Garibaldi is directed to the coast of Sciacca, where he hopes
to find safety”.
In Palermo he issued a proclamation: “Garibaldi’s band, always chased, is
withdrawing in disorder, crossing the Corleone district.
The insurgents who had joined him have dispersed and are going back to
their towns, discouraged and depressed, since they let these foreign invaders