Page 187 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE 1860 CAMPAIGN IN SICILY 185

“Nothing was more provisional and more dangerous than this victory”
(Guerzoni), however Garibaldi assumed the dictatorship of Sicily “on behalf
of H.M. the King of Italy”, appointed La Loggia as chairman of the revolu-
tionary committee, took care of the creation of a new city council to replace
the previous one. He established the committees of the barricades, the
ammunitions, the finance and the food office, he also issued a decree by
which he called all the municipalities of the island to raise in arms and march
on Palermo to complete the victory.
Aware of the military importance of the Quattro Canti, a crossroad of Via
Toledo and Via Maqueda, he defended it with fortifications and made it the
centre of operations to gain ground..
Lanza was in the royal palace, dismayed and bewildered, and the Marshal
was with him. From there he saw the Quattro Canti and the fortification
works. He had many soldiers available (in the royal palace and in the archbish-
op’s palace) but he did not dare to order them to attack Piazza Pretoria. The
special fascination exerted by Garibaldi’s name, the arrival of his column, well
known for being formed by people used to the hardest risks of war, the wrath
of the people, who had already moved as one man, extinguished the little
energy he still had. Meanwhile, Landi, who was near the Quattro Canti, with-
drew to the square in front of the royal palace (now Piazza Della Vittoria);
whereas Lieutenant Colonel Marulli bravely fought with the 3 rd line regiment
at Porta Maqueda, where he clashed with La Porta’s squads, but, wounded, he
had to withdraw. Cataldo, who was looking over the city from the north, fell
back at 4pm for no obvious reason, and left the important position of the
Quattro Venti stripped of defence, and with it, the prisons, from where the
prisoners escaped en masse and went to strengthen the ranks of the insurgents.
Fights broke out here and there: in Piazza Bologni, at the archbishop’s palace,
in the Ballarò district, in the English gardens, at S. Francesco di Paola, at Villa
Filippina, at the Benedictine monastery, in S. Giacomo district. All these
attempts of the royal troops, isolated and without control, strengthened the
insurgents. All the lower part of the city, apart from the Finanze, fell in to the
hands of the insurgents, and the Ballarò district, too, abandoned by General
Letizia, and S. Antonino barracks, a very important position since from Via
Oreto the road to Falsomiele and Villagrazia could be easily blocked.
Lanza then ordered Colonel Briganti, commandant of the stronghold of
Castellammare, to bomb the city; one shot every five minutes. Only one ship
of the fleet fired some shots with one cannon that, as luck would have it, just