Page 199 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

THE 1860 CAMPAIGN IN SICILY 197

However, the obstacles appeared always insuperable to Garibaldi’s troops;
the immense cane thickets and scrubs prevented their bayonet attacks and
aided the fire of the royal artillery. Nor was it possible for Garibaldi to direct
their action from below. From Porta Messina and the castle, the fire of the
royal troops was more and more effective while Garibaldi’s soldiers advanced;
the valiant Major Migliavacca, who had fought in Rome and Varese, was
killed, and Colonel Corte was wounded.
But suddenly, near the beach of S. Papino, the masts of a ship appeared,
waving a tricolour flag; it was the Tukery that had arrived in the harbour.
Garibaldi threw himself into a boat, rowed at full speed towards the ship,
climbed to the top of its main mast, studied the situation, gave orders to the
commandant of the steamboat to change course and to machine-gun the
Bourbons’ right flank, and launched all available reserves of Cosenz,
Guerzoni and Fabrizi against their left flank. So the flanks of the royal forces
were driven back little by little. At first, Bosco withdrew to Milazzo; then,
fearing that his troops could be machine-gunned from the Tukery, he with-
drew to the fortress, still fighting; at 5pm the fire ceased.
Casualties among Garibaldi’s troops were very serious: 750 among dead
and wounded men, and among them may officers. They demonstrated their
heroism, and so did the Sicilian volunteers, especially “those led by the
English colonel, who suffered many dead and wounded people” (Unità
th
Italiana, August 10 ). Also the royal forces fought furiously and they very
likely would have achieved a victory, if the garrison in Milazzo (700 men of
st
the 1 regiment) had taken part in the fight, but they didn’t, “since Colonel
Pironti refused to help Bosco” (De Sivo), because Bosco was younger than he.
“Some history writers wrote, and they were believed for a long time, that
the population of Milazzo welcomed us with boiling oil and roof tiles, and I
really do not know how they could write such a nonsense” (Bandi).
At the end of the fight, the situation of the two parties was as follows:
Garibaldi was in possession of the peninsula of Milazzo and its harbour;
Bosco had withdrawn into the fortress, already surrounded by barricades; he
could not embark on some ship or withdraw to Messina, without engaging a
fight in serious conditions, as outnumbered as he was..

st
July 21 -26 th – On the 21 st the two parties did not make any move;
Bosco hoped to receive help from Clary.
On the 22 nd three French merchant steamboats appeared in the harbour,