Page 222 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

220 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

The volunteers had indeed paid a high price for their first victory on the
continent (200 men out of action), but the morale and material results were
huge. As for the defeated, the Dictator granted them, as usual, generous con-
ditions: they were left free to go to their houses and the officers were left with
their sword and equipment.
After the conquest or Reggio, events came to a head and immediately a
new success consolidated Garibaldi’s situation that still could not be consid-
ered good.
st
In the night between the 21 and the 22 nd , Cosenz embarked part of his
forces – the Assanti Brigade, the Genovese Carabinieri and de Flotte’s foreign
company - on board of the fleet of Punta del Faro, landed at Favazzina, not
far from Scilla, and headed for Solano, putting to flight the few Bourbon
forces that appeared along the way. In Solano, a quick fight put that position
out of action, but de Flotte, a noble and valiant soldier whose loss was long
lamented by Garibaldi, died on that occasion. Cosenz then proceeded
towards Villa S. Giovanni, and found himself behind Briganti, whereas
Garibaldi, informed of the arrival and movement of his men, accelerated his
march, reached his enemies and attacked them in their frontal line and flanks.
Briganti did much less to escape the impending danger. His troops were
demoralized by the long wait and the negative turn of events and their offi-
cials had also, in part, corrupted them. After loosing some hundred men in
the skirmishes that followed, he fell back to Gallico, hoping to meet General
Melendez. But the latter, too, was moving slowly, without too much enthu-
siasm to fight, and he too was waiting for the already problematic assistance
of General Ruiz. Finally, between Gallico and Catona, Briganti and Melendez
joined their forces and agreed to go together to the mountains around Piale
and Melia. In the meantime, Cosenz had not remained inoperative, nor had
he lost contact with the retreating Bourbon troops, and if the continuous
pressure did not cause important fights, it nevertheless increased the crisis of
the royal forces and provoked many desertions and, finally, a meeting
between Garibaldi and Briganti that led to a 24hour truce.
One must wander what General Vial, the commander in chief of the
Neapolitan forces in Calabria, was doing during those events. Without orders
from the capital, badly assisted by his men, he was by then a passive victim
of the events. Completely in the dark about what was going on, he went to
Pizzo with 4 infantry companies, embarked on board of the Stella and sailed
to Bagnara to assess what had happened. There he was informed about the