Page 225 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

FROM THE STRAITS TO THE VOLTURNO 223

reaching Naples, and therefore he ordered all those troops to gather in
Monteleone, intending to take a decision about their future at a later point.
But General Ghio gathered his men on the plain of Maida, and was confi-
dent that he could escape the order of the Dictator and reach Cosenza, from
where he would have reached Naples. He was already implementing his plan,
when near Soveria, between Tiriolo and Cosenza, he found his way blocked by
baron Stocco, sent there by Garibaldi. And while the people of Calabria
demonstrated that they wanted to defend themselves bravely, if the Neapolitans
wanted to advance, the Dictator had ordered the Eber brigade to march on
Palmi from Bagnara, and the Milano and Spiazzi brigades to march on Troppa
and, on the road to Soveria, behind Ghio, all the vanguard of Cosenz arrived.
The Bourbons made a weak attempt to break the circle surrounding them, but
then immediately surrendered and gave up their weapons, horses and ammuni-
th
tions. On August 30 , Garibaldi proclaimed: “Transmit to Naples and every-
where else that yesterday, with my brave men from Calabria, I ordered 10,000
soldiers led by General Ghio to put down their weapons and I have paved the
way for the last triumphs of the Italian cause. The trophy of this surrender was
12 field guns, 10,000 rifles and an immense quantity of war materials”.
And so, having put to flight the last Bourbon resistance and concluded the
second phase of that lucky campaign, Garibaldi could focus all his thoughts
on the conquest of Naples. In fact, immediately after Soveria, he gave orders
that the small Army could move, by land and sea, towards the enemy capital.
In the meantime, General Vial arrived in Naples, but he had with him not
even the remainder of the Calabrian army; he only brought the field safe
with 250,000 ducats.
Later on, in Gaeta, the King wanted that this unlucky commander, Ruiz
and Melendez to be judged by a war Council, since he attributed to them the
responsibility of the events that had deprived him of his Kingdom and
reduced it to a fortress for the ministers and the troops, who, anyway, when
they had been led by men of honour, had shown great faith and bravery.

While from Calabria, now lost to the King’s cause, the volunteers started
their march northwards, in Naples people lived in that state of concern and
uncertainty that characterises the time preceding great political cataclysms.
Already until mid August, the government, increasingly worried about
the progress of Garibaldi and the spreading of the revolt, and was even more
worried about the repercussions that could arise any time in the capital, had