Page 232 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

230 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

in 20 infantry battalions, 3 Bersaglieri battalions, 2 Cavalry squadrons and one
field battery, and he was tasked with carrying out offensive reconnaissance along
the Volturno and reconnaissance along the flanks of the enemy to assess the loca-
tion of their positions and discover their intentions and shake their morale.
Therefore, under the threat of riots broken out in Palermo, he and his deputy
dictator Antonio Mordini left to go to that city, to bring to those inflamed patri-
ots his convincing words of wisdom and to win with the fascination of his per-
son those who, without him, would have perhaps required the use of force to
put down.
As we said, he had given orders so that the volunteers could follow the rapid
movements of their commander. However, we must think that until September
20 th the small armada had to be logically considered as going through a crisis,
not only because many of its members were far away, some dealing with the
needs of an often challenged public order, but also because in the case of a real
fight against considerable forces it was necessary to proceed to the reorganisation
of the units forming their army and duly organise the new contingents gathered
during the march from Calabria to Campania.
Without doubt, these same needs had to be felt also in the Bourbon field;
there, too, a reorganisation of an army so heavily tested in those last months had
to be envisaged, but those were nevertheless regular troops, well trained and
armed, and therefore their needs and problems were far less than those of
Garibaldi’s volunteers.
Therefore much, perhaps very much, could have been obtained by the
Bourbons if they had taken advantage of that particularly favourable moment
and had not waited on the other bank of the Volturno but had immediately and
resolutely attacked. But instead, they just limited themselves to defend the
th
fortress of Capua, since the fights that took place between September 14 -19 th
had been only a partial reactions to counteract the enemy’s actions and re-estab-
lish the situation where it seemed that it could change to the enemy’s advantage.
So during the month of September the two opponents tested their forces by
repeated attacks and skirmishes organised here and there and little by little took
up positions in the place where the battle of the Volturno would later be fought.
Even though these fights had very little influence on the greater battle, they were
nevertheless not without effect. First of all, they enabled Garibaldi and his offi-
cers to get a clear idea of the ground on which they would fight the decisive bat-
tle; then they provoked in the Bourbons the wrong conviction that Garibaldi’s
men were already fighting at full strength and induced them to delay the offen-