Page 234 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

232 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

deployed in front of that city. Now, if we consider that the 20,000 Bourbon
soldiers led by General Salzano where mostly deployed in the area surround-
ing Capua, whereas only two brigades were garrisoned in Caiazzo, we must
see that the action planned had many possibilities of success. But the Medici
Division could not leave Naples yet and this negative situation had, by itself,
to induce Türr to abandon this idea.
More and more worried of the possibility that on the 19 th the enemy
would advance, and believing that his volunteers would be at a disadvantage,
he decided to carry out his plan anyway with the forces at his disposal, to
engage the enemy on the whole of the Volturno line and head for Caiazzo.
And he really lacked any foresight and made a mistake in assessing the nec-
essary forces for that difficult undertaking: since only the Light Infantrymen
of Bologna led by Major Cattabene, an artillery unit and an Engineers com-
pany were charged with the crossing of the river and the conquest of the town
and that was indeed a weak force, that, if the circumstances had required it,
could have been supported by the battalion of custom soldiers.
Sadly, to strengthen Türr in his conviction that he was on the eve of a seri-
ous enemy action, on the 15 th and 16 th the Bourbon forces carried out vio-
lent attacks at the outposts in front of S. Maria and S. Leucio, where
Garibaldi’s soldiers reacted with great energy responding to their fire and lead-
ing bayonet attacks. And so, during the 18 th orders were given for the action
of the following day that, although modified in its general lines, had to con-
sist of a demonstration on Capua and on Major Cattabene’s raid on Caiazzo.
More precisely, Colonel Rüstow, appointed as Chief of Staff, with the
Milano and La Masa Brigades had to head for Capua, the Eber Brigade had to
head for Sant’Angelo and the battalions of the Spangaro Brigade had to head
for Capua, too. This imprudence of the leaders and the enthusiasm of their sol-
diers gave to the fight of the 19 th a course that perhaps Türr had not wanted.
While, on the left, the Spangaro Brigade led the attack against the Foresta
Lodge, Rüstow’s troops valiantly engaged a fight with the Bourbon troops,
who had promptly left the fortress,
The Milano brigade, supported by the La Masa Brigade was already
advancing relentlessly and taking the enemy on his flank and front line and
everything led the red shirts to hope for an overwhelming success and to pen-
etrate inside the walls of Capua when, all of a sudden, the drawbridge was
lifted and from the ramparts the cannon roared immediately inflicting seri-
ous losses on the attackers.