Page 239 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

FROM THE STRAITS TO THE VOLTURNO 237

and wanted to attack and they had been urging the King and many generals
to do so for a long time.
The royal forces were mostly gathered in Capua and deployed on the right
bank of the Volturno, between Triflisco and Caiazzo, and their number was
large. Since, if we consider the Von Mechel Brigade (three battalions of foreign-
ers and three batteries) General Ruiz and General Perrone’s troops as well as the
units of the 3 rd Division scattered along the river, on the evening of September
30 th the Bourbon troops totalled about 40,000 men and 42 cannons.
Even then, when the scouting and information services worked in a
primitive way, the imminence of the battle was felt through many elusive
signs by commanders and soldiers, especially if the opposing armies were in
contact or not too far away, and so the skirmishes that took place on the 26 th
th
and 29 th just confirmed what was by then expected. On the 30 , then, the
Bourbon troops demonstrated in S. Maria and even tried to cross the
Volturno near Triflisco. But their raid on the left bank did not deceived the
volunteers and was promptly repelled, which did not prevent the Neapolitans
boasting that the action had been a real success, and to exalt, for want of any-
thing better, the precision of their artilleries. Also Garibaldi’s men boasted of
that feat of arms, perhaps with more reason, since they had prevented the
enemies from reaching their goal.
st
And so they came to the battle of October 1 .
Marshal Ritucci’s plan was simple: to defeat the enemy on the left bank of
the Volturno and to continue towards Naples; to lead a frontal attack against
the enemy’s positions between S. Tammaro and S. Angelo, and at the same
time outflank them from the north, via Dugenta, towards the bridges of Valle.
And therefore he ordered the 1 st Division to march from Capua on S.
Angelo, the 2 nd Division to advance on S. Maria, whereas he gathered the
cavalry near Capua, on the road to S. Tammaro. The outflanking had to be
led by von Mechel who, with the help of the Ruiz and Perrone brigades, had
to conquer the hills between Maddaloni and Caserta and take the defenders
of S. Maria from behind.
But the Bourbon commander, forced to take actions by the many pres-
sures put on him, doubted the possibility of his success even before the bat-
tle had started, and claimed that he fought only in obedience to his sovereign
and with serious doubts about the outcome, in the expectation that von
Mechel, as stubborn and quarrelsome as he was, would not comply with the
orders received.