Page 90 - General Giuseppe GARIBALDI - english version

88 GENERAL GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI

To face this new danger, Garibaldi obtained by the Triumvirate permission
to go out of Rome with 2300 men: his legion, the Lombard Bersaglieri,
some battalions of students, the custom soldiers, the emigrants and a few
Dragoons. Having gathered these forces on Piazza del Popolo and shrewdly
spread the news that they were moving towards Civitavecchia, Garibaldi went
th
out of Rome on the evening of May 4 . Since it was not possible to confront
directly the large Bourbon army on the Alban Hills, he though to threaten
them on their right flank, so to keep them at bay and prevent, or at least delay
their advance on Rome. As an expert guerrilla commander, however, he first
of all thought to deceive his enemies about his movements and the amount
of his forces and resorted to night marches and frequent changes of direction.
After marching for a few kilometres along via Flaminia, he therefore turned
right and led his men to Tivoli along the Tiburtina, and the following day
they camped in Hadrian’s Villa. On the evening of the 6 th he suddenly
attacked the camp and moved towards Palestrina; once there, he sent small
detachments to scout towards Valmontone and Monte Porzio. One of these
detachments, led by Ugo Bassi, the valiant Garibaldian priest, exchanged the
first gunshots with the Bourbons.
General Winspeare then ordered General Lanza to advance without delay
on Palestrina, to chase away «the bandit who occupied the road to Rome».
Two columns moved around noon of the 9 th against Garibaldi’s troops who
in the meantime had withdrawn to the top of a hill behind Castel San Pietro,
among the ruins of the ancient Praeneste. From there, they saw the enemies
drawing close along the two parallel roads: on the left, Lanza advanced along
a path barely visible today; on the right, along the main street, marched
Colonel Novi. As soon as the assailants were at the gates of the city – the
one named Valmontone, at the south-east, and the one named the Roman
gate, at the south west – Garibaldi’s troops did not wait for their attack but
rushed along the cobbled and steep streets of Palestrina, burst out from
behind the walls and engaged the enemy. Manara, with his Bersaglieri and
some legionnaires, attacked on the left, against Novi’s troops; Garibaldi and
his faithful Nino Bixio rushed to the right (Roman gate) where there were a
large number of enemies to face. At the Valmontone gate, the fight soon
turned in favour of Garibaldi’s troops; the fray raged more relentlessly on the
other side, where only three hours later did Lanza decide to order the retreat,
since the ground did not allow him to impose his superiority with the use of