Departure and journey volunteers of the
Thousand from
Brescia,
Lombardy (1860), hand-colored on 9 May 1860 In March 1860, exile
Rosolino Pilo exhorted
Giuseppe Garibaldi to take charge of an expedition to liberate southern Italy from Bourbon rule. The expeditionary force was in full preparation and was organizing itself publicly throughout the Italian peninsula.
Agostino Bertani,
Giovanni Acerbi, and
Nino Bixio were active in
Genoa, and
Giuseppe Missori and
Giuseppe Sirtori in
Lombardy. By May 1860, Garibaldi had collected 1,089 volunteers for his expedition to Sicily. A total of 336 volunteers came from the contemporary Italian regions, including Genoa (156 volunteers),
Tuscany (78 volunteers),
Sicily (45 volunteers),
Naples (46 volunteers), with only 11 from
Rome and the
Papal States. The largest number of volunteers came from
Austrian Lombardy and Venetia, with 434 from Lombardy and 194 from Venetia. An additional 33 foreign volunteers joined the expedition. Thus they became known as the
Redshirts. The Redshirts were very popular and influenced many armies worldwide. For example, during the
American Civil War, the Union's
Garibaldi Guard and its Confederate counterpart, the
Garibaldi Legion, wore red shirts as a part of their uniforms. During the night of 5 May, a small group of Redshirts led by
Nino Bixio "seized" two steamships in Genoa from the
Rubattino shipping company (the ships were actually provided by Rubattino following a secret agreement with the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, which paid the temporary rent of the two ships). The two ships were renamed
Il Piemonte and
Il Lombardo. That night, the expedition meticulously controlled by the Piedmontese authorities, According to Frederick Schneid, "Before embarking on the adventure, Garibaldi once again pledged his loyalty to
Victor Emmanuel II and proclaimed that his intention was to conquer Sicily for the king. There is every indication that there was far more collusion between
Cavour and Garibaldi, if not Victor Emmanuel and Garibaldi. After Garibaldi landed in Sicily, Admiral
Persano received orders to support the expedition." On 7 May, having no ammunition or gunpowder, Garibaldi decided to stop at
Talamone, on the
Tuscan coast, where he knew a military fort existed. In addition to the ammunition, he recovered three old cannons and a hundred rifles from the Sardinian army garrison stationed at fort. A second stop was made on 9 May, near
Porto Santo Stefano (capital of
Monte Argentario), for coal supply. a title obtained during the 1859 campaign. The two steamers, to avoid Bourbon ships, had followed an unusual route, which had taken them almost to the
Tunisian coast. On this route near the Tunisian coast, however, it was observed that on the morning of the last day of navigation, at the
Il Lombardos speed of 7 miles per hour and after 40 hours of navigation, the two steamers could not be more than 280 miles from the departure from Argentario promontory and therefore approximately at the height of the
Aegadian Islands or to the west of them, at least 70 miles from
Cape Bon, without considering delays and stops. The
Thousand, intending to turn towards
Sciacca, after having excluded
Menfi, between
Selinunte and
Sciacca, due to shallow water and disembarkation difficulties, then headed for
Marsala, as they were informed by the crews of an English sailing ship and a Sicilian fishing vessel owned by master Strazzeri that the city's port was not protected by Bourbon vessels. while according to other sources, the maximum number that could be mobilized with the reserves totaled 130,000.
Landing in Sicily lands in
Marsala, 11 May 1860 Garibaldi's landing in
Marsala on 11 May 1860, on the westernmost point of Sicily, was favored by various circumstances, in particular by the presence of two
Royal Navy ships under Admiral
Rodney Mundy in the port of Marsala, the gunboat
HMS Argus and sloop-of-war
HMS Intrepid. Due to their presence in the harbour, the
Bourbon ships were deterred from interfering. The
Lombardo was attacked and sunk only after the disembarkation had been completed, while the
Piemonte was captured. Furthermore, the Bourbon commanders, ignoring the recommendations of the secret services of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, just one day before the landing, had the column of General Letizia and Major d'Ambrosio repatriated to
Palermo to face the insurrectionary threat in the Sicilian capital. The landing had been preceded by the arrival of
Francesco Crispi and others, who had the task of gaining the support of the locals for the volunteers. According to the historian
George Macaulay Trevelyan in his book
Garibaldi and the Thousand,
Argus and
Intrepid did nothing to help Garibaldi, nor could they have because their boilers were turned off and they were moored offshore, with their captains Marryat and Winnington-Ingram on the ground together with portions of their crews. The Royal Navy's neutrality was confirmed during the following battle of Palermo, when Garibaldi, his troops almost out of gunpowder, unsuccessfully requested more from the captains of British warships moored off the coast of the city. They were joined, as early as 12 May, by 200 Sicilian volunteers commanded by the Sant'Anna brothers. Their forces increased due to the subsequent landings of Sardinian troops in civilian clothes and the liberation of prisoners taken from the Bourbon prisons.
Calatafimi and Palermo , 15 May 1860 On 12 May Garibaldi left Marsala and advanced quickly and easily towards the interior of Sicily. In the following days, a thousand Sicilian volunteers joined the expedition, including Franciscan priests. The volunteers are grouped within a new military structure, the Hunters of
Etna, directed by . On 14 May 1860 in
Salemi, after an enthusiastic welcome which reassured him of the participation of the population, Garibaldi declared to ensure the
dictatorship of Sicily in the name of King Victor Emmanuel II, which would then come later. In
Partinico the population rebelled against the attempted forced requisition of goods and food by the retreating soldiers with a bloody popular revolt. The battle boosted the morale of the
Thousand and, at the same time, depressed the Bourbons, who were poorly led by their often corrupt higher officers, and started to feel abandoned. Garibaldi promised land to every male who volunteered to fight against the Bourbons, and the ranks of the
Thousand enlarged to 1,200 with local men. After the battle of Calatafimi
Giuseppe Garibaldi headed for Palermo passing through Alcamo and Partinico. Along the journey, the
Thousand were joined by 3,200 Sicilians, bringing the number of fighters under Garibaldi's orders to 4,000 men. From there, Garibaldi and the Sicilian volunteers arrived in Palermo on 27 May and prepared to enter the city, through the
Admiral's Bridge and the
Porto Termini manned by the Bourbon military. After a hard battle, the royal troops abandoned the field and retreated to Palermo. A Garibaldian column crossed the Porta Termini and entered the city, while another column entered Palermo, crossing the Porta Sant'Antonino with less difficulty. Aided by the Palermo insurrection, between 28 May and 30 May, the Garibaldians and the insurgents, often fighting street by street, conquered the whole city, despite the indiscriminate bombardment carried out by the Bourbon ships and by the positions present on the floor in front of the
Palazzo dei Normanni and the
Castello a Mare. On 29 May there was a decisive counterattack by the royal troops which, however, was contained. Thus began the
Siege of Palermo. On 30 May the Bourbons, barricaded in the fortresses along the walls, asked for an armistice (organized by the British Admiral
Rodney Mundy), which was granted and which lasted from 30 May to 3 June. On 6 June the Bourbon troops defending the Sicilian capital capitulated in exchange for permission to leave the city, asking for the honor of arms, which Garibaldi granted as they were also Italian. The garrison evacuated on 7 July, after King
Francis II authorized the Bourbon withdrawal. and as the "Hero of the Two Worlds". On 21 June 1860
Giuseppe Garibaldi definitively occupied Palermo. The news went around the world and public opinion took up the cause of the expedition. In the United Kingdom, workers from
Glasgow and
Liverpool offered days of work to support the expedition. Having left Marseille on 9 May,
Alexandre Dumas and
Giustiniano Lebano arrived in Palermo on 30 May from his personal yacht to supply Garibaldi with weapons. Dumas, a friend of Garibaldi, also organized the propaganda of the expedition through the newspapers.
George Sand and
Victor Hugo, then in exile, supported Garibaldi's action. The same went for
Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels. These, in the
New-York Tribune, considered the conquest of Palermo "one of the most surprising military feats of our century". Funds and volunteers arrived from all over Europe, the United States,
Uruguay and
Chile.
Giacomo Medici and
Enrico Cosenz were joined by 33 Englishmen, as well as the socialist while the reactionary governments,
Austrian Empire,
Russian Empire,
Kingdom of Prussia and
Spain, protest against the Sardinian government, the alleged beneficiary of the events.
Formation of the dictatorial government On 7 July, Giuseppe Garibaldi proclaimed himself
Dictator of Sicily "in the name of
Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy". Garibaldi then ordered
Giacomo Medici to advance upon
Messina,
Enrico Cosenz to advance upon
Catania, and
Nino Bixio to advance upon
Syracuse, gathering more Sicilian volunteer irregulars. King
Francis II strengthened his Bourbon garrisons at Messina and Syracuse. Garibaldi also appointed his representatives to the governments of London, Paris and Turin. He also signed a decree which assigned pensions to widows and state assistance to the orphans of those killed in the national cause.
Landings of reinforcements and formation of the Southern Army entering Palermo During the month of June, Giuseppe Garibaldi was joined by other Sicilian volunteers and those from other parts of Italy, whose arrivals occurred almost daily, forming part of what was then called the
Southern Army. On 5 and 7 July, over 2,000 volunteers commanded by
Enrico Cosenz landed in Palermo. On 9 July several hundred volunteers arrived at an old coal mine. On 22 July around 1,535 volunteers,
Bourbon troops retreat and the restoration of the constitution insurrection The Bourbon troops were ordered to retreat eastwards and evacuate Sicily. An insurrection that had broken out in
Catania on 31 May, led by
Nicola Fabrizi, was crushed by the local garrison, but the order to leave for Messina meant that this Bourbon tactical success would have no practical results. The city of Catania was severely affected by 15 days of state of siege, which added to the inconveniences due to the situation in which the island had found itself for two months. On 3 June the royal troops retreated from Catania by land towards
Messina, escorted from the sea by a warship followed by other chartered ships loaded with ammunition and everything they had been able to take from the city they had abandoned. In
Acireale, after the departure of the Bourbon troops, who abandoned the city, the exasperated population indulged in retaliation against supporters of the Bourbons, who were killed, but the situation was soon brought back to calm by the most influential citizens. At the time only Syracuse,
Augusta,
Milazzo and Messina remained in royal hands in Sicily. In the meantime, Garibaldi issued his first law. A levy failed to muster more than 20,000 troops, while the peasants, who hoped for immediate relief from the grievous conditions to which they were forced by the landowners, revolted in several localities. At
Bronte, on 4 August 1860, Garibaldi's friend
Nino Bixio bloodily repressed one of these revolts with two battalions of Redshirts. The pace of Garibaldi's victories had worried
Cavour, who in early July sent him a proposal of immediate annexation of Sicily to Piedmont. Garibaldi, however, refused vehemently to allow such a move until the end of the war. Cavour's envoy,
Giuseppe La Farina, was arrested and expelled from the island. He was replaced by the more malleable
Agostino Depretis, who gained Garibaldi's trust and was appointed as pro-dictator. On 25 June 1860, King
Francis II of the Two Sicilies restored the constitution granted during the
Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states, which was in force from 29 January 1848 to 12 March 1849, when King
Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies effectively re-established
monarchical absolutism until 1860. The restoration of the 1848 constitution had brought Francis II only the apparent consent of France and a few other subjects, but no practical application of constitutional government followed. However, this belated attempt to conciliating his moderate subjects failed to push them to defend the regime, while liberals and revolutionaries were eager to welcome Garibaldi.
Complete occupation of Sicily , 17–24 July 1860 On 20 July
Giuseppe Garibaldi attacked Milazzo with 4,000 men, under the command of
Giacomo Medici and
Enrico Cosenz, against
Ferdinando Beneventano del Bosco's 4,500. On 1 August, Ferdinando Beneventano del Bosco surrendered with honors, and was taken by ship to
Real Cittadella, which was soon under siege. Garibaldi arrived in Milazzo from Palermo by ship aboard the Scottish paddle steamer
City of Aberdeen. The steamship
City of Aberdeen had been chartered due to subscriptions collected in Scotland, where Garibaldi was very popular, as he was considered the Italian
William Wallace. The Garibaldini led by
Giacomo Medici arrived in
Messina on 27 July, when part of the Bourbon troops had already left the city. The following day, Garibaldi arrived. With the city in the hands of the
Thousand, General , commander of the Bourbons, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Military Command and General
Giacomo Medici signed an agreement, which provided for the abandonment of Messina by the Bourbon militias, provided that no damage was caused to the city and that their embarkation towards Naples was not disturbed. On 1 August the Bourbon fortresses of Syracuse and Augusta also capitulated, concluding the conquest of Sicily.
Landing and conquest in Calabria , 21 August 1860
Giuseppe Garibaldi had previously sent authoritative exponents of the anti-Bourbon conspiracy such as , and to Calabria to prepare insurrections, while he had sent
Nicola Mignogna to
Basilicata. With the neutralization of Messina, Garibaldi began preparations for the crossing to the continent. On 19 August Garibaldi's men disembarked in
Calabria, a move opposed by
Cavour, who had written the Dictator a letter urging him to not cross the Straits of Messina. Garibaldi, however, disobeyed, an act which had the silent approval of King
Victor Emmanuel II and therefore crossed the Strait of Messina to land in Calabria. According to Frederick Schneid, "The timing of Garibaldi's crossing of the Straits of Messina and the invasion of the Papal States was more than coincidence. with 3,700 men. He chose a longer route to avoid the Bourbon troops and landed on the beach of
Melito di Porto Salvo. Garibaldi now had almost 20,000 soldiers due to the aggregation of local volunteers to Garibaldi's Red Shirts, against the Bourbons' 80,000; the confrontation therefore proved difficult from the beginning. However, against all expectations, he encountered only weak resistance. The Bourbons, apart from some episodes like that of
Reggio Calabria, which was conquered at high cost by
Nino Bixio on 21 August, offered insignificant resistance, as numerous units of the Bourbon army disbanded spontaneously or even joined Garibaldi's ranks. On 30 August the Bourbon army, commanded by General , was disarmed in
Soveria Mannelli and surrendered without a fight to the column commanded by Francesco Stocco. The Bourbon fleet behaved in a similar way.
Conquest of Basilicata and advance towards Naples On 2 September,
Giuseppe Garibaldi and his men entered
Basilicata (the first region of the continental part of the kingdom to rise against the Bourbons), precisely in
Rotonda. His passage to Lucania ended without problems, since the pro-dictatorial government was established well before his arrival (19 August), due to the contribution of and , authors of the Lucanian insurrection in favor of national unity. The following day, Garibaldi crossed the coast of
Maratea by boat and near
Lagonegro he gathered the Lucanian men who followed him to the
Battle of the Volturno (among these was
Carmine Crocco, later a famous post-unification brigand). On 6 September Garibaldi met Giacinto Albini in
Auletta and appointed the patriot Governor of Basilicata. On the night of the same day he slept in
Eboli in the house of Francesco La Francesca and headed, with his troops, towards
Naples, capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Bourbon anti-liberal reaction in Irpinia, Abruzzo and Molise In the north of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, where the population was most subjected to clerical influence, there were cases of so-called "reaction", a term then used to indicate those who opposed the change towards a united Italy. On 8 September in the district of
Ariano and
Montemiletto in
Irpinia the Bourbon generals Bonanno and Flores, who arrived there with 4,000 soldiers, had provoked an anti-liberal insurrection by the peasants loyal to the Bourbons, who began to carry out robberies, massacres, slaughtering the leaders of the liberal party who had not fled in time, and robberies of all kinds to the detriment of the local population with liberal sentiments. To quell the riots, 1,500 Garibaldians commanded by
István Türr were sent and despite their numerical superiority, the Bourbon soldiers of General Bonanno offered no resistance. István Türr, also assisted by the local National Guard, advanced towards
Venticano and Monte Mileto where following a small clash arrests were made. In
Grottaminarda, General Flores was arrested by the National Guard of
Montefusco. István Türr acted with caution, ordering the shooting of only two of the ringleaders of the massacre and the violence, without giving in to the demands of the local liberals who would have instead wanted a much more extensive punishment for at least a dozen of those responsible. Subsequently, in
Abruzzo and
Molise the troops of the Sardinian army had to carry out harsher repression against the reactionaries who rose up against the new political structure. Other similar and serious events occurred in
Isernia in
Molise for a few days during the
battle of the Volturno, when, following indications from the bishop, from the authorities of
Gaeta and, led by gendarmes loyal to the Bourbons, the farmers invaded the city of Isernia and other nearby towns, carrying out an entire week of looting, massacres, serious violence and even mutilations of their liberal victims. The episodes of reaction against the liberals and supporters of the unity of Italy continued and were often bloody as reported by the press of the time in the case of the
Lauro massacre in the then
Terra di Lavoro, which occurred with great brutality.
Conclusion , 6 September 1860 , 7 September 1860 , 1 October 1860 and
Giuseppe Garibaldi at
Teano, 26 October 1860 The last period of King
Francis II's stay in Naples was marked by a conspiratorial climate towards him. Francis II no longer had faith in his ministers, even if they were apparently loyal to him. The soldiers and ministers gave contradictory advice, denigrating each other, the esprit de corps had weakened in the leaders more than in the troops. Left without government and abandoned by the men of the court, Francis II, with
Giuseppe Garibaldi continuing his advance towards Naples without obstacles, had almost no trust in anyone, uncertain whether to advance to face Garibaldi, resist Naples or retreat north. On 6 September, King Francis II fled
Naples for the fortress city of
Gaeta, and moved his army to the
Volturno river. Thus, on 7 September, Garibaldi was able to enter Naples with his army, welcomed as a liberator, and taking possession of the entire
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The Bourbon troops, still present in abundance and quartered in the castles, offered no resistance and surrendered shortly after. After Garibaldi's entry into Naples, the southern regions (
Sicily,
Calabria,
Basilicata, and almost all of
Campania) had been conquered by Garibaldi, while
Lombardy,
Emilia-Romagna,
Tuscany had entered the
Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia following the
Second Italian War of Independence and the subsequent
plebiscites. However, the South and North of the peninsula were still separated by the presence of the
Papal State. King Victor Emmanuel II then decided to intervene with his army to annex
Marche and
Umbria, still in the hands of the Papal State, and thus unite the north and south of Italy. On 11 September,
Cavour instigated the invasion of the
Papal States, led by
Manfredo Fanti. The Papal Army was led by
Louis Juchault de Lamoricière, though
Pope Pius IX's hope that
Napoleon III and
Franz Josef I of Austria would come to his aid was unfounded. General
Enrico Cialdini's IV Corps attacked
Pesaro,
Enrico Morozzo Della Rocca's V Corps advanced on
Perugia, while Persano blockaded
Ancona. On 18 September, the Papal Army under Lamoriciére were defeated during the
Battle of Castelfidardo, and the siege of Ancona began, finally surrendering on 29 September. According to Frederick Schneid, "The fall of Ancona ended the campaign in the Papal States. The Piedmontese Army occupied most of
Umbria and
Marche." It is believed that the forces actually engaged in the battle of 1 October were 28,000 Royal Bourbons against 20,000 Garibaldians, while on 2 October the Calabrian volunteers of , four Piedmontese companies and several dozen Piedmontese gunners in
Santa Maria Capua Vetere joined the Garibaldians. According to Frederick Schneid, "Garibaldi narrowly won the Battle of the Volturno. The Southern Army placed
Capua under siege, and the Piedmontese forces marched on Gaeta where the erstwhile Bourbon king had taken refuge." The Savoia Brigade landed north of Capua, while Della Rocca's V Corps, and the rest of the Piedmontese Army, crossed the Two Sicilies frontier. However, the military campaign was not yet fully completed, as
Francis II and the remains of the Bourbon army held out in Gaeta. The
siege of Gaeta was first started by Garibaldi, replaced on 4 November 1860 by the Sardinian army which concluded the siege on 13 February 1861, defeating the Bourbon army, which surrendered. During the first ten days of November 1860, around 17,000 Bourbon soldiers, pursued by the troops of Victor Emmanuel II, took refuge in the
Papal State in
Terracina, where they were disarmed and interned in the
Alban Hills by the papal authorities and the French garrison of Rome. With the surrender of Francis II, the last Bourbons of the Two Sicilies went into exile in
Rome under the protection of
Pope Pius IX.
Garibaldi's departure from Naples On 9 November 1860, at 4:00 am,
Giuseppe Garibaldi boarded a rowing boat in the harbor of
Santa Lucia of
Naples, to embark on board the ship
Washington. Six months and three days had passed since the departure on the night between 5 and 6 May 1860, starting the Expedition of the Thousands. Garibaldi returned to
Caprera after having accomplished a difficult feat, and despite a letter from the king asking him to stay, Garibaldi's response was that he was leaving for the moment, but that he would be ready to leave again on the day in which the country and the king needed him. The decision was subsequently explained by Garibaldi that the exaggerated flattery of which he had been the subject of many respected people, who until shortly before had been Bourbons and who very quickly proclaimed themselves Garibaldines, as well as expressing criticism towards other protagonists of the events of that period.
Role of the Italian tricolour from 21 June 1860 to 17 March 1861 Starting from its first adoption, popular support for the
Italian tricolour grew steadily, until it became one of the most important symbols of the Italian unification. The Italian tricolour was also a symbol of the
revolutions of 1848. In 1848 King
Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia assured the provisional government of Milan, established during the
Five Days of Milan, that his troops, ready to come to his aid by starting the
First Italian War of Independence, would use a tricolour
defaced with the Savoyan coat of arms superimposed on the white as a war flag. This turning point lasted until the failure of revolutions and the end of the First Italian War of Independence (1849), which ended with the defeat of the Piedmont-Sardinian Army of Charles Albert; after this, the ancient flags were restored. Only the
Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia confirmed the Italian tricolour as the national flag of the state even after the First Italian War of Independence ended. the volunteers of the Expedition of the Thousand led by
Giuseppe Garibaldi. Garibaldi, in particular, had an absolute deference and respect for the Italian tricolour. Shortly after the loss of Sicily, on 25 June 1860, trying to limit the damage given the growing participation of the population in the Expedition of the Thousand, King
Francis II of the Two Sicilies, decreed that the green, white and red flag was also the official banner of his Kingdom, with the royal coat of arms superimposed on the white. Adopted on 21 June 1860, this lasted until 17 March 1861, when the Two Sicilies was incorporated into the
Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, after its defeat in the Expedition of the Thousand. Ironically, in the final phase of the Expedition of the Thousand, the tricolour of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies fluttered in antagonism to the tricolour flag of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. Two of the original tricolours that flew on the
Il Lombardo steamship that participated, together with
Il Piemonte, in the Expedition of the
Thousand, are preserved respectively inside the
Central Museum of the Risorgimento at the Vittoriano in Rome and the Museum of the Risorgimento in
Palermo. Already on another occasion, the Kingdom of the Two Siliciles adopted the Italian tricoulor as its flag. The flag of the Constitutional
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, a white field charged with the royal coat of arms, was modified by
Ferdinand II during
revolutions of 1848 through the addition of a red and green border. This flag lasted from 3 April 1848 until 19 May 1849. The Provisional Government of Sicily, which lasted from 12 January 1848 to 15 May 1849 during the
Sicilian Revolution, adopted the Italian tricolour, defaced with the trinacria, or
triskelion. In 1849, once the insurrectional uprisings were over, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies restored its ancient flag.
Maps ==Aftermath==