Battle and Capture of Palermo (1860)

The Battle and Capture of Palermo (1860) was the decisive success of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s campaign in Sicily, bringing Palermo under the control of his volunteer force and advancing the collapse of Bourbon rule. The novel gives the campaign both a broad historical outline and a smaller, personal account: Tancredi Falconeri, newly made captain, recalls an episode from the fighting while dining with the Salina family and Angelica Sedàra.

Campaign and Capture

In early May 1860, Giuseppe Garibaldi sailed from near Genoa with a thousand volunteers to wrest Sicily from the Bourbons. His Garibaldini landed at Marsala, defeated Bourbon troops at Calatafimi, and occupied Palermo within three weeks. The capture made Garibaldi the island’s Dictator and gave the campaign a base from which he gathered further volunteers before crossing to the mainland.

The fall of Palermo belongs to a larger transfer of power. That autumn, Bourbon armies were defeated on the Volturno; the Piedmontese besieged Francis II in Gaeta; and Giuseppe Garibaldi handed southern Italy to Victor Emmanuel II before withdrawing from public life. Plebiscites then supported joining the new kingdom, although the Papal States remained outside it. The Palermo victory thus marks a turning point in the campaign, rather than the end of the wider political and military upheaval.

The Fighting in Tancredi’s Account

At a dinner in the Salina household, Angelica asked Tancredi to describe the campaign. He recounted the night march on Gibilrossa, an episode involving Bixio and La Masa, and the assault on Porta di Termini. His story then narrowed to the night of 28 May, when the general needed an observation post at the top of the enclosed convent at Origlione. After repeated attempts to gain entry, the volunteers broke open the door with a beam taken from a nearby damaged house.

The building appeared deserted until the men heard cries from a passage. A group of nuns had taken refuge in the chapel, gathered around the altar. Tancredi’s account says the troops left them there and went to fire on Royalists from the terraces above. He was wounded ten minutes later. The episode places the Palermo fighting in specific streets and buildings, while showing how quickly military action moved from forced entry to renewed combat.

Tancredi and the Dinner-Table Recollection

By the time the general and his aide-de-camp visited the Salina house in June, Tancredi had been made captain on the field of battle. He arrived in his red shirt, still affected by his wound, and displayed an easy familiarity with the mainland officers. His role in the campaign was therefore not merely something he had heard about: he had fought in it and returned as one of its young victors.

At dinner, however, he presented the campaign as light and entertaining. Angelica’s request prompted his story, and her delighted response contrasted with Concetta Salina’s discomfort. The conversation makes the military episode part of the novel’s social drama: the campaign is remembered not only as a public victory, but as a story told by Tancredi in a room where his performance affects those listening.

Consequences and Significance

Palermo’s capture helped turn Garibaldi’s Sicilian expedition into a campaign that could reach the mainland and force a change of sovereignty across southern Italy. The account also places the city’s conquest within a volatile transition: military victories, royal defeat, and political union followed one another, while the struggle over the remaining Papal States continued. In the novel, the broad historical movement is brought close through Tancredi’s participation and his later recollection of a single night in the campaign.