The siege of Palermo took place between 27 and 30 May 1860 in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, during the

Expedition of the Thousand The Expedition of the Thousand ( it, Spedizione dei Mille) was an event of the Italian Risorgimento that took place in 1860. A corps of volunteers led by Giuseppe Garibaldi sailed from Quarto, near Genoa (now Quarto dei Mille) and landed in Ma ...

led by

Giuseppe Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, patr ...

against the

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ( it, Regno delle Due Sicilie) was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1860. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and size in Italy before Italian unification, comprising Sicily and a ...

, as part of the

Italian unification The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

wars.

Battle

Although with only about 750 Redshirts able to fight, along with some 3,000 ''picciotti'' (Sicilian volunteer guerrillas), on 27 May Garibaldi attacked the Sicilian capital of Palermo, held by a garrison of 18,000 to 22,000 Bourbon Army soldiers under the incompetent command of General Ferdinando Lanza. A significant portion of the 180,000 residents of Palermo rallied to Garibaldi, including about 2,000 prisoners released from local jails. On the first day of fighting, Bourbon forces were driven back from a number of key positions. Lanza then ordered the shelling of the part of the city that had been captured by Garibaldi's forces, causing the death of around 600 civilians until the end of the siege. By May 28, Garibaldi controlled much of Palermo, and the next day his volunteers repelled a counterattack. However, with the arrival of two battalions of well-trained

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

n mercenaries in the service of the

Bourbon Bourbon may refer to: Food and drink * Bourbon whiskey, an American whiskey made using a corn-based mash * Bourbon barrel aged beer, a type of beer aged in bourbon barrels * Bourbon biscuit, a chocolate sandwich biscuit * A beer produced by Bras ...

government, the battle turned against Garibaldi, whose troops were nearly out of ammunition. Nevertheless, Lanza surrendered the city on 30 May. Garibaldi sent his son Menotti to watch the surrender of the Bourbon garrison, and an

armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from the La ...

was quickly reached with the mediation of British admiral

Rodney Mundy Admiral of the Fleet Sir (George) Rodney Mundy, (19 April 1805 – 23 December 1884) was a Royal Navy officer. As a commander, he persuaded the Dutch to surrender Antwerp during the Belgian Revolution and then acted as a mediator during negot ...

. Finally, a convention on 6 June arranged for the withdrawal by sea of about 22,000 Bourbon troops, on 19 June.

Gallery

Citations

References

* * * * {{coord missing, Italy Battles of the Expedition of the Thousand History of Palermo Battles in Sicily May 1860 events 1860 in Italy Sieges of the 19th century