"October 1st at dawn," writes an officer, "the Neapolitan army of forty or fifty thousand men, who were strongly fortified in the fortress of Capua opposite, and its numerous outworks, attacked all parts of this line at once. But, before that hour, Garibaldi had left Caserta by railroad for the line. When he arrived, the firing had already begun. The three places, Capua, Santa Maria, and the Spur of St. Angelo, form almost an equilateral triangle, which is indicated by the three roads which connect these places. They run with little curves almost straight—that from Capua to St. Angelo, close to the river; that from Capua to Santa Maria, parallel to the railway; and that from Santa Maria to St. Angelo, at some distance from the hills till close to this latter place, where it is joined by the road coming from Capua. "This triangle, which is in most parts thickly wooded with olive, and other trees, and has only few open spots, the Neapolitans had chosen as their field of operations on our left, and as the chief attack of the day. During the night all the troops stationed in the Polygon behind had passed through the town and had collected in the Campo, a large open space before the fortress. Here they opened out in two directions—one column, the left, toward St. Angelo, and the right toward Santa Maria. "I shall first speak of the left column. Besides the great road from Capua, alongside the river, there is a by-road, which, leaving the main road at a little distance from the town, strikes across the country and goes straight toward the village of St. Angelo, which lies on the retreating slopes of the heights. This was chosen by the Neapolitans as the centre of their operations against this point, while they sent one column by the main road toward the right, and another to the right across the country to take the village in the other flank.