"The most brilliant episode of the action of the 1st of October was the recapture of the battery at the foot of Mont St. Angelo. When I left Santa Maria, I knew that this battery had been very much disabled in the morning. Garibaldi arrived at nine o'clock, when the enemy was thundering at it with all his strength, because it took him in flank, and was causing him severe loss. The triple battery courageously resisted the attack, and never slackened fire, when all at once the one situated at the foot of the hill became silent. The royalists, to the number of 2,500, got round the hill, and rushing upon the guns, spiked five of them, and killed several of the men at their pieces. Garibaldi, on the San Tannaro side, soon observed the silence of his favorite battery, and an aid-de-camp from General Milwitz soon informed him of the disaster, which would probably have lost him the battle. Garibaldi at once started off, crossed Santa Maria, followed by Medici and his staff, and collecting what men he could, cried out in a voice which caused all to shudder, 'We are going to die, but the Italians must win the day: at all other points we have conquered.' Followed by one hundred men, at a rapid pace, Garibaldi leading the way in a small, disabled carriage, went right forward. But just as they got near the Casino of St. Angelo, some Neapolitan Chasseurs, who were lying on the ground, rose and fell upon them. The coachman drove his horses into a ditch and formed a barricade of the carriage. Garibaldi jumped up, indignant, and went up to the Chasseurs, shouting, 'Viva Italia!' Some of his men coming up at the same time, the enemy became demoralized and took to flight. Garibaldi was slightly wounded in the stomach, and his trousers were riddled by two or three bullets. 'If I only had another pair,' he said, and without further remark he continued his march toward a battalion of one hundred and fifty Hungarians, commanded by General Mogyorady. He pointed to the Neapolitans who were in possession of the battery, and cried out to them, 'Forward, my lads, disperse that rabble for me!' This 'rabble' consisted of a regiment of the line, a squadron of Cavalry, a company of Chasseurs, and a company of Artillery. The Hungarians, without waiting to count the numbers of the adversary, rushed forward and charged with the bayonet. After a contest of twenty minutes, the battery was retaken, and once more it poured its storm of grape on the Neapolitan troops, who fled in confusion across the fields. The Hungarians, in this encounter, had thirty men put _hors de combat_, the Neapolitans about two hundred. Garibaldi did not wait to dress his wound, but hurried elsewhere. The day, however, was now won." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XIX.