Volturno. At dawn. The Bourbon blue columns emerging from Capua attack Garibaldi’s right wing. The assault is well-planned. Garibaldi intervenes immediately to prevent the worst, calling in the 2,500 men of Turr’s reserve and managing to stabilize the front. The front on his right, however, is unreachable, but Bixio is there. Garibaldi calls Ponti della Valle the Thermopylae of the Thousand because it is there that one must stay or die. Von Mechel’s first assaults with his 3,000 Swiss mercenaries are successful. He expects his subordinate Ruiz to carry out an outflanking maneuver with the 5,000 Neapolitans, as agreed. But at Castelmorrone, the latter finds a small group of Garibaldians barricaded in the ruins of a ruined castle.
