When the Greek Revolution commenced on 21 February 1821, a member of the Filiki Eteria named Andreas Metaxas along with his brother Anastasios and his cousin Konstantinos Metaxas, took it upon themselves to assemble a military contingent of 350 volunteers with two cannons from Kefalonia. Aiming to join the revolutions cause, they managed to board a ship which was equipped with 18 cannons, 50 sailors, and 50 gunmen, and sail to Glarentza which they reached in early May 1821. From there they marched to Manolada where their force was joined by more volunteers including military captains Vilaetis, Sisinis and Plapoutas. The small army's aim was to reach and capture Lalas, a foothold of Muslim-Albanian.