Expedition of the Thousand The Expedition of the Thousand ( Italian " Spedizione dei Mille " ) was an event of the Italian Risorgimento which took place in 1860 . A corps of volunteers led by Giuseppe Garibaldi landed in Sicily in order to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies , ruled by the Bourbons . The project was an ambitious and risky venture aiming to conquer , with a thousand men , a kingdom with a larger regular army and a more powerful navy . The expedition was a success and concluded with a plebiscite that brought Naples and Sicily into the Kingdom of Sardinia , the last territorial conquest before the creation of the Kingdom of Italy on 17 March 1861 . The sea venture was the only desired action that was jointly decided by the " four fathers of the nation " Italian Giuseppe Mazzini , Giuseppe Garibaldi , Victor Emmanuel II , and Camillo Cavour , pursuing divergent goals . It is difficult to determine the true instigator : Mazzini desired to release the Mezzogiorno and Rome , while Garibaldi wanted to conquer in the name of Victor Emmanuel II , the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and continue to Rome to complete the unity of Italy , and Cavour wanted to avoid at all costs conflict with his French ally , Napoleon III , which protected Rome . The expedition also brings new large collective ambiguity and misunderstanding : for Garibaldi , it is to achieve a united Italy ; to the Sicilian bourgeoisie , an independent Sicily as part of the kingdom of Italy , and for the mass farmers , the end of oppression and land distribution . Background . The events of the Expedition took place within the overall process of the unification of Italy , which was largely orchestrated by Camillo Cavour , Prime Minister of Sardinia - Piedmont , as his life ' s work . After the annexation of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany , the Duchies of Modena and Parma and the Romagna to Piedmont in March 1860 , Italian nationalists set their sights on the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies , which comprised all of southern mainland Italy and Sicily , as the next step toward their dream of unification of all Italian lands . In 1860 Garibaldi , already the most famous Italian revolutionary leader , was in Genoa planning an expedition against Sicily and Naples , with the covert support of the United Kingdom . Sicilian leaders , among them Francesco Crispi , were discontented with Neapolitan rule over the island . . Moreover Britain was worried by the approaches of the Neapolitans towards the Russian Empire in the latter ' s attempt to open its way to the Mediterranean Sea ; the strategic importance of the Sicilian ports was also to be dramatically increased by the opening of the Suez Canal . It has been also suggested ( by Lorenzo del Boca , among the others ) that British support for Garibaldi ' s expedition was spurred by the necessity to obtain more favourable economic conditions for Sicilian sulfur , which was needed in great quantities for the new steamers . The search for a casus belli . The Kingdom of Sardinia - Piedmont needed a presentable casus belli in order to attack the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies . This was needed for the House of Savoy , which however never gave any declaration of war against the Bourbon kingdom , a necessary condition , since this was among the requirements presented to Cavour . The only occurrence that would have satisfied this requirement was an uprising from within . Such an event would have felt the alienation of the people to the dynasty that ruled in Naples and , particularly , the inability of Francis of Bourbon , to ensure , in forms acceptable public policy in their domains . Sicily , as shown by the history of the past decades , was fertile ground , and the liberal south , especially those returning after an amnesty granted by the young King , who worked in this direction for some time . The expedition . The Red Shirts . In March 1860 , exile Rosolino Pilo exhorted Giuseppe Garibaldi to take charge of an expedition to liberate Southern Italy from Bourbon rule . At first , Garibaldi was against it , but eventually agreed . By May 1860 , Garibaldi had collected 1 , 089 volunteers for his expedition to Sicily . < br > The majority of the volunteers came from Lombardy ( 434 volunteers ) . < br > Other significant numbers of volunteers came from " occupied " Venetia ( 194 volunteers ) Genoa ( 156 volunteers ) and Tuscany ( 78 volunteers ) . < br > There were about 45 Sicilian volunteers and 46 Neapolitan volunteers - but only 11 from Rome and the Papal States . < br > Thirty three ( 33 ) foreigners joined the expedition ; amongst them István Türr and three other Hungarians and fourteen ( 14 ) Italians from the Trentino of the Austrian Empire . < br > The majority of the volunteers were students and artisans from the lower classes . The 1 , 089 volunteers were poorly armed with dated muskets and were dressed in a minimalist uniform - consisting of a red shirt and grey trousars . During the night of 5 May , a small group led by Nino Bixio seized two steamships in Genoa from the " Rubattino shipping company " in order to transport the volunteers to Sicily . They took the two ships , which they had renamed " Il Piemonte " and " Il Lombardo " , to the nearby rocks at Quarto , where the volunteers ( including Franceso Crispi ' s wife , Rosalie ) embarked for Sicily . Landing in Sicily . The ships landed at Marsala , on the westernmost point of Sicily , on 11 May , with the help of British ships present in the harbour to deter the Bourbon ships . The " Lombardo " was attacked and sunk only after the disembarkation had been completed , while the " Piemonte " was captured . The landing had been preceded by the arrival of Francesco Crispi and others , who had the task of gaining the support of the locals for the volunteers . On 14 May , at Salemi , Garibaldi announced that he was assuming dictatorship over Sicily in the name of King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia . Calatafimi and Palermo . The " Mille " won a first battle at Calatafimi against around 2 , 000 Neapolitan troops on 15 May . The battle was inconclusive , but boosted the morale of the " Mille " and , at the same time , depressed the Neapolitans , who were poorly led by their often corrupted higher officers , and started to feel themselves abandoned . In the meantime the ranks of the " Mille " enlarged to 1 , 200 with local men joining . On 27 May , with the help of a popular insurrection , the " Mille " laid siege to Palermo , the island ' s capital . The city was defended by some 16 , 000 men , but these were under the confused and timid direction of general Ferdinando Lanza , aged 75 ( probably one of the Neapolitan officers bribed with English money , see Evaluation section ) . While two columns of Garibaldines attacked the perimeter , part of the population , strengthened by 2 , 000 prisoners liberated from the local jails , rose against the garrison . When his troops were driven back from most of their positions , Lanza ordered them to bombard the city for three days , causing the deaths of 600 civilians . By 28 May Garibaldi controlled much of the city and declared the Bourbon authority deposed . The following day a desperate Neapolitan counteroffensive was driven back , and Lanza asked for a truce . However , when a reinforcement party of well equipped and well trained troops arrived in the city , the situation became very serious for Garibaldi , who was saved only by Lanza ' s decision to surrender . Through the mediation of a British admiral , an armistice was signed and the Neapolitan fleet abandoned the port . Neapolitan retreat and Battle of Milazzo . The Bourbon troops were ordered to push eastwards and evacuate the island . An insurrection that had broken out in Catania on 31 May , led by Nicola Fabrizi , was crushed by the local garrison , but the order to leave for Messina meant that this Neapolitan tactical success would have no practical results . At the time only Syracuse , Augusta , Milazzo and Messina remained in royal hands in Sicily . In the meantime Garibaldi issued his first law . A levy failed to muster more than 20 , 000 troops , while the peasants , who hoped to an immediate relief from the grievous conditions to which they were forced by the landowners , revolted in several localities . At Bronte , on 4 August 1860 , Garibaldi ' s friend Nino Bixio bloodily repressed one of these revolts with two battalions of Redshirts . The pace of Garibaldi ' s victories had worried Cavour , who in early July sent him a proposal of immediate annexation of Sicily to Piedmont . Garibaldi , however , refused vehemently to allow such a move until the end of the war . Cavour ' s envoy , La Farina , was arrested and expelled from the island . He was replaced by the more malleable Agostino Depretis , who gained Garibaldi ' s trust and was appointed as pro - dictator . On 25 June 1860 , King Francis II of the Two Sicilies had issued a constitution . However , this late attempt to conciliate his moderate subjects failed to rouse them to defend the regime , while liberals and revolutionaries were eager to welcome Garibaldi . At the time , Garibaldi had created the " Esercito Meridionale " ( " Southern Army " ) , reinforced by other volunteers from Italy and some regular Piedmontese soldiers disguised as " deserters " . The Neapolitans had mustered some 24 , 000 men for the defence of Messina and the other fortresses . On 20 July Garibaldi attacked Milazzo with 5 , 000 men . The Neapolitan defence was gallant , but again the absence of coordination and the refusal of Marshal Clary , commander - in - chief of the army in the island , to send reinforcements from Messina granted the Mille another victory . Six days later Clary surrendered the city of Messina to Garibaldi , leaving only 4 , 000 in the citadel and other forts . The other strongholds surrendered by the end of September . Landing and conquest in Calabria . On 19 August Garibaldi ' s men disembarked in Calabria , a move opposed by Cavour , who had written the Dictator a letter urging him to not cross the strait . Garibaldi , however , disobeyed , an act which had the silent approval of King Victor Emmanuel . The Bourbons had some 20 , 000 men in Calabria , but , apart from some episodes like that of Reggio Calabria , which was conquered at high cost by Bixio on 21 August , they offered insignificant resistance , as numerous units of the Bourbon army disbanded spontaneously or even joined Garibaldi ' s ranks . On 30 August a conspicuous Sicilian army , led by general Ghio , was officially disbanded at Soveria Mannelli , while only minor and dispersed units continued the fight . The Neapolitan fleet behaved in a similar way . The end . King Francis II was thus forced to abandon Naples and entrench himself in the formidable fortress of Gaeta , while a last stand was set up on the Volturno river , north of Naples . On 7 September Garibaldi took possession of Naples with little harm ( he entered the city by train ) , hailed as a liberator by the population . In the decisive Battle of the Volturnus ( 1 and 2 October ) , Garibaldi , with a force of 24 , 000 men , was not able to conclusively defeat the Neapolitan Army ( about 25 , 000 men ) . Only the arrival of the Piedmontese army which had crossed through the Papal territories of the Marche and Umbria , obliged the last organized Bourbon force to entrench in Gaeta . A few days later ( 21 October ) a plebiscite confirmed the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to the Kingdom of Sardinia by an overwhelming majority ( for today ' s standards the plebiscite would be of limited significance , as the vote was not secret , and even Piedmontese soldiers voted ) . The end of the expedition is traditionally set with the famous meeting in Teano ( northern Campania ) between Victor Emmanuel and Garibaldi ( 26 October 1860 ) . Others assign instead the end of the campaign to the King ' s entrance into Naples on 7 November . Garibaldi asked the King to remain in the former Two Sicilies for a year as dictator . He also asked that his officers be integrated in the new Italian Army . When Victor Emmanuel refused to accept his requests , he returned to Caprera . However , the military campaign was not yet fully completed , as Francis II held out in Gaeta until February of the next year , when he finally surrendered and left for exile in Austria . Shortly thereafter , in March 1861 , the new Kingdom of Italy ( " Regno d ' Italia " ) was formally established . Evaluation . The Expedition of the Thousand has traditionally been one of the most celebrated events of the Italian Risorgimento , the process of the unification of Italy . However , recent studies have pointed out that later descriptions of the whole event were somewhat hagiographic , and that its effective relevance , in particular the extent of the military campaign , was overesteemed by traditional historiography . In the following years , the rise of local resistance ( the so - called " brigantaggio " or brigandage ) , required at one point the presence of some 140 , 000 Piedmontese troops to maintain control of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies . Traditionally , the handling of the " brigantaggio " has received a negative judgement by Italian historians , in strict contrast with the heroism attributed to Garibaldi and his followers ; the English historian Denis Mack Smith , for example , points out the deficiencies and reticence of the sources available for the period . The expedition , moreover , obtained the support of the powerful great landowners of southern Italy in exchange for the promise that their properties be left intact in the upcoming political settlement . Numerous Sicilian peasants , however , had joined the Mille hoping instead for a redistribution of the land to the people working it . The consequences of this misunderstanding became evident at Bronte .