Siege of Palmero (1749)

Commanders| * Maggior Generale (Major-General) Gioachino Trentini

The  **Siege of Palmero**  on June 28th, 1749 was the siege battle as apart of the War of Sardinian Succession (1749). It resulted in a victory for the Sardinian under the command of Maggior Generale Gioachino Trentini against the Army of Sicilian under the command of Gianni Fanucci who refused to join forces with King Ish Decksteel and his journey to conquer Italy as its own for his kingdom.

## Prelude

After Ish Decksteel's victory at the Siege of Rome (1749) and capturing the city for the Kingdom has secured his goal to advance further north to capture more cities like Florence, Venice, Milan, and Parma to his expanded territories. He sends his Maggior Generale Trentini to capture the island of Sicily to threaten to cut off the trading to the north. Towards the end of June, Trentini gathers his forces and sail towards Sicily by landing at Trapani and march towards the city of Palmero.

The Sardinian army led by Trentini has consisted of another division that Peter Plankwrecker had assigned to. Trentini had his staff alongside him including a group of engineers led by Bruno Garza. Trentini had consisted of about two thousand and three hundred men including the artillery crew that consist of one hundred and twenty with the support of hundreds and fifty cavalries covering both flanks on the expedition to Palmero. The commander of the city of Palmero was Gianni Fanucci, a Sicilian general who refused to abandon the city and swore to defend till the last man give their last breath to the fighting. He had about thousands of men under his command alongside the reserve units, the militia from the countryside, and the support of artillery to protect the walls of Palmero from the Sardinians' advance.

## Siege

Upon their arrival to the outskirt of the city, Trentini ordered his men to dig in and start to construct series of trenches along the engineers to construct spikes and the artillery to deliver barrage onto the walls of the city as he was sending up his camp not far from the city. He sends several regiments to surround the city by blocking roads to cut off the enemy's communication and supplies. Trentini sends a messenger to the commanding officer who refused to give up the city. Fanucci had his men dug in the trenches that were outside of the city and he ordered his artillery to fire upon the Sardinians defensive. Trentini had a plan which he wanted to overwhelm the Sicilian defensives before they could fully get their men in place and repel the advancing army.

On June 29th, 1749, he ordered a division consist of men from Turin, Sassari, and Nuoro to led the first assault onto the enemy's defensive lines which was guarding the east side of the city's wall but was repulsed by the enemy's line of fire. Trentini ordered an artillery barrage to soften up their lines but they failed to do so but Garza recommend to him that they lay fire on the city walls to deliver heavy morale lost on the enemy's defensive which he ordered in the evening to give the order to fire.

On June 30th, 1749, Fanucci send the militia to replace the heavy fighting soldiers that were guarding the bridge which Trentini ordered his cavalry force to charge into the city which they successfully managed to overrun the enemy defensive line but Fanucci had a card upon his sleeve where he ordered the civilians to built blockade of streets to trap the cavalry and the storming men of the division led by Alcide Beneventi which Trentini ordered the men to fallback.

**Will be edited more**