2-995-933 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Battle on the Volturno - fight in the field near St. Angelo - from a sketch by T. Nast, 1860. 'The village itself, or rather the old abbey and its dependencies, which are built on the slopes of the mountain, are safe enough against an attack in front, and their safety would only have been compromised had the Neapolitans crossed the river at the ford above the Scafa di Formicola and come up by the mountain road in our rear; but the important thing in St. Angelo was to guard the main road of communication with Santa Maria and the works and pontoons which had been prepared towards the river. This made it necessary to push the line of defence beyond the road, and thus come down into the open. The only defensive work which was made was a barricade of sandbags, with four guns, on the road from Capua to St. Angelo. And this became a hotly-contested point all day long; it was twice taken by the Neapolitans, and twice retaken. Although there were, besides the Calabrese and Genoese riflemen, nominally three brigades, there were in reality very little more than 3000 men present, while the enemy against them had columns of at least three times that number'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.