BIXIO'S dispatch ( Bixio, 232-233), by a slip of the pen, gives
the date of the crossing as the night of August 19-20, whereas
it was really the night of August 18-19. This has misled
many historians since, e. g. the author of Türr's Div. 132;
Castellini, p. 52 note 2, and De Cesare himself.

Bixio, in fact, makes his own error patent to any one who
reads his dispatch with special care, for the dispatch is not
consistent with itself. He says ( Bixio, 234), that they entered
Reggio before dawn on August 21, ¹ after having passed in Cala-
bria two full days with a night in between them. Not only
Bixio but Garibaldi ( Mem. 375-376) and other members of
the expedition ( Menghini, 451-452) agree that after landing at
dawn they spent first one whole day, then one whole night,
and then another whole day before making the night attack
on Reggio. That attack was made on the night of August
20-21, after midnight. ² Therefore they must have landed at
dawn on August 19, not at dawn on August 20. That they
crossed in the night of August 18, landing at dawn on August
19, is expressly stated by the following first-hand authorities:
Menghini, 451; Peard MS. Journal, August 18, 19; Arriva-
bene, ii. 100-101; Durand Brager, 171 ; Times, August 25,
p. 9, c. 5, where the correspondent writing on August 19
describes the departure from Giardini on the previous evening
(18th); Castellini, 52 (text, the modern note being in error);

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