After Garibaldi's Expedition of Thousand had conquered Sicily and much of southern Italy with a startling speed, entering in Naples on September 7, while the King Francis II of Two Sicilies took refuge in the powerful fortress of Gaeta, midway from Rome to Naples. In the meantime the Neapolitan army was rebuilt in Capua under marshal Giosuè Ritucci, the first skirmishes with Garibaldi's volunteers occurring on September 26 and 29.