Page 215 - Beholding Liberty!

to be consolidated, with important victories at sea and on land, such as the burning
of Kara Ali’s Turkish flagship at Chios
by the Psarian fire-ship captain Konstantinos Kanaris (6-7 June 1822),
in retaliation for the massacre of the Chians, and the prevalence of Theodoros Kolokotronis’ troops over Dramalis
at Dervenakia (26-28 July 1822).
Kanaris, as a matter of fact, inflicted
a new blow against the Turks, in October of the same year, when he burnt a sailing ship of the Turkish fleet off Tenedos. Counted as one of the important successes of the Greeks is the outcome, in December 1822, of the first siege of Missolonghi
by the forces of Omer Vryonis and Kioutachis, from land, and Yusuf Pasha, from the sea. The defence of the city was undertaken by Alexandros Mavrokordatos and Markos Botsaris with a small force. The besiegers decided not to launch
an attack, but to occupy Missolonghi through a compromise. As long as negotiations lasted, the besieged
were stalling for time, until
in mid-November, a small fleet of
11 ships under Andreas Miaoulis arrived
Letter of P. Mavromichalis, P. Krevvatas and Ch. Peroukas to Th. Kolokotronis (Nafplio, 28 July 1822)
there and broke the naval blockade
of Missolonghi, bringing ammunition
and reinforcements.
When, finally, the Turkish pashas decided to launch an attack, in the night of
the 24th to the 25th of December,
the plan had been leaked to the fighters
of Missolonghi by the Greek in origin secretary of Omer Vryonis, Giannis Gounaris. Thus, the garrison of the city remained in its place, and the Ottomans suffered disaster. After this important success, to which Markos Botsaris contributed, a few months later, his heroic death (8-9 August 1823) occurred by an enemy shot in the battle of Kefalovryso
at Karpenissi, in the course of his confrontation with Mustai, the pasha of Shkodra, and his army of 10.000 battle- hardened Albanians. The untimely death of the Souliot chieftain was a very severe blow to the Struggle, also lamented over throughout the revolted Greece and
in Europe, as in him they recognised
the hero par excellence of the time.
The enthusiasm of victory and the pain
of loss were on the daily agenda
of the struggle for Freedom.
IΙ.3
The consolidation of the Struggle
«Indeed you appeared as another Leonidas, who withstood horrible war at Thermopylae, Your valour at Dervenakia with eight hundred men confronted thousands of enemies».
Η ΑΦΥΠΝΙΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ Από την αρχαιολατρία στον Φιλελληνισμό 215