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So I put together a time line to see if the timing was plausible. Wheat arrived in Italy in October 1860. By November Garibaldi's army in which Wheat served had taken the city of Naples ending the conflict. The next month Wheat left for England intending to join the South in the impending Civil war. When he was not able to secure a choice command, he returned to New Orleans in April 1861. The war started that same month and the port of New Orleans was closed the following May. No ships were allowed in for the next 4 years. The muster rolls of the Italian Guards were done in 1862 after the surrender of New Orleans. So it is plausible that a garrison of Ustican men could have followed Wheat back to New Orleans especially since there was already a community there to welcome them. The actual muster roles of the Italian army could help solidify this hypothesis but though thought to exist they haven't been found in Italian archives. Also interesting to note is one of the last ships to enter before the port was closed, the Elisabetta. It was all young men from Ustica some as young as 13. Family lore that's been passed down says that these were boys sent to New Orleans by their families so that they could avoid being forced into the Italian which many Sicilians considered an invading force.