Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-07-04 00:00:00

11011,t1I1itN TIMES, MONDAY, JIM 4 1859

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o 7
thheea heard
right,,
t tthein leftte
direction of S. Vigilio and Me'dele. The
armrid which the village of Solferino is built is the
most prominent object all along this country. ,It is
of a conical shape, and has at its summit a high,
square tower, called the Spia (spy) d'ltalia, for from
the top of it you can overlook the plain of Upper
Italy from the Alps to the Po. This hill is detached
from the rest of the range, and throws out three
plateaux—one in the direction of the lake, another
towards the plain, and a third towards Cavriana.
It forms thus as it were a high castle with three
bastions, and all the roads leading towards it run
in the openings between the plateaux. All the sides,
with the exception of that towards the plain, are
very precipitous, and the roads run down at so steep
an incline that they are called the Scale di Sol-
ferino. Towards the plain the approaches rise
by a gradual incline until they reach the first houses ;
from thence they assume the same precipitous
character which the others have. It was this side
which was chosen as the point of attack. The
Austrians had prepared for this, and were ready to
receive their adversaries. Both sides of the road up
to the village itself are covered with vineyards ;
into these they had thrown masses of infantry,
taking advantage of the nature of the ground to
give them shelter, and free scope for their rifles.
As for artillery, they not only had some on the road,
but on the different elevated points to the right and
left, which abound ,in the higher parts of the road
towards the village. 'The fight began almost in the
plain, just where the road coming from Castiglione
bends to ascend the villrge, and crosses the road
from the latter to the main road of Goito. Two
divisions of the Ist corps (Forey and Bazaine) had
the mission to drive the enemy from this position,
while one division of the 2nd corps was to take
the village in the rear of S. Cassiano. The enemy's
skirmishers being driven back, the two divisions
of the Ist corps advanced, and, after a sharp
fusilade, succeeded in driving him back towards
the village. But it was only at the village that
the fight began. The entrance to it had been barri-
caded, and the high garden walls which extend to the
right and left loopholed for musketry, while on the
space which lies to the right of the road as you
ascend a battery was sending down a shower
of grape. This entrance became the scene of
a most desperate fight, but was at last forced,
and then began one of those street fights which
seem to become a characteristic of this campaign;
every house had been loopholed, and was occu-
pied by the enemy. As there are no gates in
the rear of the court-yards of these _ houses, the
defenders in each were obliged to fight to the
last or ,else surrender. Twice the first division of
the Ist corps had succeded in penetrating to the
church, whose enclosure wall is just at the foot of•
the great tower and the top of the hill, and twice
it had to retire again before the reserve which the
enemy brought up. The fight had 'lasted for more
than two hours, and the strength of the soldiers
began to fail. At this moment, which was about eight
o'clock, the Voltigeurs and the Chasseurs of the Guard
received orders to relieve them. At the same time
the Division of the Second Corps, with the Threes or
Chasseurs Indegenes, pushed home its attack from
San Cassano, while the other division of the First
Corps had attained the heights to the left of the
road. In less than half an hour the enemy was
driven out of his stronghold, and had to retire, leaving
twelve guns behind. He retired in the direction
of Cavriana, but only step by step. Looking down
from Solferino towards.Cavriana, there is a range of
hills before you, nhich I can compare to nothing
but to, the ruins of a number of colossal Roman
camps formed by nature, and half obliterated by
age. It' is one succession ,of ascents and descents;
the best description of which I heard from a sol-
dier, who, describing the battle on the height,
said, c'etait acne chasse recureuil." After the
taking of Solferino the engagement assumed really
the shape of a battle, where tactics came into
play. The taking of the village was more due to
bravery than science. Battles have often been com-
pared to the game of chess—well, I never was so
struck by the truth of this comparison as yester-
day, during the advance ,frem. Solterinoto Cavriana.
How one body after another was moved forward, and
the enemy then forced back by degrees.' It was in
this fight that the immense superiority of the new
French rifled cannon showed itself. The lightness' of
the pieces is such that they could be brought up hills
so steep that even infantry had no small difficulty in
scaling them. Still the range of them and their
precision is almost incredible. You could see their
shells bursting, among the guns and infantry of the
enemy, while the shells fired from his guns at the
highest elevation were falling short or bursting in
bhe
s
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iplaince
ntatabr
advanced
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bbtahyemienteigAi teuitmrsotoeta
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nfphr
ooti
which
e_
the air. The attack on this succession of positions
the of
wa
is f
'Act a,f r tinh e
thieoing.htlsvohfiCale vorniearicao
column
leads along the base of the hill to Cavriana,,the main
body followed the . Masse d tecurettil over hill and
dale in a regular steeple-chase towards the tower
of Cavriana

While .ihe attack, in what was now
the centre took this shape, the attack of the 4th
)s iii the plain to the right had likewise
loped itself. For a short distance from
iglione the country .to the right and left_of the
is full of vineyards and mulberry trees, not
)sely planted, but sufficient to be an obaacle

very -el

lie movements of artillery and cavalry. After ,two
miles or so, however, the gees recede on both sides,
and an ,almost naked plain, partly grass, partly
planted with corn, stretches out almost from the
foot of the hills across the main road to the neigh-
bourhood of Medole. This plain, which extends as
far Cavriana, Guiddizzole, and Ceresole, became the
scene of a most animated artillery and cavalry
engagement, which was very effective seen with a
good glass from the heights. The infantry took
only part in it,, to the extreme right, towards
Medole and Ceresole, occupying the vineyards which
Heat the entrrnee of the plain, and from which the
infantry of the enemy had en before driven out.
As soon as iGeneral Niel was able to debouch into
the plain from the right, the day was gained, for
such was the superiority of the French artillery that
the Austrian artillery, who it must be acknOwledged
f mght its adversary with great bravery, was obliged
to yield. This was in the afternoon about four o'clock..
The centre had come to the hills about Cavriana, and
while one column scaled the steep ridge under which
the road runs, another was sent on the road into the
Village. From the rapidity with which these
columns advanced, you could see that the Austrians
had given up the 'idea of resisting any longer in this
position, and were only now anxious to make good
their retreat. The position of Cavriana, which is
almost as formidable as that of Kolferino, was only
held'until the other troops could be withdrawn, and
was ultimately taken with little loss. In the plain,
the Austrian artillery executed a very good retreat
en echelon, while the cavalry was sent forward to
arrest somewhat the progress of the Allies. On this
occasion there were a couple of brilliant charges exe-
cuted by the Chasseurs d'Afrique, but this did not
prevent the enemy from keeping the road to Goito. By
five o'clock almost everything was over on the right
wingnnd the centre. The end was precipitated by
a smart shower, which began to fall about this time.
What happened on, the left, I must reserve for
another letter, as I could not overlook that part of
the field, and have had as yet no time to hear the
details and see the field of battle. But, when the
battle ended on the right, a smart cannonade began
on the left, which must have been either a renewal of
the attack in order to gain the passage of Ponti or
Monzimbano, or else it was an attack on a part of the
Austrian army retiring towards Peschiera. Some of
the guns must have been fired from this latter place,
for, to judge by the sound, they were large position
guns. The result of the day is, driving the Austrians
from the position which they had themselves chosen
and fortified in every way, so as to make it almost
impregnable. It was the strongest proof of supe-
riority which could be given. From the extent
of the position, and the force in which they ap-
peared? in all they must have been very nearly

200,000 men strong, and, if the prisoners are to be
credited, they brought up all their reserves from
Mantua by railway during the battle. These 200,000
were in one of the most formidable positions that
can be conceived, had the ground carefully prepared
for defence, and were driven by about 140,000 to
150,000 from their positions, leaving 15 guns, besides
a number of ammunition waggons, and several
thousand prisoners. If the defeat did not become
much greater it was that' the Austrians thought of a
timely retreat. As soon as Solferino was lost, it
was evidently a losing battle that they were
fighting. They were thinking all the time of their
retreat, and held only sufficiently not to expose
themselves to worse evils. So close to the Mincio it
would have been an act of desperation to attempt
to hold their position, with the risk of being pushed
back on the river, or else of being cut off from it.
There can be no mincing of the thing as at
Magenta, that only part of the troops were present,
or that they were fatigued ; it was as fair a trial of
respective strength and skill for 'them as they can
desire, for all disadvantages in numbers as well as
position were entirely on the' side of their adver-
saries. Whether after this - trial they will still
think of accepting another battle on this side of
the Mincio, or whether they •will be satisfied
with defending the. river line, remains to be • seen.
The losses on both sides were naturally consi-
derable, especially in and about Solferino, which
looked like a human butchery after the fight. At
this point alone I saw lying about more than 1,500
dead, besides a large mass 'Of wounded. In dead the ,
French did not lose very much, but the number of
wounded cannot be less ..than 3,000 to 4,000, only
a small proportion however severely wounded
among them. What the Austrian loss was it is
not possible to judge, for they took away as long as
they could both dead and wounded, having made a
requisition of 2,000 carts in the villages on the
Mineio. General Niel, who commanded the right
flanking column, and whose skilful management of
artillery contributed considerably to the success of
the day, has been raised to the rank of Marechal
de France. As soon as the battle was over, orders
came to transfer the head quarters to Cavriana, and
last night the Emperor occupied the very room
which his colleague and antagonist had had pre-
pared for himself. Even the dinner was found all
prepared and waiting for the victor,—Times,
(Second 'Edition.)