The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-06 00:00:00

THE DEFENCES OF VENICE

(Front the Times Military Correspondent.)
VENICE, Aug. 26,

To say that Venice is deserted would be an exag-
geration, for there are still plenty of inhabitants if
one could only see them, but it has the air of a half-
deserted city, and the sensation of being almost the
my guest in a fine hotel of 160 rooms, attended
by a considerable staff of waiters who have nothing
to do but serve breakfast and dinner for one, or
play a game of cards on the public' dining-table, is
novel enough to make one feel as if the city had
broken loose from her moorings and was far away
at sea, equally free from money-turning merchants
and curious visitors.
But Venice is occupied by an unwelcome crowd,
whose arms are powerful enough to keep out the
hosts of Italians longing so wearily to pour in, and
to repres.a the spirit of her angry citizens, who would
otherwise throw open her gates to their friends out-
side. Nineteen thousand men organised and trained,
occupy her strongholds, and are sufficient to pre-
serve to Austria the fairest jewel in her crown till
the sacrifice shall have been completed, and the city
of palaces handed over to the Emperor of the
French, and by him to the new nation. The diffe-
rence between the unprepared condition of this really
great military Power to resist invasion from the
north, and the perfect organisation of her defences
against an attack from the south, is very striking.
Josephstadt, Koniggratz, and even Olmutz are old
fortresses ill provided with modern artillery, almost
incapable of standing a long siege, proved to be in-
capable of checkingthe advance of a hostile force to
the banks of the Danube ; but here all is otherwise,
and Venice is not only an interesting relic of past
magnificence, but a great fortress capable of hold-
ing back an army from penetrating within her ports
and canals, and also able to act as a point of con-
centration for a force that might assemble here and
threaten the rear of a southern army marching
against Gorilzia or the Tyrol. After the battle of
Custozza, when the Archduke Albrecht was retiring
out of Italy, the Governor of Venice considered him-
self strong enough to spare 3,000 men, who went to
swell the number of the troops interposing between
the Prussians and Vienna. The place is provisioned
for four months, and the works are capable of hold-
ing out for a still longer period, especially since Ad-
miral Tegethoff took the command of the sea, and
thus insured the freedom of communication with
Trieste. Now a fortress may be provisioned in dif-
ferent ways and on different scales, but the garrison
of Venice would want neither fresh meat, bread,
wine, oil, nor fruit. Three thousand seven hundred
oxen assembled on various islands enjoy a tranquil
and sunny existence, unworried by dogs or drovers,
and having nothing to do but to fatten themselves
for the tables of the soldiers, besides the usual stores
of preserved meats, &c. The other wants of a be-
sieged place are provided for in like proportion. It
cannot be too often repeated that Austria was tho-
roughly prepared to wage a defensive war hgainst
the Italian nation, even with the French at their
backs, but was neither ready nor willing to sustain
an attack from her Northern German neighbour.
It is no wonder, therefore, that the Prussians, who
were acute enough to perceive this, forced the cam-
paign in the north, nor that Austria, conscious of
her vast strength in Venetia, wished to show the
world that she was really the colossus she was sup-
posed to be by striking a heavy blow before giving
tip her possessions in the south. Even one day's ex-
amination of such works as it was possible to see in
the time has shown that much science has been dis-
played and great care taken to render Venice im-
pregnable, except after a long siege, and even then
she could only fall into the hands of an enemy who
could keep the command both of the land and sea.
• Since the viaduct was built over the lagunes
most travellers approach Venice by railway, and, if
their attention is not too much taken up by the
towers and domes of the city, they can see on each
side of the bridge, when the tide is high, a wide ex-
panse of water dotted over here and there with dark
objects which have the appearance of small islands,
but the water scarcely covers the land which reap-
pears at low tide, and the islands are strong forts.
In olden times, before the famous Republic had
arisen to excite the envy of the world as well by its
maritime strength as by its riches, this corner of
the debatable ground, half sea, half land, was
formed by the debris brought down from the moun-
tains settling itself about the mouths of rivers,
whose beds became choked up, so that part of the
descending water had to push its way seawards by
numerous small channels which it burrowed in the
soft soil, and another part flowed over the coast,
mingling with the waves of the sea at high
tide, and forming that blackish mixture the ex-
halations from which are so deleterious to health.
But the inhabitants of Venetia dug deep courses for
the fresh water, leading it round away from the city
and forcing it to discharge itself by mouths prepared
for it; the old channels of the river mouths re-
mained, and are now the canals, but most of them
end landwards in cols-de-sac, and it is the sea itself
which fills them, and spread over the lagunes of
high tide, retreating again with the ebb, and suf-
fering the land to appear. Thus true salt
water encompasses the city, and the lagunes of
Venice are only unhealthy in the autumn, when
the weedy growths of the spring and summer are
decaying. Except in the canals the water is too
shallow to admit of the approach of boats carrying
troops to the • city, and an enemy must therefore
advance by certain well-defined routes, unless he
will wade through the water and soft mud, a dan-
gerous operation, and rendered, indeed, almost im-
possible by the elaborate network formed by the
canals, which intertwine like the roots of a tree,
and are of unequal and suddenly varying depths.
In this letter I will only speak of the defences in
the direction of the land, leaving those that look
seawards to be described in my next.
The great high roads and the railways to Venice
approach the city through Mestre, a small unforti-
fied to vn to the north-west, only important as the
junction of the routes from all directions. The
railway is continued aver the lagunes by a bridge
about 21 miles long, which also
carries two small
streams of fresh water. Parallel to the bridge, and
close to it, is the canal St. Secondo, the only one of
the whole number which leads directly to the city
without winding, and hence the probability that an
enemy would choose these two routes for his ad_
vance. At the edge of the lagunes, and at the
point where the railway and the canal St. Secondo
first approach each other closely, stands the Fort of
Malghera, or Fort Haynau, as it is also called, an
irregular bastioned work with an exterior and inner
line of defences, and redoubts beyond the exterior
curtains ; the canal is led half round it, and sup-
plies water to all its ditches, while the railway
passes within a few paces, having been prepared by
its construction for such an occasion as the present,
when the convenience of travellers would have to
yield to the necessities of war. There has been no
blowing up of the line, but the simple removal of a
small bridge leaves a gap too wide to be passed over,
while beneath shines the ever present water, and
two guns behind a parapet stare in the face of an
adventurous force approaching along the railway
from
Mestre. To the left of this slight defence is
another fort smaller than Malghera, and called
the " Thum, Red
oubt," in front of and to the left
of which are polls of water, marshes, and pits
enough to render an assault impossible. Wherever
the visible range is considerable, rifled guns of the
largest calibre possessed by the Austrians guard the
way, and where the nature
of defence intended
shortens the distance required for the' projectile to
pass over, smooth-bore howitzers and shell guns
stand ready to pour destruction upon troops who
may have approached within their range. The bar-
racks are casemated, loop-holed, bombproof, and
covered with heaps of earth ; there are blockhouses,
almost bidden under mounds of the same ever-ready
defence, and against the walls of magazines, block-
houses, and barracks are heavy beams leaning, also
covered with earth ; indeed, so many precautions
are taken for the safety of the men that one is
almost led to wonder whether it would be possible
for any soldier to be hurt. There are no embra-
sures, and the guns peer so closely over the parapet
that they are almost invisible from outside, while
their carriages are quite out of the line of fire.
From 200 to 600 rounds, according to the position,