The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-02 00:00:00

lie at the entrance of the plain, and from which
the infantry of the enemy had been before driven
out. As soon as General Niel was able to debouch•
into the plain from the right, the day was gained,
for such was the superiority of the French artil-
lery, that the Austrian Artillery, who it must be
acknowledged fought its adversary with great
bravery, was obliged to yield. This was in the
afternoon, aboui 4 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 ad-
vanced you could see that the Austrians had given
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 Solferino, was
only held until the other troops could be with-
dr6vn, and wass 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 executed by the Chas-
seurs d'Afrique, but this did not prevent the enemy
from keeping the road to Goito. By 5 o'cloc-s.
almost everything was over on the right wing and
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 Monzambano, 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 fight-
ing. They were thinking all the time of their re-
treat, and held only sufficiently not to expose them-
selves to worse evils. So close to the Mincio it
would hove 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.

" 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 numbre
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
Mincio.

"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 prepared for him-
self. Even the dinner was found all prepared and
waiting fcr the victor."