The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-04 00:00:00

THE BATTLE OF SOLVER.IO.

(From a Special Correspondent of the Times./
VERONA, JUNE 26.
I sketched yesterday as rapidly as I could the
principal incidents of the great battle which I sup-
pose will be called the Battle of Solferino. The
field having been lost to us, I am deprived of the
advantage .which will be possessed exclusively by
those on the other side of examining every part of
it; but it is still possible for me to enter into more
particular details than I was able in my letter of
yesterday to do.
Solferino is a straggling village, through which
runs the road to San Cassiano. On its western side
rises the hill called Rocca, on which stands the
tower of which I have already given you a descrip-
tion. The hill stretches in a westerly direction
about 1,000 paces, the spit of it descending some-
what abruptly to the hamlet, or Contrada Pozzo
Catena. This line of height was occupied at the
opening of the action by Bils's brigade of the Divi-
sion Pallfy, of the sth Corps. To the right of the
tower on the Rocca, that is north-east of it, Stern-
berg's division of the sth Corps held a line from the
heights of San Pietro and Rola, facing the enemy
on the little stream called Redone. The first at-
tack on this position was successfully repulsed, but
as the allies advanced over the spit of the Monte
Carnal, the attack was renewed with incredible
fury. The hilly position of the Austrians does not
seem to have permitted them to make much use of
their artillery, of which many batteries remained
in reserve. At the foot of the Solferino tower to
the west they had some guns playing on the French
crescent in the plain ; others on the east side of the
tower checking the advance of the enemy. Their
chief dependence was not, however, on their artil-
lery in these positions, but rather on the fire of the
infantry, which, on its part, had to face the Minie
rifle of the Grenadiers of the Guard, which com-
mitted dreadful havoc amongst the officers of the
foremost line.
The road through Solferino is on a much lower
level than the hill of Rocca or that of San Pietro,
which command it on both sides_ The efforts of
the French were directed at an early period towards
this point, every step they took in advance there
giving them a chance of turning the_fianks of the
Austrians defending both Solferino and San Pietro.
As their masses became more compact and difficult
to repel they gradually forced their way up the
road, driving back the Austrians both in flank and
front, and separating the extreme left of the sth
Corps from its right and centre. The Brigade Bils
rallied again as the Ist Corps, under Clam, advanced
to its support from Cavriano. The Ist mad sth Corps,
thus fighting in line together, maintainedthemselves
at that point till past 11 o'clock, when the latter fell
back exhausted to the rear. The rest of the Ist with
the sth preserved their positions against every at-
tack successfully till half-past 1, when the enemy
began to make head against them, throwing back
the former to its direct rear on Cavriano, and the
latter to its right, thus cutting off the communica-
tion between the Bth and sth corps and the rest of
the Austrian army. At the same time, under cover
of their batteries in the Campo di Medole, and
others on the heights of Monte Fenile, which en-
filaded the road between Volta and San Cassiano,
the French advanced a heavy body of infantry
which at once held in check the 7th corps under
Zobel at San Cassiano, and outflanked the Austrians
on their left on the height of Rocca. The position
at this point was thus becoming rapidly untenable.
Attacked in front and on both flanks, it stood out
on the apex of an isosceles triangle, of which the
front and two sides were closely pressed by an over-
powering enemy. The Ist corps, which in the
morning held Cavriano, had been forced early into
fire; its only reserve in case of a check being the
7th, Zobel's. But it had already been found neces-
sary to use up Zobel in the defence of San Cassiano,
so that when the Ist corps began to yield and fall
baek from Solferino there were no fresh troops to
oppose to the enemy. The French crowned the
heights of Solferino about half-past 1, and their
batteries, placed on the range of Monte Margan,
began shelling Cavriano, while the Ist corps con-
tinued to dispute the intermediate ground. It was
at this moment that the Emperor and his Staff left
the- Monte Roccolo, and took the direction of a
eascino on the road east of Cavriano, where already
several wounded soldiers had found their way.
The Emperor, cool and collected as a veteran,
stood on the height of Madonna delle Pieve, close
by a church surrounded by cypress trees, till a
quarter to 4. Count Sehlick and his aide-de-camp,
his Highness the Prince of Nassau, were standing
by him at Madonna della Pieve, while the masses
on the plain below were already retiring. The
French were pressing hard on Cavriano. They
had already gained possession of an old bridle
path called the Strada Cavallara, which runs
direct from Solferino to Valleggio, and al-
ready the road from Madonna delle Pieve to the
latter place was becoming excessively dangerous.
The Emperor now went off leisurely t 6 Volta with
a few aides-de-camp, while the Archdukes with the
Hereditary Grand Duke of Tuscany and his
brothers followed a by-path through groves and
over rocks towards Valleggio. While we quietly
rode on few of us knew that the enemy, following
a parallel direction to our own, were within half a
mile of us. The French, on the other hand, were
happily in equal ignorance of our true position, or
they would have made a dash to cut us off. We
struck the Strada Cavallara just below the Monte
Oliveto, meeting the head of Stankovitsch's divi-
sion of the Ist Corps as it was retreating on the
road from Castellaro Lagusello to Volta. The
right of the sth Corps was at that time withdrawn
to IVlonzambano, while the Bth, Benedek's, had
fallen back as far as Salionze, north of Pozzolengo,
and on the road to Peschiera. At half-past five
Cavriano had been finally taken by the French,
who then made a combined attack on Volta and on
Guiddizzolo, but both those attacks were success-
fully repulsed, which enabled the Austrians to retire
their materiel and guns by bridges at or near the
Molino di Volta during the bight, and move off
their first army by the same road on the next day.
As we came up to Borghetto heavy banks of
cloud had
and black gathered in the west and lowered heavy
over the hills. The bridge of Valleggio
and its
approaches were encumbered with wag•
gons, through 'which we passed with difficulty,
while the assent.ux.
to the village itself was almost
choked up with cavalry moving towards Villa-
franca, cartloads of sew its
head and artillery with
head turned totards thel,,vid
we sloWly threaded our Wgae o g
f B whetto.. As
ob-
stacles, a tremendous hurricaney through these
of wind, the pre-
cursor of the coming storm,
rased a dark veil of
dust. The sky became completely
__
overcast, and
black as ink. The dust and gravel of the road
rattled furiously in our faces,
casting
3.els'ers: ,mingledthin g
w
into darkness. The roar of thunder
in sublime confusion with that of cannon, which
appeared to be so close that its reverberations /eight
be distinguished from that of the thunder that
rolled around us. I thought that the high wind
had brought in the sound of the fight which might
still be proceeding at Cavriano, not knowing that
the French were following us at 20 minutes' dis-
tance on the Strada Cavallara. A tremendous down-
pour of rain inundated me in the streets of Val.
leggio before I could find refuge in my old quarters.
Here were visible some of the results of the battle.
Soldiers of every corps and every regiment were
gathered together in the streets ersprengt, or sepa-
rated from their proper positions. The people of
Valleggio were all at their windows or communing
together outside the houses, in spite of the heavy
rain. The storm disappeared as speedily as it had
come on, the sun shone out again with brightness
in the west, and still closer and closer came the
sounds of artillery. It was evident now the enemy
was threatening the tete de pont of Valleggio. At
all events, Valleggio was not exactly the place to
choose for a night's rest, so, without hesitation, fol-
lowing the example of the Imperial Head-quarters
(we had ridden all day without food of
any kind),
I started from Valleggio and rode through Ouaderni
to Villafranca, where the Emperor had already
arrived. There dispositions were speedily made to
guard the passage of the Mincio, the wandering
soldiers were brought together on the roads, and
directed back on Valleggio. Batteries of position