The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-29 00:00:00

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THE ALLIED ARMIES IN ITALY.

(From the Times.)
The following letter is by the same able corre-
apondent to whom our readers have hitherto been
indebted for the only account by an eye-witness of
the progress of the Allies. It is amusing to observe
how unexpected the movement of the Austrians in
advance, which led to the late battle, was in the
Allied camp :

" LONATO, JUNE 22, 11 A.M.
" Well, what was yesterday uncertain is no more
SO to-day. The Austrians have retired behind t h
the
es
Mincio, leaving only patrols and small detachmenth
on this bank of the river. Now that we are
.on
ground which they occupied and can seak with the
people, one can easily ascertain the truth. about their
movements. It seems now certain thatit never was
the intention of the Austrians to risk the chances of
war on this side of the Mincio. All they wanted
was to oppose sufficient forces to the allied armies to
retard the instch of these latter, to gain time to
withdraw whatever they had of troops and materiel
on the line of the Po, and to mature their own
plans. For this purpose they seem to have sacrificed
about 40,000 men—probably the same corps of
Benedek which was so astonished by the charge of
the Zouaves at Melagnano. This corps, which did
not take part in the battle of Magenta, was, it
seems, pushed forward as a strong arriere-garde,
under the protection of which the troops defeated
at Magenta and those coming from the more outly-
ing points could retreat by the southern road to
Mantua. After the rude attack at Melagnano this
arriere-garde contented itself with destroying the
bridges over the Adda and the Chiese, and thus
Theirre
-
tardmg the progress of the allied armies.
own retreat was determined by the progress of our
troops. As these latter advanced
wa thse Austrian
of it
arriere-garde vanished, and nothing
except their camping ground. It was only in the
north, where Garibaldi's corps was always in ad-
vance of the great army, that they showed, and
near the Chiese even stood on the defensive, but
there they also gave way when the avant-garde of
the allies came up. Whether those troops with
whom Garibaldi had his skirmish on the 15th inst.
formed part of the great arriere-garde, or were
merely the gatrisons of the northern towns col-
lected in a body, I could not make out from the
contradictory statements ; so much is however cer-
tain that the Austrian troops withdrew sooner from
the main road to Verona than from that to Goito
and Mantua. Already on Wednesday last, that is
just a week ago, the railway bridge, as well as that
over which the main road goes to Peschiera, were
blown up, while the great arriere-garde, or, at any
rate, Rut of it, was still at Bozzolo on the Melia,
on Friday last. From that day till the day before
yesterday they were still hovering a boutit.
It the plain
of Montechiaro as if regretting to leave was
in the afternoon of that day that they finally re-
treated on all the line. Most of them retreated over
the two bridges of Ponti and Monzambano, pro-
bably because it was their most direct line of retreat.
" This movement of retreat was better executed
than one might have supposed after the bad general-
ship shown m the battle of Magenta ; but it was
not very difficult:
It make a geodretreat when it
never was in the plan of the attacking army to fol-
low close—and that for more than one reason,
which will probably become self-evident by and by.
All that was wanted was to gain the upper road,
near which likewise the railway line leads, and to
clear everything north of that as far as the Lake
of Garda. It was for this purpose that an oblique
line was taken, the left wing pushed forward, and
right wing always kept somewhat in the rear. This
forward movement of the Allies explains the back-
ward movement of the Austrians, wn, pressed on
their right by the advance of our left, gave way and
retired sooner from that side. The day before yes-
terday our real advance against the position on the
Chiese began, and on that day they left definitively
for the Mincio, carrying with them the rifled can-
non which they took from the French in the fight
at Ponte de Magenta and 45 prisoners. Yesterday
afternoon Lonato and Castighone were occupied by
our troops, and the head-quarters transferred to
Castenedolo. This morning we pushed in advance
to Desengano and the Lake and in the direction of
the passages of the Mincio. All that remains of the
enemy on this side of the river are a few patrols,
who roam about, but of course withdraw at our ap-
proach. It was against one of these that a few can-
non shot' were. sent yesterday. To-day the Bersag-
lieri and a. Sa,rdinian patrol fell in with another
Austrian patrol, took four prisoners, and killed
their officers.
" Before retiring into Mantua the Austrians de-
stroyed the bridge over the Oglio at Pozzolo, over
which the great road_ from Mantua to Cremona,
Pizzighetone, Piacenza. and Pavia leads.
".Thus the Austrians are fairly in their, as the
German • papers I am told call it, impregnable
quadrilatere, and now is to come their turn for
showing' their plans. Part, at any rate, of this
plan is evidently an aggressive movement of some
kind or other in our rear. Its first symptoms
became visible just when they retired behind the
Mincio, and, as it is ascertained thatthey have con-
siderable masses of troops concentrated about the
Stelvio Pass, it is by no means impossible that they
may intend to come down upon Milan or Brescia,
while at the same time they debouch from behind
the Mincio. Well, if they do that, they will give
a fine opportunity to the Emperor Napoleon to
show how much he has inherited of the military
genius of his uncle.
" As soon as one abandons the idea of consider-
ing the quadrilatere as another Sebastopol, where
an enemy can -concentrate all the forces he can dis-
pose of, and if one makes an offensive plan in which
the quadrilatere comes in only as part of the
whole, then one launches into a field of conjecture
winch/has no end. For all amateurs of real cam-
paigning it would be desirable to see the Austrians
adopt some plan of that kind, for then the second
phase of this campaign, which promised nothing
but dull siege work, enlivened, perhaps, by divers
cunning new devices, would become extremely
.in-
teresting. There would be then two armies against
each other in the open field, each thinking itself a
match for the other, while hitherto this has never
been-the case. When the Austrians rushed into
Piedmont the Allies thought themselves no match
for them. When the allied armies advanced, the
Austrians began to think that they were no match
for the Allies in the open field, and they retired to
their fortresses.
"Hitherto only
.some of the corps francs have
shOw-n themselves in the mountains, and Garibak
his been sent against them. The movement must
taki more shape before one can judge about its real
lelPortance. In the meantime every one delights
in campaigning in such a beautiful country, and is
in admiration of the views which the hills to the
south of the Lake offer. From every one of them a
magnificent panorama opens out over the range of
the Tyrolese Alps on one side, and over the plain of
Montechiaro and down to Brescia and Mantua on
the other side. But the crown among them all
belongs without contradiction to the Castle-hill of
Lonato. The range of hills which skirt the southern
shores of the Lake follows in their direction more
or less that of the Lake itself. Every cape which
you see on the south-western and southern shores
becomes the starting point for one of these
successive ranges. The first starts from the
promontory of San Biagio with a bold rock. The
mound rises more gently from Disengano, and the
two almost meet, leaving an opening where the road
passes to Peschiera. The castle of Lonato is on the
abrupt termination of the first range. The view
from it is so much the more striking as you don't
suspect it. Coming from the Chiese, which you pass
at Ponte di San Marco, the gentle slopes of the
hills come gradually nearer and nearer, looking like
the last spurs of the Alps which you see towering
in the distance. You so little suspect what awaits
you that your first question is how far you have to
go to see the lake, which you know is not many
miles distant. You are told to go to the castle hill,
on which you see the ruins of an ancient keep, such
as are almost in every one of the Lombard towns.
You make your way through a number of little
ruined gateways and mount over the successive lines
of circumvallations until you come to the top, and
von have before a panorama such as you rarely see.
'You see in the foreground before a semicircle of
hillsgently descendingtowards the lake. You would
almost imagine it an amphitheatre of giants, made
by nature for a great naval combat to be fought on
the lake. The illusion is so much the greater as the
terraces, which were made for the purposes of cul-
tivation, represent perfectly the steps. And beyond
this amphitheatre stretches out the blue lake, until
it loses itself between the high mountains, which,
beginning from Salo, descend in true Alpine style
to the edge of the water, leaving scarce room for
the little villages which nestle at their feet. To
7cllll' light you see the peninsula of Sermione run-
ning out into the lake, and its churches and spires
"ntrasthig with the blue water. Further
o non
look
over the lower range of hills
tc ' ese"„Aera, where you can see, with a
good glass, the Austrians busy throwing up new
works, while to
jour right you can follow the whole
range down to eatiglione. And all over this space
of miles and miles
.are scattered louses, villages,
steeples, forts
rums, and camps of the allied

*OO ps.
It would take pages to describe this panorama,
And yet the description would never come up to the
reality. If you want to form an idea of it, I should
recommend you to go and look at Turner's Italy,
the picture with the two stone pines. Only imagine
in the middle of the picture the blue lake. Even
the tyro pines are there, only not quite in the fore-
-reran. d, but in the neighbourhoocicithe lake. It is,
In 4vr e word, the poetry of an Italian landscape
•vilL you must imagine, and instead ottlie auego.