Year: 1859




Mr. Raymond, Editor of the New York
Times, under date of Castiglione, June
26th, gives thrilling picture of the bloody
field of Solferino, as seen by him after the
battle. The field, writes Mr.. R., as far as
the eye could reach, was strewn with dead,
the bodies of Austiians and French mixed
thickly together, as each turn had occupied
the ground. They lay just as they had
fallen, some on their backs, some on their
faces, nearly all at full length, and very few
with any indications of muscular contor-
tions or special pain.


On Mr.. Raymond's return TO Castiglione
from view of the battle field, be sat
down upon the piazza Of a case on the prin-
cipal street with Mr.. Forsyth, of Troy, to
lay some plan as to future movements
Having had very little rest the night before,
both soon fell asleep. Of the panic which
soon followed Mr.. r. gives the following
graphic account.


We were speedily reused by an evident
and unusual commotion, and looki~g up,
we saw men running down street with un-
common agility, their numbers and speed
increased-Zouaves and other soldiers were
running as fast as the rest. Istepped into
the street and asked three or four soldiers
in succession what was the matter, each
gave the same reply, Je ue saiz pas" but
never stopped running in the least. Pres
emily one shouted as loudly as his spent
breath would permit, "They are killing
the wounded" l asked who? be replied,
les Autrichiens.' This was certainly rath.
er startling information, and as it was
backed up by general fight of the whole
mobile population, we began to think it
was time for us to be moving also.


We accordingly started off at a round
pace, but were compelled to stop p'and then
and draw up close to the wall to prevent
being run over by the advancing crowd
French mounted officers came tearing down
the street spurring their horses into a dead
run over the pavement.


Shutters were closed, doors, and Sardi-
nian flags pulled in with alacrity. Every
body who had cart and horse, mounted





been limping through the street not mo-
ment before, seize horse which stood at
the entrance of a stable yard, without sad
die, bride, or even Latter, leap on his back,
and holding by the name, kick and halloo
him into keen gallop down the street.
Everybody was running for dear life. We
went with the crowd until we cleared the
town and reached the high road to Lo-
INTO.


A French officer whom recognized as
one l had seen in command of the Guard
of the wounded, came dashing along in
grand gallop called to him as he rushed
past "Are the Austrians there?' son
da," was his only reply. Following close
to his heels, came one of the large wagons
belonging to the Imperial suite and in it
a young man to whom l had seen the sur
geons Of the Imperial household especially
deferential the day before. Next came an
open chaise with two civilians, one of
whom was lashing the horses and the 9TH
er fighting off the soldiers who were try
ing their best to climb up behind.


By this time, we had stopped running
and fallen to a leisurely walk, when those
in the chaise, who were COUGHING sympa-
thetic' consolipgly shouted to US that we
were certainly lost, as the Austrian dragons
were slashing their way right and left
directly in our rear. This decided us to
quit running altogether, as it was quite
hopeless to run away from pursuing caval-
ry.


This relaxation of our pace, and the re-
covery of our wind induced cooler view
of the whole affair and we were already
beginning to see its .farcical character,
when our cowardly coachman came putting
and blowing behind us, his face swelling
with fear and red with heat. He raised
his eyes, and clasped his hands in pity as
he passed us. aud soon turned off from the
road and buried his stalwort form in field
| of wheat. This quite reconciled us to the
desperate state of things, and laughing at
his sorrows, we entirely forgot our own.


Reasoning, moreover, as we walked, we
thought it most possible that a corps of
Austrian horsemen might have dashed in
from Peschiera to rescue the prisoners, of
whom there were six thousand in Castig-
lione, but anything beyond this seemed
quite impossible. The whole body of fu-
gitives upon our road was out of sight, but
a long cloud of dust on the road to Mon
techiaro, showed that in that direction
the panic was unabated. As we had
agreed TO meet Malakof on bis return from
Brescia, at Montechiaro, we struck into the
cross roads leading through the farms and
country districts and after a couple of hours
brisk walking reached that place. We
found it in the very heigth of the fever,
and it was with good deal of difficulty
that we prevailed on the landlord of the
Inn TO open his doors and give us posses
sion of the rooms we had engaged. This
was certainly the most remarkable instance
of pure panic l ever saw, and the most
striking feature of it was the rapidiLy with
which it increased in force and volume as
it rolled along.


We heard aftefward that it produced
the most serious results, when it overlook
the trains of wounded on the road 70 Bre-
scia. They were tumbled beadlong from
the carts into the roadside, and many Of
them were run over by the artillery wag-
ons, as they were entirely concealed from
sight by the dense cloud of dust which
hung over the road.


l have since tried hard to find out how
it originated, bnt with only Indifferent sue
cess. At first we were told that squad
ron of Piedmontese cavalry, who were
promenading the country in the direction
of Castiglione, had been mistaken for Aus
trians. But an officer in the camp of Gen.
Canrobeit, which was visited the next day,
upon the farthest extreme of the field of
battle, told us that it came from five Aus