Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 2: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
History
Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 2: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
Biography
After the death of Hali from the wounds he had received at
Peterwaradin, the command of the Turkish army was given to the Pacha
of Belgrade, one of the most skilled officers in the Ottoman service.
But Eugene was destined to destroy the Turkish power in Hungary. The
campaign of the next year commenced with the siege of the
often-captured Belgrade; and it was soon completely invested and
reduced to sore distress. The Porte, however, was not unmindful of its
preservation; and, in the beginning of August, the pacha appeared on
the mountains surrounding the town, with an army of near two hundred
thousand men. Thus shut up between a strong fortress and an immense
army, with the dysentery in his camp, and his forces enfeebled by long
and severe labors, Eugene's situation was as difficult as it is
possible to conceive. Notwithstanding every disadvantage, his usual
bold course of action was pursued in the present instance, and met
with that success which is almost always sure to attend the
combination of daring and skill. After a short delay, to enable
himself to employ all his energies (having been himself greatly
debilitated by the camp fever), he attacked the Turkish army in their
intrenchments, and at the end of a very short but severe struggle,
succeeded in defeating a force more than three times the number of his
own.
Belgrade surrendered immediately; and the next year, without any great
military event, put an end to the war.
After the conclusion of peace, Eugene, who had been appointed governor
of the Austrian Netherlands, resigned that office, which he had never
personally filled, and was appointed vicar-general for the emperor in
his Italian dominions.
For many years after this Eugene spent his days in peace and
tranquillity, endeavoring to raise up a spirit of commerce among the
Germans, and to improve the finances of his sovereign, by whom he was
appreciated and loved. His greatest efforts were in favor of Trieste,
which he changed from a petty town to a great commercial city, and
which remains to the present day the best and the noblest fruit of all
his talents and all his exertions.
At first, everything promised that the old age of Eugene would have
passed in peace, uninterrupted by any warlike movements; but he was
once more called from his calmer occupations by the short war which
broke out with France in 1733.
Perhaps, in point of military skill, the two campaigns which followed
were the most brilliant of Eugene's life; but with only thirty
thousand men, opposed to a force of double that number, he could alone
act upon the defensive.
He did so, however, with more success than the scantiness of his
resources promised. He prevented the French from penetrating into
Swabia; and, though Philipsburg was taken notwithstanding all his
efforts, he contrived, by turning the course of the neighboring
rivers, to inundate the country on the German side of that city, and
to render its possession unprofitable to France.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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