The battles of the world : $b or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military eventsBorthwick, J. Douglas (John Douglas)
History
The battles of the world : $b or, cyclopedia of battles, sieges, and important military events
Borthwick, J. Douglas (John Douglas)
Battles; Military history
CUSTOZZA, BATTLE OF.--Fought Sunday, 24th June, 1866 between the
Austrians and Italians. “The Italian army, divided into three
corps and a reserve, making up a force of from 80,000 to 90,000
combatants, after crossing the Mincio at Gotto, and on the other
points, on Saturday afternoon, June 23rd, 1866, and sending
reconnoitering parties towards Peschiera and Verona, encamped for
the night at some place beyond Roverbella, equidistant from the
two fortresses. On the ensuing morning an attempt was made upon
those high positions of Sona, Somma Campaigna, and Santa Ciustina,
which commands the fifteen miles railway line joining the two
strongholds, positions which played a conspicuous part in the
campaign of 1848. The object of the Italians was evidently to take
possession of the railway, so as to isolate Peschiera and secure
a basis of operations against Verona. The Austrians, however, who
were massed in great force at Verona, sallied forth from that place
at daybreak, and, anticipating the Italian movements, took up their
position upon those hills, which are now everywhere bristling with
bastions and redoubts, and may be looked upon as mere outworks of
the two citadels, extending from the gates of one to those of the
other. After a severe and bloody, or, as the Italians describe
it, “desperate struggle,” which lasted nearly the whole day--that
longest of summer days--the Imperial army was victorious along
the whole line. They stormed the summit of Montevente, where the
Italians held out the longest, and at the close of the engagement,
at five o’clock in the afternoon, they also carried the position
of Custozza, a spot fatal to Italian arms in their encounter
with Radetski, in July, 1848. The victors captured several guns,
and about 2000 prisoners, and behaved, as the Archduke Albert’s
bulletin assures us, and as we may readily believe, with even more
than their ordinary bravery and endurance. On the same evening the
Italian army was obliged to re-cross the Mincio.
The Italian accounts of the engagement present no points of
material difference. According to them, the first army corps was
sent forward to occupy some positions between Peschiera and Verona,
but being surrounded by superior numbers, it “failed to effect its
purpose,” and the description given of its losses in the contest
leaves us little doubt that it was all but annihilated. The second
and third corps, unable--it is not said for what reason--to advance
to its rescue, were still in the evening “almost intact.” It was
also stated from Brescia that the army had maintained its position;
but there is little doubt that it had to withdraw across the Mincio
later in the night. The Italians had several of their Generals
wounded, among others the King’s second son, Prince Amadeus, who
has arrived at Brescia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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