like brave men. Pushing on with ardour, the attack was commenced just
as day began to break, by the cavalry outposts being cut to pieces,
and the left flank of Viletri being furiously assailed, the infantry
pushing on through walls and vineyards, and the Hungarian horsemen
with lance and sabre hewing a passage to the streets. A regiment of
Italian dragoons were put to flight. The brave Irish Brigade attacked
the advancing Austrians with such fury, as to hold them in check
for half-an-hour, but in the end were nearly cut to pieces at the
Neapolitan Gate. Marsiglia of Sienna, a Knight of Malta, defended
a cottage with fifty dismounted dragoons, and displayed incredible
bravery. The Walloon Guards were unable to assist the Irish until
they were nearly all slain. Colonel Macdonel, eleven captains, thirty
subalterns, and a heap of Irish dead, blocked up the gate they had
defended. The fury, the firing, and the slaughter on all sides of the
hill were frightful. The King of Naples put himself at the head of his
guards, crying, "Remember your king and your ancient valour." But his
efforts were vain; the gates were all forced, his troops driven out,
and nine of their standards taken. The street which led to the Ginnetti
palace was set in flames; the Duke of Atri was nearly burned alive, and
General Count Mariano was captured in bed. Brown's second in command,
the Marquis de Novati, was taken prisoner, and finding his troops, who
were busy plundering, about to be surrounded by those of Count Gages,
he ordered his drums to beat a retreat, and retired to the intrenched
camp of Lobcowitz. In this expedition he killed and captured 3000 men,
hamstrung 800 horses, and brought off 500 more laden with plunder; one
general, one hundred other officers, twelve standards, and three small
colours. His own loss was only 500.
Disheartened by the partial failure of this affair--for the King of
Naples had escaped them--destitute of forage for their cavalry and
artillery, and encumbered with many sick and wounded men, Lobcowitz
and Brown finding themselves unable to hazard a general engagement,
and that autumn was at hand, became desirous of retreating; and after
pillaging Valmonte and cutting the Duke of Portocarrara's Italian corps
to pieces, transporting their baggage and sick by sea to Tuscany, they
threw a pontoon bridge across the Tiber beside the Ponte Molle, and
commenced a retreat in the night, demolishing all bridges as they left
them behind, to bar pursuit.
The count was named "the right hand" of Lobcowitz during the arduous
operations which ensued; and, by his usual activity and bravery,
he frequently repulsed the pursuing Spaniards on the retreat from
Viletri, during the fortification of the Austrian camp at Viterbo, the
retreat from thence through the forests of Orvietto, with a force now
diminished to 13,000 men; the assault upon Nocera, where Count Soro and
900 Italian deserters fell into the hands of Count Gages, who sent them
in chains to San Giovanni, where every fifth man was shot--and many
other similar affairs, until the Imperialists reached their winter
quarters at Rimini, Cesano, and Forli, on which the Spaniards and
Neapolitans retired to Pesero and Fano.
In the beginning of the following year, 1745, he was recalled from
Italy by Maria Theresa, and sent into Bavaria at the head of a body of
troops against the young Elector, who was in alliance with France. He
took the town of Vilshosen by assault, and captured 3600 prisoners:
2000 were slain on both sides, and 6000 Hessians were forced to lay
down their arms, and enter the British service for the campaign against
the unfortunate Prince Charles Stuart. The count would have performed
many other feats of equal brilliance, had the war against Bavaria not
been terminated suddenly by the terrified Elector, who, at the same
time that Vilshosen was taken, lost Pfarrkirchen, Landshut, and had
all his magazines destroyed, which compelled him to sign the treaty of
Fussen, and in April to conclude a peace with the Empress-Queen. In the
same year Count Brown was appointed General of the Austrian Ordnance.
Though peace had been made with the Bavarian Elector, there was no
rest for the soldier of fortune, who was immediately dispatched a
_third_ time to Italy, with 18,000 men, against the Spaniards, by Maria
Theresa, whose husband had now been elected Emperor of Germany. He
joined the Prince of Lichenstein, who was carrying on the war against
the still-allied French and Spaniards under the Marshal de Maillebois;
and one of his first essays in the new Italian campaign was to attempt
the recovery of the Milanese, out of which, solely by his activity, the
allies were ultimately driven.
He also formed a daring scheme to cut off the communication between
the main body of the Spanish army and their forces under the Marquis
de Castellar, by detaching General Nadasti along the left bank of the
Po, with orders to amuse the enemy by countermarches, and by pretending
to lay a pontoon bridge across the river at Casale-maggiore, a town
in Lombardy. While the deceived Spaniards were busy watching these
feigned motions, their guards, who occupied the right bank of the Po,
were surprised and utterly cut to pieces by the Austrian irregulars;
and then Count Brown crossed the river at Borgoforte, near the strong
Venetian castle, and pushing on from thence, captured Luzzara, a
Parmese town four miles north of the scene of his services twelve
years before--Guastalla, which he immediately invested, and took by
assault, when Marshal Count Corasin surrendered, with 2000 prisoners.
At this very time Castellar, with 7000 Spaniards, hovered on one flank
of the count's little force, and Gages was advancing on the other; two
movements by which his division must have been overwhelmed, had not the
Prince of Lichenstein advanced to his support; and on uniting they took
Parma.
At the battle of Piacenza Brown performed one of his most brilliant
deeds, by destroying the right wing of the allies under the Marshal de
Maillebois. This great encounter took place in front of the city, which
stands on an extensive plain near the right bank of the Po; earthen
ramparts surround, and a castle protects it. Count Gages' army abounded
in cavalry; and besides its natural strength, his position was defended
by the cannon of the city; so there was no hope of starving him out of
his trenches--but battle was given on the 16th of June. The French, who
had encamped without the Antonian gate, formed in three lines, and were
the right wing of the enemy, with sixteen battalions of Spaniards under
Lieutenant-General Arambure; the centre consisted of nine battalions,
the flower of the Spanish infantry; the left were the regiments of
Naples and Genoa.
The battle began at daybreak, and the Spaniards charged with such fury
that an Austrian battery, consisting of twenty-six pieces, was taken by
Arambure, who was dangerously wounded. Count Gages broke their left,
when 250 gallant men of Prince Eugene's dragoons bore them back, and
struck a panic into the French, amongst whom the Marshal de Maillebois
was fighting on foot. These dragoons were led by Count Brown, and by
their charge the Spanish and Walloon Guards were routed, trampled under
hoof, and destroyed. The allies made a precipitate retreat. Two days
after the battle they were reviewed, and found to have lost 3220 who
were killed, 4460 wounded, and 915 prisoners. The Count de Brostel,
General of the French artillery, the Chevalier de Tesse, two Spanish
lieutenant-generals, and the commander of the Swiss, were among the
slain. Ten pieces of cannon and thirty pairs of colours were left upon
that sanguinary field, where the Austrians buried 3500 of their own
dead. The King of Spain survived these tidings but a few days.
On the 9th of August the combined French, Spanish, and Neapolitan
armies attempted to cross the Po at the Lombra and Tydone. Count
Sabelloni, with 7000 Austrians, made a noble stand against them, from
nine in the evening till ten the next morning, when General Botta and
Count Brown hastened to his relief, and the conflict began again with
renewed fury; and after a terrific cross fire of cannon and musketry,
and a furious mêlée, in which Spaniard, Frenchman, Swiss, Italian, and
Austrian soldiers were all mingled, with musket, sword and bayonet--no
man valuing life or limb when compared with the glory of the day--the
three allies were driven back, leaving 8000 killed, wounded, and
prisoners, with nineteen guns and twenty standards, on the field.
The Austrians lost General Barenclau (whose courage was ever rash) with
4000 men. Counts Brown and Pallavicini were wounded. The Spaniards
lost the flower of their officers, and among them the young and noble
Colonel Don Julio Deodato of Lucca, an accomplished cavalier and
scholar.
Marshal Maillebois and Count Gages retreated to Genoa, from thence
to Nice, and from thence to Parma; abandoning Piacenza, of which the
Austrians took immediate possession, and wherein they placed 9000 men,
most of whom were suffering from wounds received in previous battles.
Despite his wound, Brown remained at the head of his division and with
the army which pursued the Bourbon allies towards Genoa, taking every
place by storm or capitulation on their route, except Tortona and the
mandamento or fortified town of Gavi.
On the Austrian vanguard under Count Brown (who commanded during
the absence of Count Botta, the new commander-in-chief) reaching
Santo Pietro d'Arena, a suburb of Genoa, the city became filled with
consternation, and the senators sent the Marshal di Campo Esceria
to learn from him on what conditions he would receive the city. But
for some private reason Brown declined to admit him to an audience.
Raynerio Grimaldi and Augustino Lomellino were next sent to the
Austrian camp and the count demanded the object of their visit.
"General," they replied, "the people of Genoa have made war on no
one, and least of all upon the Empress-Queen of Hungary, for whom
they have ever entertained a profound veneration. Had they been her
enemies, would their ambassador have been at this very time in her
city of Vienna? Hard necessity forced us to embrace an alliance with
the Bourbons, and it was with no other view than to defend ourselves,
for we would be the vilest of mankind to suffer our Fatherland to be
taken tamely from us. There can be no reason now, noble general, to
distress those who have only armed them in their own defence, or treat
as enemies the Genoese, who have committed no act of hostility."
"Seigneurs," replied Count Brown, "you have acted the part of our most
bitter enemies, for without your assistance what could the united
armies of the Bourbons have effected? You sent them auxiliaries! you
supplied them with provisions; and after six years' striving to cut a
passage into Italy, it was _you_ Genoese, alone, who opened up a path
to them, enabling them to essay the ruin of the Austrians in Venice and
in Lombardy. Begone! and without loss of time inform your senate to say
no more of friendship for the present, but submit to us on those terms
which my friend, General Gorani, will lay before you in writing."
Lest Brown should have the entire glory of reducing Genoa, General
Botta hastened from Novi to resume the command, and he also required
the immediate surrender of the city.
The allies having left 4000 men to defend the pass of La Bochetta,
in the northern Apennines, a gorge which has always been considered
as the key of Italy on the side of Genoa, and which is well defended
by several redoubts, Count Brown advanced against it, and stormed
the ravine, though it is so narrow that in some places only three
men could march abreast. He attacked and routed another party on his
way to Ponte Decimo; and after this, the Genoese, finding themselves
completely abandoned, gave up all their gates, posts, and arsenals, and
paid 50,000 genovines to the victorious Austrian troops. After this,
Count Brown was appointed the generalissimo in Italy; and all thought
of invading Naples having been completely laid aside for the time, it
was arranged by the British and Austrian ambassadors, in a conference
which they held in Santo Pietro d'Arena, that without loss of time he
should make an invasion of Provence, into which the allies had retired.
In obedience to this desire, after detaching General Gorani (who soon
after was unfortunately killed) to fall upon the enemy's rear, and
leaving the Marquis de Botta at Genoa with 18,000 men, he embarked
on board a squadron consisting of three ships and eight pinnaces,
commanded by the Scottish Captain Forbes, and sailing from Santo Pietro
d'Arena, had a quick passage to Villa Franca, from whence he walked
on foot to Nice, a two days' journey. He was disguised, for in such a
country, convulsed as it was by war, assassination, and disorder, every
precaution was necessary for personal safety.
Having waited on the King of Sardinia, and settled their plan of future
operations, he waited at Nice only until Captain Forbes brought over
the Austrian artillery, &c., from Genoa, and until the forces collected
for him by the Sardinians were reinforced by the troops from Piedmont,
Milan, Genoa, and those which had been blocking up Tortona; and while
they were collecting, at the head of a small force he reduced, by
assault, Mont Albano, in the county of Nice.
In triumph, and in defiance of the French troops under the Marshal
Duke de Belleisle, he passed the Var on the 9th of November, with
a fine army, consisting of forty-five squadrons of horse, and
sixty-three battalions of foot--in all, 50,000 men. Among these were
twenty regiments of the Piedmontese. The wild Croats on their swift
grey horses, and the dashing Hungarian Hussars, clad in their brown
uniforms, formed his vanguard; and fell with such fury upon the French
with their long lances and sharp sabres, that they swept all before
them; while the British sailors, under Vice-Admiral Medley, drove the
enemy from Fort Laurette, and thereby secured his left flank. Thus
safely and victoriously he passed the Var, and entered Provence, the
ancient patrimony of the House of Anjou.
With the assistance of a British bomb-ketch, he reduced and took 500
soldiers in the little isles of Saint Marguerite and Saint Honorat, on
the south-east coast of France, opposite to Antibes, which he invested
by land, while Admiral Medley cannonaded it by sea. Leaving Baron Roth
with twenty-four battalions to press the siege against the Chevalier de
Sade, he made himself master of Draguignan, with the loss of 2000 men,
laid all the open country under contribution, and threw forward his
outposts as far as the river Argens. During these arduous operations he
was seized by a fever, which confined him to a camp-bed, but he soon
relinquished it for his saddle.
The batteries opened against Antibes on the 20th of September. It was
cannonaded for thirty-six days, and all its houses were demolished;
but on collecting a numerous army, the Marshals De Belleisle and De
Boufflers advanced to its relief, while other forces, amounting to
_sixty_ battalions, were hastening forward from Flanders. Meanwhile
the Genoese, driven to despair by the extortions and severity of the
Marquis de Botta, resolved to break their Austrian fetters or die in
the attempt. The circumstance of a German officer striking an Italian
who refused to drag a mortar to which he was harnessed, kindled a
flame; and all the Genoese rushed to arms, and forced the arsenals.
The city barriers were stormed, the Austrians driven out, and two
regiments, who defended the gate of Santo Thomaso, were cut to pieces.
All these circumstances combined, obliged Count Brown to raise the
siege of Antibes, abandon the projected expedition against Toulon, and
repass the Var. This was executed on the 23rd January, 1747, but not
without considerable loss, for his rear-guard was furiously attacked.
Ordering a column of horse and foot into Lombardy to join Count
Schulemberg, he lined the southern bank of the Var with his main body,
and kept the French under the great Belleisle completely in check, till
the King of Sardinia secured all the mountain defiles, to prevent them
from penetrating into Piedmont.
Brown still continued that masterly retreat which excited the
admiration of all military men, and even of his enemy, the brave
Belleisle, who followed him across the Var on the 25th May, and retook
Mont Albano, Villa Franca, and Ventimiglia, from his garrisons, driving
back forty-six Piedmontese battalions with terrible slaughter at the
pass of Exilles, where the Chevalier de Belleisle (brother of the
marshal), Knight of St. John of Jerusalem, fell, pierced with three
wounds. Meanwhile Brown, with a force diminished to 28,000, continued
his retreat towards Finale and Savona. The despatch, which was sent
to him by Major-General Colloredo, detailing the affair at Exilles,
was published in the _London Gazette_. In Lombardy he ordered two
intrenched camps to be formed; one to hold 14,000 men, to guard the
banks of the Tanaro; the other to hold 11,000, and guard the Po,
near Pavia; but fatigue and want of food soon compelled all to seek
quarters for the winter. The King of Sardinia marched to Turin; Brown
established his head-quarters at Milan, after winning the praise of
all Europe by his skilful operations in Provence. While here, by the
severity of his remonstrance, he forced Marshal Schulemberg to abandon
his important enterprise against Bisignano, and draw off his division
to assist the King of Sardinia in covering Piedmont and Lombardy.
The remainder of that year he occupied by innumerable skirmishes and
movements in defending the Italian States of Maria Theresa; among these
(after the great review at Coni) was the march upon the Dermont, the
assault by the French upon Maison Meau, the attack upon forty-three
French battalions who were intrenched near Villa Franca, and other
affairs, until the peace so happily signed in 1748, when he was sent by
his mistress to Nice, where, in conjunction with the Duke de Belleisle
and the Marquis de la Minas, he skilfully adjusted certain difficulties
which had arisen in fulfilling the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. In reward
for his many great and gallant services, the Empress-Queen now made him
Governor of Transylvania where he won the love and admiration of the
people by his justice, affability, and honourable bearing.
In 1752 he was made governor of the city of Prague, and commander-in
chief of all the troops in the kingdom of Bohemia; and in the following
year the King of Poland, as Elector of Saxony, honoured him with the
Order of the White Eagle, the collar of which is a gold chain (to
which a silver eagle is attached), and first worn by Udislaus V. on
his marriage with a daughter of the Duke of Lithuania. In 1754 he was
raised to the rank of Marshal of the Empire.
After five years of peace the clouds of war again began to gather on
the Prussian frontier, and Marshal Brown was summoned for the _last_
time to the field. A quarrel having ensued between the courts of Berlin
and Vienna, the warlike King of Prussia became alarmed by the hostile
preparations that were made along the Livonian frontier, and resolving
to anticipate the designs of his enemies, in 1756 invaded Saxony, and
made himself master of Dresden. On the first tidings of this invasion,
Marshal Brown put himself at the head of the army of Prague, and
marched to relieve the Saxons; but this movement was anticipated by
Frederick, who left 40,000 men to continue the blockade of Pirna on the
left bank of the Elbe (where Augustus III. of Poland was shut up), and
penetrated into Bohemia at the head of 24,000 soldiers.
Brown encamped at Kolin, while his compatriot, Prince Piccolomini, was
posted at Konigingratz. From Kolin he marched on the 23rd of September
to the fine old city of Budyn, which was surrounded by walls, and
contains the ancient fortress of Hassenberg. Here he endeavoured
to concert measures with the Saxons for securing their freedom; but
Frederick, on being joined by another column of his army, under the
great Scottish Marshal Keith, marched to encounter him.
Passing the Egra, Count Brown encamped at Lowositz, on the Elbe, and
near the Saxon frontier, and there the King of Prussia came in sight
of his army, in position, at daybreak on the 1st of October, with
65 squadrons, 26 battalions, 102 pieces of cannon, which formed in
order of battle as they advanced, in that steady manner for which the
Prussians had now become so famous. The infantry were formed in two
lines, and the cavalry in three in their rear. Frederick's right wing
occupied a village at the foot of the Radostitz, a wooded mountain; and
on the Homolkaberg, in front of it, he had placed a battery of heavy
guns; his left wing rested on the Loboschberg; and his centre occupied
the fertile valley between.
The high and steep face of the Loboschberg was covered by vines, and
intersected by many stone walls. Among these Marshal Brown advanced
a large body of Croats, with several battalions of Hungarians to
sustain them; a deep ravine and rugged rivulet lay between the army
of Frederick and the Austrians, which consisted of 72 squadrons, 52
battalions, and 98 pieces of ordnance, being 70,000 men. Brown formed
them in two lines, with his horsemen on the wings. He planted cannon in
the village of Lowositz, and in redoubts on the level ground before it.
At seven in the morning, and during a dense fog, the battle began
between the Prussian left and the Croats on the Loboschberg, who
continued firing till noon, when Frederick, seeing that Brown's right
was his weakest point, marched from the summit of the mountain and
drove down the Croats and Hungarians from the vineyards into the plain
and ravine below. The marshal, believing that the fortune of the day
depended on the retention of Lowositz, threw his retiring right wing
into the village, where it soon gave way. He then led forward his left,
but the infantry fell into confusion at the village of Sulowitz,
being exposed to a dreadful fire of shot and shell from redoubts and
field-pieces, grape, canister, hand-grenades, and musketry, which mowed
them down like grass, and drove them back in disorder; the marshal then
ordered a retreat, which he conducted in so masterly a manner, that no
effort was made to harass him. He fell back at three in the afternoon
to a new position, so well chosen that Frederick dared not follow, but
contented himself with keeping his line behind the ravine of Lowositz,
though by sending forward a body of cavalry under the Prince of Bavern,
he turned the marshal's left flank, a manoeuvre which compelled him to
repass the Egra, and again occupy his old camp at Budyn.
Such was the battle of Lowositz, where the marshal left 4000 of his
men dead on the field, and in his retreat had to blow up his magazine,
while the Prussians had only 653 killed and 800 wounded. Having failed
to relieve the Saxons, he marched to Lichtendorf, near Schandau,
to join the King of Poland, and made an attempt to force back the
Prussians at the head of 8000 chosen soldiers; but the effort proved
ineffectual, and Augustus III. was compelled to capitulate, and deliver
17,000 men and eighty pieces of cannon into the hands of Frederick--a
mortification as bitter to the marshal as it was to the Polish monarch.
On the 14th he retired towards Bohemia. The Prussian hussars followed
his rear-guard, and put 300 Croats to the sword. For his services he
now received the Collar of the Golden Fleece--one of the first of
European knightly orders.
In 1757 a confederacy was completed to punish Frederick of Prussia for
his invasion of Saxony. France sent 80,000 men to the Rhine, under
the Marshal d'Estrees; 60,000 Russians threatened Livonia; the Swedes
gathered on the Pomeranian frontier; and Maria Theresa mustered 150,000
soldiers, the most of whom were stationed in Prague, under Prince
Charles of Lorraine and the Marshals Brown and Daun. The Austrians were
then formed into four divisions--one under Marshal Brown, at Budyn;
a second under the Duke d'Aremberg, at Egra; a third under Count
Konigsegg, at Richtenberg; a fourth under Marshal Daun, in Moravia.
Undeterred by this vast array against him, Frederick in April marched
straight upon Prague, and driving before him a column under Marshal
Schwerin, attacked Brown at Budyn, before Daun's division could join
him from Moravia. On finding his flank turned, Brown fell back upon the
Bohemian capital, and Frederick, leaving one division of his army under
Marshal Keith, followed him fast with the rest, and gave battle to the
Austrians on the 6th of May, at dawn in the morning.