The Allies who were but yesterday on the Sesia, are
now in Milan, and the Austrians, who were West of the Ticino, are now East of the Adda. This is the real opening stroke of the cam- paign.
In the early part of last week the Emperor of the French, Generalissimo of the Allied Army, began to put in execution his well planned design. Having imposed upon General Gyulai by that demonstration down the Piacenza road which led to the combat at Montebello, and having ascertained that the Austrian commander regarded Garibaldi's raid as a diversion, and kept the bulk of his divisions between Mortara and the Po, and about Stradella, Piacenza, and Pavia, he resolved to take advantage of his delusion and turn his right wing. He, therefore suddenly concentrated his army on the Sesia, and to prevent his opponent from gaining any knowledge of the movement, refused to receive flags of truce, caused the sentinels on the Po to fire at the op- posing sentinels, and marched the Imperial Guard from Alessan- dria to Vercelli by the circuitous route of Trino. The passage of the Sesia by the Sardinian Bing did not awaken Gyulai to a true perception of the Emperor's design. He proba- bly thought the combats at Palestro only part of the deception, and he kept his army still on the right. But when Niel marched into Novara, and the Sardinians approached Mortara, backed by the French, he suddenly became half aware of his blunder. The perception came too late. M'Mahon was already on the Ticino casting a bridge over that river at Turbigo, the very spot where Murat, commanding the advanced guard of Napoleon in his march from the St. Bernard to Milan in 1800, forced a pas- sage in the face of a weak Austrian column. M'Mahon was over the river on the 3d, and master of the villages in his front. The Austrians were hurrying up the Ticino, wearied with their forced marches, when the Emperor sent his Zouaves across the half- broken bridge of Buffalora, and on to the Milan road. The Austrian right, strong in position was weak in numbers ; but gradually the tired brigades entered the line. The combat must have been fierce and sanguinary, and fortune must have wavered from side to side. But M'Mahon, hearing the cannonade, led his men from Turbigo into the rear of the Austrian right, and charging home, though dreadfully shattered, foroed them to retreat. The actual loss on both sides is not known, but since the Austrians fought stoutly, and killed two French Generals, and fought again on the 5th, probably to cover their retreat, it must have been great. The Allies took thirty-three guns and five thousand or seven thou- sand prisoners. The Austrians took some prisoners and one gin.
The victory at Magenta gave Milan to the Allies, and the Milanese at once acknowledged Victor Emmanuel for their ruler. Nor were the military consequences of this solid stroke of
genseelaip less than the political consequences. The Austrian army, eller lingering near the hattle-field a few hours, retired terraria the Po, and theme towards the Adda, their line of coin- manic:Ain with Alantee. Benectek's corps detached on the 4th to Melignano to cover Lodi was assailed there on the 8th by General Baraguay d'Hilliers and expelled ; so that the Allied columns were then pointing to the Adda and the Mincio.
' Garibaldi, who has been the leader and flanker in this cam- paign, relieved of Urban, who retreated to Cassano when the Allies advanced, has carried forward his gallast corps towards Bergamo, a sure indication that the Allies will turn the Austritin positions on the transverse rivers of Lombardy. — -
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