Battle of Solferino. LETTER FROM MARSHAL ACHILLE BARAGUEY D'HILLIERS TO DOCTOR CLOQUET, Mozzembano 27 June 1859. 18899-2

Battle of Solferino. LETTER FROM MARSHAL ACHILLE BARAGUEY D'HILLIERS TO DOCTOR CLOQUET, Mozzembano June 27, 1859. 18899-2

Letter on letterhead from the "MARSHAL'S CABINET," written three days after the Battle of Solferino (June 24, 1859), in which the marshal describes the fighting and provides updates on his knee injury.

"Mozzembano June 27, 1859.
...We are a little more agitated here, engaged in bloody combat, and on the 24th, we had the entire enemy army on our hands, trying to push us beyond the Chiese river. On the contrary, we forced them to retreat to the left bank of the Mincio and to blow up or set fire to their bridges over this river. But for my part, I paid a high price for this success, with 4700 casualties, including 237 officers. However, the capture of Austrian flags and cannons, 1500 prisoners, and a considerable number of their dead, have proven our superiority to them [...]".
The marshal provides updates on his knee, which he has been treating with fire every two or three days and was doing very well, but the great exertions have brought back the pains, albeit without swelling. "Rest, I hope, will make them disappear."

2 and a quarter pages in-8.
Fairly good condition, fold marks.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT:
[...] Around 4:30 pm, the vanguard of the French I Corps, commanded by Marshal Baraguey d'Hilliers, made contact with the Austrian troops of the V Corps led by Field Marshal Stadion near Grole in the territory of Castiglione delle Stiviere.
Half an hour later, the French II Corps, under Marshal Patrice de Mac Mahon, encountered the Austro-Hungarian divisions stationed at the hamlet of Ca' Morino in the territory of Medole.
The Austrian troops, with three army corps positioned at Solferino, Cavriana, and Volta Mantovana, resisted the combined assaults of the French I and II Corps, leading Napoleon III to commit the Imperial Guard to the battle.
Solferino was taken from Stadion's V Corps in the early afternoon, and the French deployment continued to capture Cavriana. There, they also faced strong resistance from the I Corps of the Austrian Marshal Clam-Gallas. The engagement of fresh troops, around 3 pm, from the French III Corps under General Canrobert, allowed for the occupation of Cavriana just before 6 pm. [...]

BIOGRAPHY:
Achille, Count Baraguey d'Hilliers, born on September 6, 1795, in Paris, and died on June 6, 1878, in Amélie-les-Bains, was a Marshal of France.