Battle of Campo Santo - The Battle

The Battle

On the morning of the battle, De Gages drew up his army on the outskirts of the village in the traditional fashion with his infantry in the centre and the cavalry on the wings. Traun also drew up his army in the same way, but being slightly outnumbered, he chose to gamble with an un-orthodox strategy. Instead of aligning himself directly opposite the Spaniards, he shifted his troops to the northwest, which meant that the centre of Traun's infantry was directly opposite the gap between Gages' infantry and the right wing of cavalry. Although this meant that Traun would have a greater superiority of numbers on this wing and that he could also deliver a flank attack on the Spanish right, his own right flank would, however, be vulnerable to a Spanish flank attack. It seems that the Marshall was relying on the troops of that wing to delay the Spanish long enough for the action on his other wing to be decisive.

Matters were helped when De Gages chose 4:00 in the afternoon to launch the attack, which left very few hours of daylight for a battle. The Spanish were initially successful on both wings, where their cavalry drove off the Austro-Piedmontese cavalry, fatally wounding Count Aspremont in the process and leaving the Austrian infantry vulnerable. However instead of reforming to attack the infantry, the Spanish chased them off the field. Traun stabilised his left flank, and led his infantry into the attack against the Spanish. Meanwhile Count Schulenberg regrouped the Austrian cavalry on the Austrian right, and launched a counterattack against the Spanish cavalry. On the other flank, General Leutrum (Aspremont's replacement) led his wing forward as well, smashing the Spanish right wing. At this time due to the darkness for both the army it was necessary to withdraw the field; the Spanish back across the Panaro towards Bologna. Due to the smoke and the darkness, many units lost their way. The 1st Guadalaxara marched in the direction of the advancing austro-sardian infantry columns, and it had to surrender after a short defence inside the walls of a farm.

Casualties in the battle were 1,755 dead, 1,307 wounded and 824 prisoners for the Spanish, while the Austro-Piedmontese lost 397 dead and 1,153 wounded or prisoners. Traun himself had two horses shot from under him during the battle.