Battle of Piacenza - The Battle

The Battle

On the morning of the 16th the Austrian artillery began to open fire on the Bourbon camp opposite. At the same time the Franco-Spanish army began its assault upon the Austrian lines. Marshal Maillebois' plan became unstuck in the very few minutes of his assault. Instead of a clear descent upon the Austrian rear, the marshal was unnerved to see Browne's troops drawn up in front of him behind a canal. To compound the problems the French force had emerged from the wrong place. The narrow valley they had gone down provided a bottleneck, and as soon as they emerged they were mown down by the Austrians. The marshal tried to bring more troops into the action, but his men were never to get near the Austrians due to the intensity of the Austrian fire. Finally Browne advanced his troop over the canal and the assault collapsed, many Frenchmen being cut to pieces in the narrow gully.

On the other flank, Gages had been able to advance his men right up to the Austrian lines, and his troops were slowly pushing the Austrians back in what seemed to be a much more even battle. However, Count Bärenklau finally managed to engage the Austrian cavalry into the fight and the Spanish line finally broke under the pressure. With the Spanish hurrying back towards Piacenza the Austrians were able to give chase. By 2 pm the battle was over and so were the Bourbon hopes in Italy.