In a subsequent account the Austrians mention Generals Klun and Schlaun being wounded, the latter mortally; and they acknowledge to have had five Lieutenant-Colonels, three Captains, four Lieutenants, and 508 rank and file killed and wounded, besides horses. Some few privates they say were missing, and two field pieces, which were advanced to the attack, were taken by the enemy.
These are the latest accounts from the banks of the Unna.
I shall now proceed eastward, and you have only to follow me in this direction along the frontiers, to have a full view of the Imperial armies in the order you will find them on the map.
While Prince Lichtenstein was laying an unsuccessful siege to Dubitza, which ended in a complete overthrow; in consequence of which we have left him on the Austrian side of the Unna, threatened in his new intrenchments, the Grand Imperial Army advanced opposite to Sabacz, on the banks of the Save, about two days march west of Belgrade, where they remained till the Emperor arrived, in order that his taking the field might be marked by a successful enterprise. But, even according to the Vienna account, Sabacz contained but 17 pieces of cannon, and the garrison amounted to only 800 men.
It should seem, however, as if the Austrian Generals, in compliment to their Sovereign, wished to conceal the weakness of the object of their enterprise by the pomp of the attack. A regular siege was commenced, trenches were opened, and the batteries being completed by the 23d of April, began a heavy cannonade, which soon overpowered the fire of the Turks. Nevertheless they kept possession of a few rotten walls, which served by way of outwork, till a column, composed of the riflemen of the regiment of Peterwaradin, of the free corps of Servia, and the regiment Esterhazy, advanced to storm them. On this attack the Turks retreated into the interior part of their works, and finding it in vain, in such a place, to contend any longer against the grand army of the Emperor, and a numerous train of artillery, they surrendered their post.
The Emperor gave the Turks great credit for their defence, and much to his honour, treated the prisoners with attention, sending their wives and children to their own country.
During the few hours the Austrian fire was kept up, their batteries were well served, and the troops ordered to the assault, advanced with great spirit. In short, this enterprise would have done honor to the Emperor's arms, had it been worth the time, labour, and expence he bestowed to achieve it.
His people boast, that among the trophies are twenty pair of colours, but they do not inform us how the number of standards came to be near three times that of the cannon, or why eight hundred men should have forty colours. And the Turks say, that till the Grand Vizir can find him better employment, they have no objection to his Imperial Majesty taking every village on the Save on the same terms he paid for Sabacz.
The number of men the Austrians lost is not exactly known; the accounts from Vienna only mention that Prince Poniatowski, and the Baron de Refroy, a General of Artillery, are among the wounded.
It was supposed that as soon as the Emperor took the command of his Grand Army, that he would have besieged Belgrade, but by the latest accounts he was very quiet in the neighbourhood of Semlin.