The Austrian army, already fatigued by the difficult march during the night of the twenty-third and twenty-fourth, had to support from the earliest dawn the attack of the enemies' armies and to suffer from the intensely hot weather as well as from hunger and thirst, for, except a double ration of brandy, the greater number of the Austrians were unable to take any food.
The French troops already in movement before daybreak had had nothing but coffee. Therefore, this exhaustion of the soldiers, and above all, of the unfortunate wounded, was extreme at the end of this very bloody battle, which lasted more than fifteen hours.
Both armies are awake.
Three hundred thousand men are standing face to face. The line of battle is ten miles long.
Already at three o'clock in the morning, corps commanded by Marshals Baraguey d'Hilliers and MacMahon are commencing to move on Solferino and Cavriana.
Hardly have the advance columns passed Castiglione when they themselves are in the presence of the first posts of the Austrians, who dispute the ground.
On all sides bugles are playing the charges and the drums are sounding.
The Emperor Napoleon who passed the night at Montechiaro hastens rapidly to Castiglione.
By six o'clock a furious fire has commenced.