On a dark midnight—the 16th of August—after uniting his forces by firing three bombs, he attacked the mighty host of the Sultan Achmet—the most complete that Turkey had ever equipped for battle. Favoured by a thick fog, the Austrians broke through the slow and heavy Osmanli, stormed all their intrenchments at the point of the bayonet, turned their own guns upon them, and grape-shotted the turbaned fugitives, whose unwieldy army was totally routed, and fled, leaving every cannon and baggage-waggon behind. The surrender of Belgrade, two days after, was the immediate consequence of this brilliant victory, and the Peace of Passarovitz, which, under the mediation of Great Britain, was signed in July, 1718, succeeded in establishing a twenty-five years' truce, and securing to Austria the western part of Wallachia, Servia, Belgrade, and part of Bosnia.
After this battle, Ulysses Brown, then in his twelfth year, was sent to Rome, where he continued his studies at the Clementine College, for the period of four years.
In 1721 he went to Prague, and in two years completed himself in the study of civil law.
He then entered the Austrian army, and in 1723 became a captain in the regiment of infantry commanded by his uncle, Count George Brown; and such was his ardour and such his knowledge in the art of war, that only two years after, in 1725, we find him appointed to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the same corps.
On the 15th of August in the following year he married Maria Philippina, Countess of Martinitz, the beautiful Bohemian heiress, and the last of an ancient and noble line.
In 1730 he served in the expedition to Corsica, and by his bravery and example contributed greatly to secure the capture of Callansara, where he was severely wounded in the thigh. This successful expedition caused a rumour that the island was to be erected into a kingdom for the Chevalier de St. George—James VIII. of the Scottish Jacobites; and George II., on being bribed by the Genoese, prohibited his English subjects from furnishing any assistance to the troops or inhabitants.
In 1732, Count Brown was made Chamberlain of the Austrian Empire: and in 1734 was appointed full colonel of infantry, and Italy was the next scene of his service.
France had resolved on humbling the overweening power of the House of Hapsburg; the venerable Marshal Villars crossed the Alps, and with a combined army of French and Spaniards, burst into Milan, overran Austrian Lombardy, and carrying victory wherever he marched, in two months' time left only Mantua under the flag of Charles VI. The latter made strenuous efforts to protect himself—to secure the passage of the Rhine against the Marshal Duke of Berwick on one hand, and to recover his power in Italy from Villars on the other. The Diet voted him 120,000 men; the Count de Merci marched 6000 of these to protect the important fortress of Mantua; and with a force increased to 60,000 soldiers, drew towards the head of the Oglio and Po.
Leaving his young wife at the court of Vienna, Count Brown accompanied this force with his regiment of German infantry; and it was among the first of those brave battalions which effected the arduous passage of the Po near Santo Benedetto, where the Count de Merci so boldly and skilfully surprised the French troops, and drove them back at the bayonet's point, with the loss of all their ammunition, baggage, and the cities of Guastalla, Novella, and Mirandola, of which he immediately took possession.
During this campaign Count Brown distinguished himself on every occasion, but most particularly at the great battle of Parma, on the 29th of June, 1734. There a desperate hand-to-hand conflict ensued in front of the city, on the high road which leads to Piacenza; and after a struggle as deadly as Italy ever saw, the Austrians remained masters of the field; but the Count de Merci, their general, was mortally wounded by a musket-ball, and Count Brown and the Prince of Wirtemberg, the lieutenant-general, had their horses shot under them. The French made their most desperate stand at a farm-house, from the walls of which "they mowed down whole companies of the Imperialists by grape and musket-shot. This dreadful conflict lasted for ten hours without intermission, when the enemy retired in good order towards the walls of Parma." On the field lay ten thousand corpses; of the Imperialists there fell the commander-in-chief, seven generals, and three hundred and forty officers, were killed and wounded. Thus ended an attack which the Count de Merci risked in direct opposition to the advice of Count Brown and other officers of experience. The Imperial army now fell back upon Guastalla, where it was the good fortune of Count Brown to save it and the cause of Charles VI. from total destruction.