The
Siege of Milazzo (1718/19)
Ten interminable
months. The population of Milazzo was in the grip of terror and misery. It all
began in July 1718, when the troops of Philip V - having arrived from Spain in
order to re-conquer Sicily, that they had lost five years previously - set up
camp on the edge of Milazzo, along what is now the state road-113, linking the
villages of S. Filippo del Mela (Belvedere quarter) and Merì. Spanish
domination of Sicily had no choice but to conquer Milazzo, one of the island’s
strongholds at the time.
For some time, The
Duke of Savoy, Vittorio Amedeo II - King of Sicily since 1713 - directing from
Turin, had left the defence of the castle, and of other fortifications in
Milazzo in the hands of the Piedmontese Saluzzo
regiment, soon after assisted by their allies, the troops of the Emperor of
Austria Charles VIth, in their turn backed by the powerful British fleet of
King George 1st.
For the first two
and a half months, the Spanish (represented by the Salamanca cavalry regiment
and the Lusitanian Dragoons)
attempted to prevent food and ammunition from reaching the town in order to
cause a famine and to force the Piedmontese garrison to surrender. The
continuous arrival of re-enforcements of Austrian troops from the sea, however,
doomed this strategy (known as the “Milazzo blockade”) to failure and thus,
after the bloody battle of the 15th October 1718 - where the Spanish army held
sway having, during the previous few weeks, approached near enough as to set up
camp on the plain close to the centre of the town - the population for the next
seven months was subjected to what is referred to, in contemporary military
documents, as the slow siege, consisting of continued artillery attacks
from a distance using mortars and canons on both sides. The effects were
devastating for the town and its inhabitants, its civil and religious buildings
as well as for its economy.
Storehouses of the Milazzo tuna fishery with the roofs removed by Austrian troops and
the nearby Spanish gun battery.
George Olivier Wallis (1671-1743)
The wounded city: entire quarters destroyed and an economy on its knees
Innumerable houses and churches were destroyed
by Spanish bombs and cannon fire. Further destruction was caused by the
ruthless Austrian General George Olivier Wallis (1671-1743), who ordered that
entire quarters in the centre of town, particularly along what is now via
Umberto I, be razed to the ground in order to have a view across the town to
prevent enemy attacks.
General Wallis also ordered that roofs, doors
and windows that had escaped enemy fire, and his own destruction, be removed
and used in the building of trenches and other military installations. Houses
were thus left vulnerable to vandalism and theft at the hands of their own
soldiers taking advantage of the fact that the owners had taken refuge in the
surrounding hills, or on Capo Milazzo, in order to escape the horrors of
war.
One of the buildings to meet such a fate was
that of the Tuna fishery now the site of a petrol station near the old railway
station of Milazzo. The outbuildings were subsequently occupied by Spanish
troops who set up a gun battery there.
These were subsequently occupied by the Spanish who set up an artillery
battery. This battery, as well as that in the Albero quarter, spread terror in
the area around the port and destroyed the Carmine church, that was rebuilt
after the Siege (as is commemorated in Latin on a marble stone now inside the
church). Considerable damage was also caused to the vast vineyards that made
Milazzo one of the greatest wine areas in Italy. The devastation was so
disastrous that when the owners returned to the plain after the Siege they
could scarcely recognise their land that had been constantly trampled on by
infantry and cavalry and dug up for trenches. The Milazzo aristocrat Marcello
Cirino was to report, on his vast estate in S. Basilio beginning in the S.
Marina quarter, the destruction of 16
hectares of vineyards amounting to a total of 102,000 uprooted vines that had
previously produced 500 hectolitres of wine a year, counting for about a hundredth
of Milazzo’s entire wine production, which at the time amounted to about 48,000
hectolitres.
A town divided
When the Siege began (October 1718) a large
part of the population were harvesting the vines on the plain. The outbreak of
warfare suddenly blocked the transit of people and Milazzo was split into two:
the town centre, (at the time surrounded by defensive walls) and the Capo, were
firmly under the control of the Piedmontese and Austrian troops, while the plain
and the surrounding villages fell into the hands of the Spanish.
While during the months of the “blockade”
(July-September) it was still possible to travel, by horse or on foot, from the
town centre to the plain and vice-versa, albeit with increasing difficulty,
from October such movements were strictly prohibited. Thus entire families
suddenly found themselves divided: children were torn from their parents,
husbands from wives. In order to be reunited with the loved ones who had moved
to the plain for the grape harvest, they had to wait until the end of the Siege
in May 1719. Some, in a desperate attempt to be with their families,
endeavoured to reach them by sea, despite the dangers caused by Spanish bombing
and rifle fire. Few, however, attempted such a risky journey.
Trenches, gabions and fascines
The Siege of Milazzo was a war played out in
trenches. The Spanish built 2 trenches from one sea to another that were long
enough to cut off the peninsular. These were the two “contravallation lines”,
that were set up to prevent the enemy leaving the centre of the town. Before
these trenches were built there had been an exodus from the centre that had led
to a bloody battle which cost the lives of many Spanish troops.
The contravallation lines had to be built
under a shower of enemy bombs and cannon balls and thus took the form of saps
(in French sapes), narrow tunnels dug by expert sappers (sapeurs)
used to working under enemy fire and thus well paid for their endeavour.
4 sappers were required to build a sap. The
first began to dig under the protection of a small cart known as a mantelet,
followed by the others that gradually dug deeper into the ground.
Dug up earth was then thrown into gabions
that, placed side by side, formed a parapet for the sap. The mantelet
protected the first sapper from enemy fire while the first gabion was filled.
The long line of gabions acted as a defensive wall and was in turn further
protected by fascines, earth and stones.
The Siege of Milazzo: Austrian and Spanish trenches
red trench: first Spanish line of contravallation
yellow trench: second Spanish line of contravallation
light blu trench: Austrian trench
red circles: Spanish guns
orange circles: Spanish mortars
blue line: Massimiliano Regis street
violet line: XX Settembre Street
The process of sapping in the 17th century.
From Vauban, De l’attaque et de la defense des places, 1737
The hell of mortar fire
One of the most terrifying weapons used during
the siege of Milazzo was the mortar, an indirect fire device used to bombard
entrenched enemy soldiers with stones, (for this reason the saps were often
covered with wooden planks) or to bring down roofs killing victims and
unleashing terror among the civilian population under siege. They were also
used for firing bombs and grenades.
A similar weapon was known as the trabucco,
the difference depending on the position of the trunnions, the two
mounts positioned half-way down each piece, in the former, or on the breech, in
the latter. Both, however, were usually referred to as mortars.
Mortars were charged by inserting gunpowder
into the cavity, followed by earth and well-compressed hay and finally by a
bomb or stones. They were fired by putting a fine powder in the tiny touch-hole
that crossed the upper part of the piece and by lighting a slow burning wick on
the end of a poker.
Admiral Byng’s Fleet
The re-conquest of Sicily by Philip V of Spain
had heavy costs, particularly concerning the defeat of the Spanish fleet in the
waters off Capo Passero (naval battle of the
11th August 1718 in the extreme south east of Sicily). From then on the
British fleet, that, under the orders of Admiral George Byng, had captured
Philip’s ships in Capo Passero, had total dominance of the Mediterranean, thus
being able to block and impede the arrival of weapons and ammunition destined
for the Spanish troops in Milazzo and in other strongholds on the island. «The
damage caused by the British ships is considerable», wrote the Spanish Viceroy,
the Marchess of Lede, from Milazzo in December 1718: «it would be vain to hope
in the withdrawal of the British fleet from the Mediterranean since the
Parliament in London has just given its consent to the Sovereign».
The presence of British ships around Milazzo,
and in particular of the flagship Barfluer (carrying Admiral Byng), was
a constant threat throughout the siege. As well as controlling the Sicilian
coasts, they also escorted food and ammunition supplies from Naples and
Calabria to the allied Austrian troops in Milazzo. In order to avoid bombardments
from the Spanish artillery, permanently overlooking the port, they moored along
the coasts of Capo Milazzo.
Admiral George Byng
Deserters during the Siege
Despite being forbidden by the military
authorities on both sides, desertions were tolerated during the Siege of
Milazzo. In the autumn of 1718 the Spanish enlisted numerous Austrian troops –
deserting due to a lack of pay – to re-enforce their ranks, depleted by death
and injury. The Spanish Viceroy, however, was careful not to form entire
battalions of deserters and spread them among the various regiments. The
Austrian deserters were necessary to the Spanish army, particularly considering
the overwhelming presence of British ships in the Mediterranean which prevented
the arrival of fresh Spanish troops. The Spanish really had no choice but to
enlist deserters.
The Spanish army itself also had to deal with
the problem of desertion in its own ranks. In April 1719 British ships captured
a vessel carrying money with which to pay the Spanish troops. The news reached
the troops thanks to informative leaflets launched into enemy trenches from
catapults, with the intention of encouraging the King of Spain’s troops to
desert. Some did by swimming from one
camp to the other but not all managed: on the 19th of April 1719 the people of
Milazzo witnessed the brutal execution
of a recaptured Austrian deserter who was hanged near the church of S. Giuseppe.
The Battle of the 15th October 1718
The 15th October
1718 saw the bloodiest moment of the
Siege. Taking advantage of the absence of enemy trenches (the contravallation that the Spanish built
just two days later), the Austrian troops and the Saluzzo regiment left the urban centre to attack the Spanish
encampment on the plain.
The first skirmish
took place at the Spanish advance post in the quarter of S. Giovanni (casa de S. Juan). Despite the valorous
defence on the part of about one hundred men under the orders of the colonel of the Aragona regiment Manuel de
Sada y Antillón and the commander of the Royal Walloon Guard the Count of Zueveghem, who on this occasion
was taken prisoner, the Spanish succumbed, thus opening the way for enemy
troops that in a short space of time managed to conquer the centre and the left
side of the Spanish encampment between the Barone quarter and the beaches of
the Ponente coast (Casazza quarter), the latter being under the control of the
cavalry (Salamanca
regiment and Lusitania dragoons) and by the nearby Milano regiment.
The capture of the
Spanish camp was followed by raiding and plundering by Imperial troops made up
of the infantry battalions of Guidobald von Starhemberg, Maximilian von Starhemberg, Lorena,
Wallis, Wetzel and Toldo, all under the command of
Generale George Olivier Wallis, and by the Tige horse dragoons,
commanded by Count Giulio Veterani.
Theft in the
Spanish camp (for the most part consisting of money but also weapons and
ammunitions) allowed the Austrian troops to make up for their meagre salaries.
This was described, years later, by a protagonist of the battle, Jaime Miguel de Guzmán y Dávalos Spinola,
founder and Colonel of the Lusitanian
dragoons.
While the enemy troops were thus distracted,
the Spanish quickly managed to regain their lost positions, chasing the enemy
away from the urban centre, thanks to the help of the Farnese cavalry regiment, that had recently arrived in
Milazzo with the Viceroy, the Marquess of Lede, Supreme Commander of the troops
of Philip V in Sicily. The rout of the enemy cavalry (the Tige dragoons) was magnified by the dramatic capture of Generale
Giulio Veterani, imprisoned by a lieutenant of the Farnese, the Marquess of Bondad Real. At the orders of the future
Viceroy of Peru, José de Armendáriz y Perurena, the
advance post in S. Giovanni was re-conquered, forcing many Austrians to dive
into the sea to save themselves.
The defeat came
with a high price - 3,000 dead or wounded and more than a thousand prisoners -
for the Neapolitan Giovanni Carafa, Supreme Commander of the Austrian troops in
Milazzo, soon after relieved of his duties. In a report sent to Vienna on
the 16th
of October 1718 he tried to justify
himself by explaining that both the
Spanish cavalry (Lusitania dragoons)
and his own (Tige dragoons) wore
yellow uniforms, leading to a disastrous confusion.
Manuel de Sada y Antillón
Jaime Miguel de Guzmán y Dávalos Spinola,
founder and Colonel of the Lusitanian dragoons
Lusitania, 1769
The Castle and the walled town at the time of the Siege
The Castle of Milazzo, already occupied by the
Saluzzo regiment before the war, did not have enough room to accommodate
their Austrian allies who were encamped between the church of S. Papino and the
Grotta di Polifemo and in part at the Capo. The commander, General
Zumjungen was an exception, residing for some time in the convent of S.
Domenico, at the foot of the steps that lead up to the walls of the fortified
town.
The intensification of the war forced the
Piedmontese commander Missegla to move from his usual abode in the Governor’s
Palace in the Borgo, to the home
of the aristocratic Lucifero family, near the Aragonese wall. It was Missegla
who ordered the evacuation of the Cathedral in order to designate it for the
storing of food and ammunition and above all as a military hospital. He also
ordered the evacuation of the Benedectine Monastery to make way for food and
ammunitions, transferring the nuns to the convent in the Borgo adjacent
to the church of SS. Salvatore, opposite
the church of S. Gaetano then used
temporarily as a cathedral.
In February 1719, due to the large number of
wounded soldiers in the Cathedral (260) and in order to prevent an epidemic (sanitary conditions were dire
and the smell in the church was nauseous), 75 patients, considered able to
tolerate a journey across the sea, were transferred to Calabria. On the 25th
of March 1719 the Marquess of Andorno,
Supreme Commander of the Piedmontese troops in Sicily, was buried in the Cathedral,
having died of an illness in Milazzo. His death was commemorated on his
tombstone. Soon after, the kitchen at the service of the military hospital,
built under the new Sacresty in 1704, risked burning the fine wooden
furnishings.
On the 23rd of May 1719 a soldier of the Saluzzo
regiment, tragically died in his sleep, falling from the walls of the fortified
town. Unable to sleep due to the fleas that infested his bed, he decided to
leave the barracks and to sleep outside. His unfortunate decision to lie on the
top of the wall proved to be fatal.
1. Cathedral -
Duomo antico
2. Ancient
City Hall - Palazzo dei Giurati
(Municipio)
3. Benedectine
Monastery - Monastero delle
Benedettine
The code used by the Spanish troops
In order to protect reserved information
contained in war correspondence to and from Spain, in the event that it fell
into enemy hands, the Spanish military authorities adopted an efficient code.
From an examination of the correspondence
sent from Milazzo by the Viceroy, the Marquess of Lede in autumn 1718
and now preserved in the General Archives of Simancas, it has been possible to
reconstruct most of the code, made up principally of numbers that correspond to
syllables or to single letters of the alphabet. The list reproduced here shows
the numbers used. Some of these indicated terms or expressions in common use:
as is the case with, for example, “artillery regiment” or “Su Magestad”, that correspond
respectively to the numbers 406 and 713.
