Joseph radetzky
Johann Joseph Wenzel Graf Radetzky von Radetz (Czech: Jan Josef Václav hrabě Radecký z Radče; November 2, 1766 – January 5, 1858) was a Bohemian nobleman and military officer of the Austrian Empire immortalized by Johann Strauss's composition, the Radetzky March.
Early Years
He was born in Třebnice (Trebnitz), in Bohemia, of a noble family. Orphaned at an early age, he was educated by his grandfather and, after the old count's death, at the Teresian Academy in Vienna. This Academy was dissolved during his first year of residence, so he enlisted as a cadet in the Austrian army in 1785. The next he became an officer and in 1787 first lieutenant in a cuirassier regiment. He served as a horseman under Count Lacy in the war against the Turks and in the Netherlands between 1792 and 1795.
Napoleonic Wars
In 1795 he fought on the Rhine. The following year he served under Beaulieu against Napoleon in Italy, but he disliked the indecisive strategy of containment that Count Lacy had instituted and other Austrian generals had imitated. His personal value was visible; at the battle of Fleurus he led a cavalry charge through the French lines in the fight for Charleroi, and at Valeggio sul Mincio, with a few hussars, he rescued Beaulieu from the enemy. Promoted to major, he took part in Wurmser's campaign, which ended in the fall of Mantua. As a lieutenant colonel and later as a colonel he demonstrated courage and skill in the battles of Trebbia and Novi (1799). At the battle of Marengo, as a colonel under the command of Michael von Melas, he was hit by five bullets, after having tried the previous afternoon to introduce modifications to the plan suggested by the scientist Anton von Zach. In 1801 he was awarded the Maria Theresa order of chivalry.
In March 1805, he received news in Ulm of his promotion to major general and his assignment to Italy under Archduke Charles, and thus took part in the defeat of Caldiero's campaign. Peace again provided him with a short free time which he used to study and teach the art of war. In 1809, as a lieutenant general, he fought at the Battle of Wagram, and in 1810 he received the Commandership of the Order of Maria Theresa and the colonelate of the 5th Radetzky Hussars. From 1809 to 1812, as chief of the General Staff, he helped to reorganize the army and its tactical system, but unable to carry out the desired reforms due to opposition from the Treasury, he resigned. In 1813 he was Schwarzenberg's chief of staff and had considerable influence in advising Allied sovereigns and generals. General Langenau of the Grand Army considered him an essential helper, and he played an appreciable part in planning the Leipzig campaign. His tactics won high praise at the battles of Brienne and Arcis sur Aube. He entered Paris with the allied monarchs in March 1814 and returned with them to the Congress of Vienna, where he appears to have acted as an intermediary between Metternich and Tsar Alexander I of Russia when the two were not on speaking terms.
Italian campaigns
During the years of peace that followed, he disappeared from the public scene. He resumed his duties as chief of staff but his fervent ideas for reforming the army failed due to general war fatigue and a desire to "let it run itself". His efforts to reform made him numerous enemies, and in 1829, after having been a lieutenant field marshal for twenty years, he was proposed for retirement. The emperor, unwilling to go that far, promoted him to general of cavalry and made him governor of the fortress of Olomouc. But very soon after the Restoration in Europe was shaken by new conflicts and Radetzky was once again called up. He took part, under the command of Johann Frimont, in the campaign against the insurgents of the Papal States and succeeded that general in command of the Austrian army in Italy in 1834.
In 1836 he became a field marshal. He was then 70 years old, but he still demonstrated the activity of the youth in the instruction and discipline of the army that he commanded. But here, too, he was too far ahead of his time, and the government not only disregarded his suggestions and warnings, but denied the money that would have raised the army. Thus the events of 1848 in Italy gave the old field marshal a place in history among the great commanders, for the army was at first not only unprepared, but also seriously handicapped in the fight against the troops of Charles Albert of Sardinia. and the rebels. He returned to the Italian peninsula and from there, fighting one adversary after another, he was able to gain time until the arrival of reinforcements, and thus achieved the final victory in the Battle of Novara on March 23, 1849. His good sense of discipline and duty to the superior officer, which had become more intense in the long years of peace, and after keeping his army loyal in the midst of the turmoil of 1848, he did not try to play the part of Wallenstein nor the Wellington's role in being the nation's family counselor. While as a patriot he somewhat dreamed of a united Germany, he remained in the end a mere commander of one of the emperor's armies. He died while still active although in poor health.
In military history Radetzky's fame rests on his achievements, but in Austrian army history it is the outspoken and friendly Vater Radetzky ('father Radetzky') who soldiers idolized. In the year after his death, another great Italian war broke out and his beloved army disintegrated, defeated in every battle.