Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser

Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser
Born7 May 1724 (1724-05-07)
Strasbourg, Alsace, Kingdom of France
Died22 August 1797 (1797-08-23) (aged 73)
Vienna
Allegiance Kingdom of France
 Habsburg Monarchy
Service/branchKingdom of France French Army
Habsburg monarchy Imperial Army
Years of service1741–1763 (France)
1763–1796
RankField Marshal
Battles/warsWar of the Bavarian Succession

Austro–Turkish War (1787–1791), as Commanding General.
French Revolutionary Wars

Awards1778, Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa[1]
1789, Commander's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa[1] 1793, Grand Cross of the Military order of Maria Theresa[1]
Other workImperial and Royal Privy Councilor; Imperial and Royal Chamberlain.
Signature

Dagobert Sigismund, Count von Wurmser (7 May 1724 – 22 August 1797) was an Austrian field marshal during the French Revolutionary Wars. Although he fought in the Seven Years' War, the War of the Bavarian Succession, and mounted several successful campaigns in the Rhineland in the initial years of the French Revolutionary Wars, he is probably most remembered for his unsuccessful operations against Napoleon Bonaparte during the 1796 campaign in Italy.

Although initially in the Army of France during the Seven Years' War, Wurmser left France after Louis reached a peace agreement with Britain, and joined the military of the House of Habsburg. He later took part in the short-lived War of the Bavarian Succession, also called the so-called Kartoffelkrieg (Potato War). During the French Revolutionary Wars, Wurmser commanded several imperial Habsburg armies on in the Rhine River valley between 1793 and 1795, and perhaps his most conspicuous achievement was the taking of the lines of Lauterburg and Weissenburg in October 1793.

In 1796, Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor sent him to northern Italy, where the Habsburg military defended Austria's southern territories. In a series of well-fought battles with the French army, under the command of the up-and-coming general Napoleon Bonaparte, Wurmser was trapped with his army in Mantua; after a negotiated capitulation, Wurmser left the city with his honors and 700 men, and marched back to Vienna. His defeat at Mantua did not diminish the luster of his service in imperial eyes—he was granted another appointment immediately—but he was an old man of 72 years who had spent most of his adult life in arduous campaigning. His health failed him shortly after his appointment and he died in 1797.

  1. ^ a b c Jaromir Hirtenfeld. Der militär-Maria-Theresien-Orden und seine Mitglieder: nach authentischen Quellen bearbeitet. Wien: Hofdruckerei, 1857, pp. 1736, 1731.

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