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Johann von Klenau

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Johann Graf von Klenau
AllegianceHabsburg monarchy Habsburg Austria
Service / branchColonel-Proprietor 5th Chevauxleger Regiment N°5: 20 February 1804 – 10 June 1819
Years of service1775–1829
RankGeneral of Cavalry
Battles / warsFrench Revolutionary Wars
Napoleonic Wars
Awards• Knights Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa 30 October 1795
• Commanders Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa 13 July 1809
• Commander's Cross, Order of Leopold 07 January 1809
• Grand Cross, Order of Leopold 10 November 1813

Johann von Klenau or Johann Josef Cajetan von Klenau und Janowitz (13 April 1758 – 6 October 1819) joined the Austrian army, fought the French in the French Revolutionary Wars, and commanded a corps in several important battles during the Napoleonic Wars.

In the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars, he distinguished himself at Liege and the Weissenbourg lines. As commander of the Coalition's left flank in the Adige campaign in northern Italy in 1799, he was instrumental in isolating the French-held fortresses on the Po River by organizing and supporting a peasant uprising in the countryside. Afterward he was the youngest Lt. Field Marshal in the history of the Habsburg army.

Klenau also led key elements of the the Austrian army at the battles of Aspern-Esslingen and Wagram. He commanded the IV Corps at the 1813 Battle of Dresden. After the Battle of Nations at Leipzig Klenau organized and implemented the Dresden blockade. In 1814-15, he was commander of the Corps Klenau of the Army of Italy. After the war, he was appointed commanding General in Moravia and Silesia, and he died in 1819.

Early career

Klenau was born into a noble family at Benatek Castle in Prague in the Austrian province of Bohemia on 13 April 1758. He entered the 47th Infantry Regiment Ellrichshausen in 1774, as an Officer Cadet and became a Second Lieutenant in 1775. He fought in the short War of the Bavarian Succession after transferring into a Chevauleger (light cavalry) regiment as a Captain of Cavalry, or Rittmeister. In the Austro-Turkish War (1787-1791), Klenau served in the 26th Dragoon Regiment Toscana, and later transferred to the 1st Dragoon Regiment Kaiser. His distinguished action at Semlen earning his promotion to Major in 1788.[1]

French Revolutionary Wars

Main articles: French Revolutionary Wars and War of the First Coalition

On 12 February 1793, Klenau received his promotion to Lt. Colonel in an Lancer's regiment serving under General of Cavalry Count Graf Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser. He was captured at Offenbach, but was unexpectedly freed by two Hussars from the 17th Regiment, Archduke Alexander Leopold. Klenau commanded a brigade in Hotze's 3rd Column at the Battle of Wissembourg on 13 October 1793.[2] At the battle of Handschuhsheim on 24 September 1795, he commanded a cavalry brigade. In this action, he led the battle-winning charge, dispersing two French divisions. For a loss of 187 men, the Austrians inflicted over 1,500 casualties on their enemies and captured eight guns. For this brilliant exploit, Klenau was promoted to Colonel[3] and awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa.[4]

In 1796, Klenau transferred to the Italian theater. He led the advance guard of Peter Quasdanovich's Right Column as it descended from the Alps upon Brescia. Finding that the French garrison was not alert, Klenau set out at midnight with two squadrons of the 8th Hussar Regiment Wurmser, a battalion of the 37th Infantry Regiment De Vins, and one company of the Mahony Jägers. Hidden by fog, the small force surprised the Brescia garrison on the morning of 30 July, capturing 600–700 French soldiers and Jean Lannes, Joachim Murat, and François Étienne de Kellermann.[5] Left alone at Montichiari to face Napoleon Bonaparte and 12,000 Frenchmen, Klenau's advance guard was quickly pushed out of Brescia on 1 August. At the subsequent Battle of Lonato, the French forced Quasdanovich's column to withdraw into the mountains.[6]

Klenau fought at the Battle of Bassano on 8 September. He was with Dagobert von Wurmser's column as it fought its way into Mantua and he participated in the combat of La Favorita near Mantua on 15 September. From that time until 2 February 1797, he was trapped in the fortress during the Siege of Mantua.[7] After the Austrian disaster at the Battle of Rivoli, Klenau negotiated conditions of surrender with French General Jean Sérurier.[8] When the garrison capitulated in February, Klenau co-signed the document with Wurmser.[9]

The Commanders Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa is studded with gems and engraved with the word FORTITUDE.
This gem-studded 1765 exemplar of the Commanders' Cross is engraved with the word FORTITUDE.

In the 1799 campaign in Italy, Klenau and his 4500 troops inspired and assisted in an uprising of another 4000 or more peasants in the countryside. Under his command, the 8th Hussar Regiment, two battalions of Banaters (from the Austrian border with the Ottoman Empire), and a battalion of the 18th Infantry encouraged a general insurgency which effectively pinned down the French on the east bank of the Po River. This isolated the French-held fortresses, making them vulnerable to Suvorov's main force. In June, he was instrumental in taking the fortress at Ferraro, a lynch-pin in the French Po River defenses.[10]

In October 1800, he was promoted to Lieutenant Field Marshal making him the youngest Lt. Field Marshall in the history of the Habsburg military.[11]

Napoleonic Wars

Main article: Napoleonic Wars

Klenau joined the army of Archduke Ferdinand for the War of the Third Coalition. He was captured in the Battle of Ulm when Karl Mack surrendered the encircled army on 21 October 1805. At the beginning of the War of the Fifth Coalition, he commanded a division in II Corps. He led this unit at the Battle of Eckmuhl in April 1809.[12] At the Battle of Aspern-Essling in May, he led the independent, division-sized army Avantgarde in repeated attacks on the village of Essling.[13] At the Battle of Wagram in July of that year, Klenau led the 13,740 soldiers of VI Corps.[14] For this, he received the Commander's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa.[15]

Black and white picture shows Murat's (French) cavalry charge at the Battle of Dresden; Klenau's force took the brunt of the charge and suffered high casualties.
Klenau's force bore the brunt of Murat's cavalry charge at the Battle of Dresden.

Klenau was promoted to General der Kavallerie (full general) on 26 July 1813. When Austria joined the allies in the War of the Sixth Coalition, he held command of an independent corps in the Army of Bohemia. In the Battle of Dresden, the leading elements of his corps were placed on the army's left flank, separated from the main body by the flooded Weißeritz. Marshal Joachim Murat took advantage of this isolation and inflicted heavy losses on the Austrians.[16] Klenau's formation later became known as the IV Corps. On 16 October at the Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of Nations, his troops defended the Army of Bohemia's right flank against the attacks of Marshal Jacques MacDonald.[17] After Leipzig, the allied high command assigned him to blockade the large French garrison of Dresden and Marshal Laurent de Gouvion-Saint-Cyr surrendered to Klenau on 11 November.[18] During 1814 he commanded a corps in Italy. After the war (1815), Klenau was appointed Commanding General in Moravia and Silesia.[19]

Promotions

  • Major: 15 January 1790
  • Lt. Colonel: 12 February 1793
  • Colonel: 8 August 1795
  • Major General: 1 May 1797 (effective 13 June 1797)
  • Lt. Field Marshal: 29 October 1800 (effective 18 November 1800)
  • General of the Cavalry: 26 July 1813

Later career

After the war, the army appointed Klenau commander of Moravia. He held this office until his death on 6 October 1819 at Brno in the modern-day Czech Republic.[20]

Family

In 1800, he married the widowed Maria Josephina Somsich de Sard, daughter of Tallian de Viseck. They had one daughter, who married Count Riesch.

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Kudrna and Smith, "Klenau."
  2. ^ Smith, p. 58
  3. ^ Smith, p 105
  4. ^ Kudrna and Smith, "Klenau."
  5. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 382
  6. ^ Kudrna and Smith, "Klenau."
  7. ^ „Klenau, Johann Graf“ in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, herausgegeben von der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Band 16 (1882), ab Seite 156, Digitale Volltext-Ausgabe in Wikisource (Version vom 27. Oktober 2009, 21:33 Uhr UTC).
  8. ^ Boycott-Brown, p 521
  9. ^ Kudrna and Smith, "Klenau."
  10. ^ Enrico Acerbi, The 1799 Campaign in Italy: Klenau and Ott Vanguards and the Coalition’s Left Wing April - June 1799, Napoleon Series, Robert Burnham, editor in chief. March 2008. Accessed 30 October 2009.
  11. ^ Kudrna and Smith, "Klenau."
  12. ^ Bowden, p 67
  13. ^ Bowden, p 79, 89
  14. ^ Bowden, p 165, 168
  15. ^ Kudrna and Smith, "Klenau."
  16. ^ Chandler, p 910–911
  17. ^ Chandler, 929
  18. ^ Kudrna and Smith, "Klenau."
  19. ^ Kudrna and Smith, "Klenau."
  20. ^ Kudrna and Smith, "Klenau."

Bibliography

  • Acerbi, Enrico, The 1799 Campaign in Italy: Klenau and Ott Vanguards and the Coalition’s Left Wing April - June 1799, Napoleon Series, Robert Burnham, editor in chief. March 2008. Accessed 30 October 2009.
  • Bowden, Scotty & Tarbox, Charlie. Armies on the Danube 1809. Arlington, Texas: Empire Games Press, 1980.
  • Boycott-Brown, Martin. The Road to Rivoli. London: Cassell & Co., 2001. ISBN 0-304-35305-1
  • Chandler, David. The Campaigns of Napoleon. New York: Macmillan, 1966.
  • Pivka, Otto von. Armies of the Napoleonic Era. New York: Taplinger Publishing, 1979. ISBN 0-8008-5471-3
  • Smith, Digby. The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill, 1998. ISBN 1-85367-276-9
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