page_title: Friedrich Joseph, Count of Nauendorf
section_title: War in Bohemia and Silesia
hierarchical_section_title: Friedrich Joseph, Count of Nauendorf / Early career / War in Bohemia and Silesia
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Maria Theresia Orden
context_page_description: Friedrich Joseph of Nauendorf, a general in Habsburg service during the French Revolutionary Wars, was noted for his intrepid and daring cavalry raids. Like most Austrian officers of the French Revolutionary Wars, he joined the military as a young man, and served in the War of Bavarian Succession. In the war's opening action, he successfully repelled a Prussian border raid, which earned him the admiration of the Empress Maria Theresa's son, Joseph. His continued success in the Habsburg border wars with the Ottoman Empire added to his reputation as a commander.
  In the Wars of the First and Second Coalitions, his forces were vital to the successful relief of Mainz, and his commands captured the French siege train and most of the supplies during the French evacuation. In the campaigns in Swabia, he commanded the advanced guard, and later the center of the main column at the Battle of Stockach on 25 March 1799. At the First Battle of Zürich in 1799, he commanded the right wing in the Austrian victory of André Masséna's force. After the Swabian and Swiss campaigns, he retired in poor health, and died in 1801.
context_section_description: In 1778, Nauendorf was a Rittmeister (captain of cavalry) of the Wurmser Hussar Regiment, and stationed near the border of Bohemia and Prussia, by Pressburg (present-day Bratislava), the regiment's peacetime garrison. At the end of the year, the Duke of Bavaria, Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, died unexpectedly of smallpox. As the last of the Bavarian Wittelsbach dynasty, descended from 13th century Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Bavarian, Maximilian was related to most of the German houses, and Bavaria was strategically located to entice the Habsburgs, chiefly Archduke and co-Regent Joseph, to covet the duchy. Tensions rose between and among the princes of the German states, principally Elector of Saxony, King of Prussia, and Joseph; their diplomats shuttled between courts to resolve problems raised by the Bavarian Succession crisis, while Frederick II of Prussia, 
  Frederick August of Saxony and Joseph of Austria moved their extensive armies into position in Bohemia.
  In early July 1778, the Prussian General Johann Jakob von Wunsch (1717–1788) crossed into Bohemia near the fortified town of Náchod, in the opening action of the War of the Bavarian Succession. Nauendorf had only 50 Hussars, but they sallied from their garrison to engage the larger Prussian force. Encountering Wunsch, Nauendorf greeted the old Prussian general and his men as friends; by the time the Prussians realized the allegiance of the Hussars, Nauendorf and his small force had acquired the strategic advantage. Following a brief skirmish, Wunsch withdrew. The next day Nauendorf was promoted to major. In a letter to her son, Joseph, the Empress Maria Theresa wrote: "They say you are so pleased with the rookie Nauendorf, the Carlstätter or Hungarian who killed seven men, that you gave him 12 ducats." Enamored with the possibility of acquiring Bavaria, Joseph encouraged successful raids against the Prussian troops. On 7 August 1778, with two squadrons of his regiment, Nauendorf led a raid against a Prussian convoy at Biebersdorf in the County of Kladsko. The surprised convoy surrendered, and Nauendorf captured its officers, 110 men, 476 horses, 240 wagons of flour, and 13 transport wagons.
  In another raid, on 17–18 January 1779, Nauendorf's commander, Dagobert von Wurmser advanced into the County of Glatz in five columns, surrounded Habelschwerdt, stormed the village. In a subsequent assault on the so-called Swedish blockhouse in Oberschwedeldorf (now Szalejów Górny), it and the village of Habelschwerdt were set on fire by howitzers. In total, the raid resulted in the capture of Prince Adolf of Hesse-Philippsthal and over 1,000 men, three cannon and ten colors. Wurmser's forward patrols reached the outskirts of Glatz, and patrolled much of Silesia's border with Prussia, near Schweidnitz.  Halberschwerdt and Oberschedeldorf were both destroyed.
  On 3 March 1779, Nauendorf raided the Berbersdorf again, this time with a larger force of infantry and hussars, and took the entire Prussian garrison as prisoner. Following this action, Joseph, now Emperor, awarded him the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa (19 May 1779). This kind of action characterized the entire war; there were no major battles. The armies of the opposing sides conducted series of raids and counter-raids from which they lived off the country-side and tried to deny each other access to supplies and fodder.
caption: Badge of the Order of Maria Theresa. Nauendorf received this award for his successful raids on Prussian outposts in Saxony in the Potato War.
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