page_title: Johann Heinrich von Schmitt
section_title: Death at Dürenstein
hierarchical_section_title: Johann Heinrich von Schmitt / Military career / Death at Dürenstein
caption_attribution_description: English: Marshal Mortier at the battle of Durenstein in 1805.
context_page_description: Johann Heinrich von Schmitt was an officer in the Army of the Holy Roman Empire. He was arguably one of the most successful chiefs of staff; he rose to the rank of Feldmarshalleutnant during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.
  He developed a sound military reputation as a surveyor, map-maker, and strategist during Austria's wars with the Ottoman Empire. He served on the Quartermaster's staff during the War of the First Coalition. He was the mastermind behind the Rhine Campaign of 1796. As a major general, he was one of Archduke Charles' trusted advisers during the War of the Second Coalition campaign in southwestern Germany.
  In 1799, his reputation was tarnished by the assassination of the French delegates to the Congress of Rastatt, but his complicity was not proven. He retired the following year due to conflicts with the new commander in chief of the Habsburg army. When war broke out again in 1805, he was recalled from retirement and assigned to the combined Russian-Austrian forces on the Danube. On 11 November, Schmitt was killed by friendly fire at the Battle of Dürenstein.
context_section_description: Édouard Mortier had marched from Passau and Linz toward Vienna, traveling on the north bank of the Danube.  His newly created VIII Corps, known as Corps Mortier, consisted of three divisions, which were stretched 56 kilometers (35 mi) apart along the river between Marbach and Dürenstein. This over-extension left his corps' northern flank unprotected, against Napoleon's specific instructions. Schmitt's plan capitalized on this mistake. On 11 November 1805, Kutuzov's column trapped one of Mortier's divisions, under command of Honoré Théodore Maxime Gazan de la Peyrière. The Russians used a ruse to entice Gazan into an attack on a small force, and then trapped him between two columns. The French were surrounded at the front and rear by the Russians, caught on the flood plain at Dürenstein. They could neither move forward nor backward. A second French division arrived in mid-afternoon and attacked the Russians in the flank, but were themselves surprised when Schmitt led an additional Russian column out of the mountains. Gazan's division lost over 40 percent of its men, as well as its colors, and several guns. The battle lasted well into the night. In its waning moments, the French were evacuating across the Danube in a flotilla of boats. In the confusion, Schmitt was shot, probably by Russian musketeers, in a field between the Waldstein and Heudürrgraben. Wilhelm von Kotzebue, a German in Russian service, later reported that the column came through the forest road and entered the main road on the river's edge; they immediately entered the cross-fire between Pierre Dupont's French forward posts of Dragoons and the Russian troops of Dmitry Dokhturov. He fell by Wadstein, and was buried on the battlefield with the dead of his Russian column.  Although his burial site has never been found, a monument for him was erected in a park in nearby Krems in 1811.
caption: In the dark and confusion at the end of the battle, Schmitt was shot by Russian musketry.  In this image, Marshal Mortier directs cannon fire on the Austrian and Russian lines.
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