Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser 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 . Family and early career . Born in Strasbourg , son of Frantz Jacob Wurmser von Vendenheim , christened in Protestant church Saint Nicolas ( Ref . Church Register ) , in Alsace , Wurmser first served in the French army during the early campaigns of the Silesian Wars as a cavalry officer under command of Marshal Charles de Rohan , prince de Soubise . In 1747 , he was promoted to Captain of Cavalry . He married on 25 January 1761 in Vendenheim ( Département du Bas - Rhin ) Sophia Henrietta Rosina Juliana von und zu der Thann . She died at the age of 39 years in Trautenau ( Bohemia ) on 27 June 1772 as a consequence of childbirth , and was buried in Michelsdorf ( Schlesien ) ( Ref . Protestant Church Book of Sundhouse , and that of Vendenheim ) . In 1750 , when his father left Alsace and became a Habsburg subject , Wurmser too left French service and joined the House of Habsburg military . He brought with him the legions he commanded from France . As part of the imperial Austrian army , he participated in the last years of the continental war , sometimes called the " Little War " , so called , because it did not involve three of the five great powers involved . In these engagements against the Prussians , he showed exceptional command capabilities and a wily and courageous attitude . On 30 January 1761 , Emperor Francis I raised him to comital status of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation . Two years later , Archduke Charles of Lothringen , the Statthalter of Netherlands , known as an audacious partisan collected his volunteers — a regiment each of Infantry and Hussars , with an artillery company — and joined Austrian service . War of the Bavarian Succession . In Spring 1778 , Wurmser ' s 30th Hussars were posted in northern Bohemia , to cover the Border with Saxony and Silesia . Friedrich von Nauendorf , the son of the previous Colonel - Proprietor of the Regiment , was a captain in a village outpost , with about 50 Hussars under his command . In early July , 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 led his 50 Hussars to engage Wunsch ' s considerably larger force . When they encountered Wunch ' s force , he greeted them as friends ; by the time the Prussians realized the allegiance of the Hussars , Nauendorf and his small force had the upper hand , and Wunsch withdrew . The next day Nauendorf was promoted to major . As the war evolved over the summer , Wurmser ' s Hussars covered the left flank of the main army , which was positioned in the entrenched heights above Jaroměř , in a triple line of redoubt s extending along the river to Königgrätz . In October , Joseph II , Holy Roman Emperor withdrew most of the Imperial army to the Bohemian border , under threat of intervention by Catherine II of Russia ; Frederick II of Prussia did the same . A small force of hussars and dragoons remained in Bohemia to provide a winter cordon , designed to prevent Prussian incursions into Bohemia . Appointed to be commander of the winter cordon , Wurmser ordered a small assault column under command of Colonel Wilhelm Klebeck to attack the village of Dittersbach . Klebeck led a column of Croats into the village . During the action , 400 Prussians were killed , another 400 made prisoner , and eight colors were captured . Following his successes against the Prussians in 1778 , Joseph awarded him the Knights Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa on 21 October 1778 . In another raid , in January 1779 , Wurmser advanced into the County of Glatz in five columns , two of which , commanded by Major General Franz Joseph , Count Kinsky , surrounded Habelschwerdt on 17 – 18 January . While one column secured the approach , the other , under the leadership of Colonel Pallavicini , stormed the village , captured the Prince of Hessen - Philippsthal and 700 men , three cannons and seven colors . Wurmser himself led the third column in an assault on the so - called Swedish blockhouse at Oberschwedeldorf ; it and the village of Habelschwerdt were set on fire by howitzer s . Major General Ludwig , Baron of Terzi ( 1730 – 1800 ) , who was covering with the remaining two columns , threw back the enemy relief and took 300 Prussian prisoners . Meanwhile , Wurmser maintained his position at the nearby villages of Rückerts and Reinerz . His forward patrols reached the outskirts of Glatz , and were able to cover the Silesian borders , almost reaching Schweidnitz . Halberschwerdt and Oberschedeldorf were both destroyed . French Revolutionary Wars . In 1787 , Wurmser received a promotion to General der Kavallerie ; he held a series of posts in Vienna , Bohemia and Galicia , becoming Commanding General at the latter in 1787 during the Austrian War with the Ottoman Empire . While Wurmser fought Austria ' s battles in the Balkans , in France , a coalition of the clergy and the professional and bourgeoisie class — the First and Third estates — led a call for reform of the French government and the creation of a written constitution . Initially , the rulers of Europe viewed the French Revolution as an event between the French king and his subjects , and not something in which they should interfere . In 1790 , Leopold succeeded his brother Joseph as emperor and by 1791 , he considered the situation surrounding his sister , Marie Antoinette , and her children , with greater alarm . In August 1791 , in consultation with French " émigré " nobles and Frederick William II of Prussia , he issued the Declaration of Pillnitz , in which they declared the interest of the monarchs of Europe as one with the interests of Louis and his family . They threatened ambiguous , but quite serious , consequences if anything should happen to the royal family . The French émigrés continued to agitate for support of a counter - revolution . On 20 April 1792 , the French National Convention declared war on Austria . In the War of the First Coalition ( 1792 – 1797 ) , France opposed most of the European states sharing land or water borders with her , plus Portugal and the Ottoman Empire . Rhine campaign 1793 – 1794 . From February 1793 to January1794 , Wurmser commanded the Imperial Army of the Rhine . He commanded the successful storming of the Lauterburg and Weissenburg lines on 13 October 1793 . The Lines , a series of earth works on the south side of the Lauter river , a tributary of the Rhine river in Alsace - Lorraine , offered a major strategic defensive position for the French . Part of France ' s Army of the Vosges , under general command of Jean Victor Moreau , manned the French position . The three battalions and six squadrons , commanded by General of Brigade Illier , held the position with ten artillery pieces . The French defensive line ran west from Lauterbourg on the Rhine to Saarbrücken . The western part of this line , from Lauterbourg to Wissembourg , was protected by the Lines of Wissembourg , a series of fortifications built nearly a century earlier to protect Alsace from invasion along the flat plain between the Vosges and the Rhine . The Army of the Rhine defended the Lines , the Army of the Rhine was at Saarbrücken and the Corps of the Vosges linked the two , with camps at Hornbach and Kettrick . On 20 August , Wurmser directed the 4th Allied Column , and Field Marshal Kavanagh ' s Hessen and Austrian troops , augmented by a battalion of Emigre troops , to assault part of the works ; Kavanagh ' s attack successfully ousted the French from the position ; General Illier was killed by a Hessen Jäger . An unknown number of the 3 , 000 French defenders were killed or wounded ; three officers and 100 men were captured . The testing for the Weissembourg Lines continued for the next 45 days , Each skirmish , each probe , tested the French strength and resolve . In mid - September the Prussians successfully defeated a French assault on Pirmasens , a small fortification to the north and east ; this success encouraged the Austrian and Prussian alliance to venture a major assault on the French defenses . Wurmser ' s force of 33 , 599 infantry and 9 , 635 cavalry had whittled away at the Lines , skirmishing throughout August and September with French infantry and cavalry , which always withdrew to the superior defensive position behind the earthen works . While the Prussians marched around the lines , from Pirmasens , Wurmser organized his force into seven columns , and they assaulted the Lines in waves . In the First Battle of Wissembourg on 13 September the French defenses were successfully breached . Two months later , the French committed major forces to recover the Lines . Wurmser commanded the Austrian contingent at the defeat at the Second Battle of Wissembourg on 26 December 1793 . Upper Rhine campaign . From August 1795 to June 1796 , Wurmser commanded the Army of the Upper Rhine . Campaign in northern Italy . In 1796 , Wurmser descended into northern Italy , with 25 , 000 men from his old Army of the Rhine , to unite with Beulieu ' s battered army of northern Italy . The two armies met at Trent , and marched to Mantua in three columns . Wurmser ' s columns scored some initial successes . The forward column , under command of under Peter Quasdanovich moved toward Lake Garda , and a small reconnaissance force under Johann von Klenau advanced from the alps on the city of Brescia ; there , they found the local French garrison unprepared . At midnight , Klenau led two squadrons of the " Wurmser " 8th Hussar Regiment and several other battalions and squadrons in an attack on the French garrison . They captured 600 – 700 French soldiers stationed there and three officials of the French Directory : Jean Lannes , Joachim Murat , and François Étienne de Kellermann . Quasdanovich managed to occupy Lonato . Wurmser did not count on swift movement by the French . Within two days , Klenau ' s force retreated in the face of Napoleon Bonaparte and 12 , 000 Frenchmen ; his small advance guard was quickly pushed out of Brescia on 1 August . At the subsequent Battle of Lonato of 2 – 3 August 1796 , the French also forced Quasdanovich ' s column to withdraw into the mountains , with heavy losses . The mopping up operations lasted until mid - August , isolated Quasdanovich ' s force by Lake Garda , and freed the French to concentrate on Wurmser ' s main force at Castiglione delle Stiviere , further south ; Bonaparte ' s subsequent victory against Wurmser at the Battle of Castiglione forced the old commander across the Mincio river and allowed the French to return to the siege of Mantua . The resumed siege was not without its problems . To move swiftly against Wurmser , Napoleon had abandoned his all his siege equipment , leaving it at Mantua . When he resumed the siege , it was much less effective without his guns . Furthermore , by early September , many of the scattered Austrian units had rejoined Wurmser ' s column . Even so , at the Battle of Bassano on 8 September , the Austrians were outnumbered almost two to one by the French . As the Austrian army retreated , Bonaparte ordered a pursuit that caused the Austrians to abandon their artillery and baggage . Most of the third battalion of the 59th " Jordis " , and the first battalion of the Border Infantry Banat were captured and these units ceased to exist after this battle . The Austrians lost 600 killed and wounded , and 2 , 000 captured , plus lost 30 guns , eight colors , and 200 limbers and ammunition wagons . Wurmser ' s column fought its way to besieged Mantua , but emerged suddenly , in an effort to escape , at the Battle of La Favorita near there on 15 September . This was the second attempt to relieve the fortress ; as the Austrians withdrew from the battle , they retreated into Mantua itself , and from 15 September until 2 February 1797 , Wurmser was trapped inside the fortress while the city was besieged . Following the Austrian loss at the Battle of Rivoli , north of Mantua , on 14 – 15 January 1797 , when clearly there would be no Austrian relief for Mantua , Wurmser sent one of his juniors , Johann von Klenau , to negotiate conditions of surrender with French General Jean Sérurier , Additional evidence suggests that Bonaparte was present and dictated far more generous terms than the Austrians had expected . Wurmser , who Napoleon held in high esteem , left Mantua with his men and officers , and his battle honors , and marched back to Austrian lands . Legacy . Of all the field marshals in Habsburg service during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , Wurmser was recognized among the best . Some historians attribute Austrian problems to its aging general staff , compared to the relatively young general staff of the French Empire . For instance , Wurmser was 72 , approaching 73 in the 1796 campaign , and Peter Vitus von Quasdanovich ( b . 1738 ) was nearing 70 . Besides the graying general staff , there were also youngsters , and these demonstrated acute military acumen : Archduke Charles was 26 years old in the 1796 campaign and had been tutored by Hohenlohe - Kirchberg and Wurmser ; Schwarzenberg was also young , under 30 ; Johann von Klenau , at 31 , was the youngest field Marshal in the Habsburg military ; and there were many others . But Wurmser may have been hampered more by the Aulic Council than by his age ; Digby Smith points out that he descended into Italy fettered with a new and inexperienced chief of staff sent to him by the Council with battle plans and instructions in writing . These restricted his movements in Italy and prevented him from responding to targets of opportunity . Broken in health , a " knight without fear and above reproach " , Wurmser died in Vienna the following summer . External links .