The Mysterious Adventures of Austrian General Chasteler in 1809

Nachdem Österreich Frankreich den Krieg erklärt hatte, rückte Chasteler als Oberkommandierender des 8. Armeecorps am 9. April 1809 mit 10 000 Soldaten bis Lienz vor. Mit Unterstützung der Tiroler Schützenkompanien gelang ihm die Befreiung des Landes von der bayerischen Herrschaft, so dass Chasteler am 15. April triumphierend in Innsbruck und am 20. April in Trient einmarschieren konnte. Chasteler übernahm die militärische Organisation, Freiherr Joseph von Hormayr die Verwaltung des Landes. Am 13. Mai erlitt Chasteler in der Schlacht bei Wörgl infolge taktisch unklugen Vorgehens gegen überlegene bayerische und französische Kräfte unter Führung des MarschallsFrançois-Joseph Lefebvre eine empfindliche Niederlage. Napoleon ließ ihn als Anstifter der Tiroler Unruhen in contumaciam (in Abwesenheit) zum Tode verurteilen. Chasteler floh, zur Bestürzung der Tiroler, von den Feinden bedrängt, über Kroatien nach Ungarn.[3]

Dates of Life Born: Castle Malbais near Mons (Bergen) / Austrian Netherlands, 22.01.1763 Died: Venice (Venezia) / Venetia, 07.05.18251

Name Variants (French) Jean-Gabriel-Joseph-Albert Marquis du Chasteler de Courcelles

Promotions Major: 22.12.1788 Oberstleutnant: 1792 (1791 ?) Oberst: 11.1795 Generalmajor: 24.04.17972 (w.r.f. 01.06.1797) Feldmarschalleutnant: 03.01.18013 (w.r.f. 10.01.1801) Feldzeugmeister: 02.09.1813

Posts and Offices (Army, Politics, Court) Military Commander in the Tyrol and Vorarlberg (Innsbruck): 09.-10.1805 Military Commander in Silesia (Troppau): 01.1811 – 07.1813 Governor of the fortress of Theresienstadt: 1813-1814 City and Fortress Commander of Venice: 12.1814 – 07.05.1825

Field Service (1792-1815) Chief of the (Quartermaster) General Staff of the Army of Inner Austria: 04.1797 – 01.1798 Chief of the (Quartermaster) General Staff of the Army of Italy: 03.-07.1799 Commander of the 8th Army Corps: 02.-04.1809 / 05.-11.1809 Commander of the Austrian forces at the combat of Wörgl: 13.05.1809 (–) Commander of the 4th Army Corps: 11.-12.1813

Orders, Awards, Honorary Appointments (Austria) Military Maria Theresian Order – KC: 19.12.1790 / CC: 15.05.1799 Order of Leopold – CC: 07.01.1809 Tyrolian Grand Medal for bravery: 1800 Colonel-Proprietor of the Tiroler Jäger-Regiment N°64 / (since 1806:) Jäger-Regiment N°64: 02.1802 – 01.09.1808 (disbanded) Colonel-Proprietor of the Infantry Regiment N°46: 1808-1809 (disbanded) Colonel-Proprietor of the Infantry Regiment N°27: 1809 – 07.05.1825 I.R. Privy Councillor: 1816 I.R. Chamberlain: 1791

Orders, Awards, Honorary Appointments (Foreign Countries) Sardinia-Piedmont: Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus – GC: 1814

Biographical Essay (by Digby Smith) Jean-Gabriel-Joseph-Albert Marquis du Chasteler de Courcelles entered Austrian military service in 1776 as a cadet in Infantry Regiment N°3 "Prinz Karl von Lothringen", then entered the Ingenieur-Akademie in Vienna. He fought in the wars against the Turks from 1787-90 and won the Military Maria Theresian Order (KC) as major on 21 July 1789 in the battle of Focsani, in Rumania. His right leg was smashed by a canister ball during the siege of the fortress of Chocim in Poland. He was promoted to Oberstleutnant at the end of the war and appointed Oberleutnant in the Arcieren-Leibgarde in Belgium and included in the Chamber. In 1792, Chasteler was again in the engineers, initially to lead the refurbishment of the ruined fortress of Namur. In 1794, he took part in the successful siege of Landrecies (21-30 April) under FM Prinz Friedrich Josias von Sachsen-Coburg-Saalfeld. In 1795, under FM Graf von Clairfayt, he was directly responsible for the relief of the beleaguered fortress of Mainz, in September and October of that year. For this he was promoted to Oberst in the General Quartermaster Staff. Two years later, he received his promotion to Generalmajor. In 1799 he was Quartermaster General of the Austro-Russian army in northern Italy and was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Military Maria Theresian Order for his services in that campaign. The count was also responsible for Macdonald's defeat in the three-day battle of the Trebbia River (7-20 June 1799) and was seriously wounded in the successful siege of Alessandria (22 June-22 July 1799). In 1800, Chasteler was posted to the main Austrian army in Swabia as Deputy Quartermaster General (Chief of Staff), possibly at the special request of FZM Kray. They fought in the battles of Engen and Mösskirch, on 3 and 5 May resp. After Kray's removal from command, Chasteler led a brigade in the Tyrol. On 10 January 1801 Chasteler was promoted to FML and the next year he was made proproprietor of the (Tiroler) Jäger Regiment N°64, which was disbanded in 1808. In 1805 he again organized the defence of the Tyrol, whose fortifications he had designed and had built in the intervening years. He commanded a division under FML Albert Graf Gyulai in the VIII Corps. On 2 and 3 November 1805, he successfully defended the Strub Pass (on the border between Salzburg and the Tyrol, today on the B312) against Deroy's Bavarian division, thus securing the withdrawal of Archduke Johann's army eastwards out of the Tyrol. Conducting a fighting withdrawal against heavy odds, he then joined up with Archduke Johann's troops in Gonowitz on 26 November. He was now given command of the Avantgarde of the united Austrian troops under Archduke Carl's command. In 1808 Chasteler began the rebuilding of the fortifications of Komorn in Hungary. In the same year, he became poproprietor of Infantry Regiment N°46. In 1809 Chasteler was now commander of the VIII Corps and was charged with the assisting the liberation of the Tyrol from Bavarian rule. He led his small corps into the province on 9 April to help the uprising of the peasants under Andreas Hofer but was decisively defeated by Marshal Lefebvre's superior Franco-Bavarian force at the towns of Söll, Wörgl and Rattenberg (in the Inn valley) on 13 May. The Tyrolean revolt was crushed. His regiment (N°46) was disbanded at the end of the campaign. At the beginning of 1813, he refurbished the fortifications of Prague, then took command of a division in the Army of Bohemia. He fought at Dresden and Kulm. After Leipzig, he assumed command of IV Corps from GdK Graf Klenau and laid siege to Gouvion St-Cyr in Dresden, which city capitulated on 11 November. After his promotion to Feldzeugmeister Chasteler was appointed governor of Venice, where he died in 1825.

Printed Sources ADB 4, p.110ff. | Blasek/Rieger 1/I, p.397 (wrong: Major in 1789) | Bodart, p.403 | BU 8, p.6f. | Englebert N°13 | Gatti, IngAk, p.315f. | Granichstaedten-Czerva, Rudolf von: Andreas Hofers alte Garde, Innsbruck 1932, p.200ff. | Guillaume, p.209f. | Hirtenfeld 1, p.545ff. | Hollins, p.45f. | MD 1, p.169 (wrong: d. 10.03.1825) | MilSchem | Nekrolog 1825/1, p.528ff. (wrong: d. 10.03.1825) | ÖBL 1, p.141 | ÖMKL 1, p.683ff. | Pickl, p.239 (wrong: "Charter" instead of Chasteler) | ÖMZ 1827, vol.1, p.68ff.: Nekrolog des kaiserlich-östreichischen Feldzeugmeisters Johann Gabriel Marquis von Chasteler de Courcelles | Ritter, p.444ff. | Wrede 1, p.306 | Wrede 2, p.251 | Wurzbach 2, p.331ff. | WZ, 03.09.1808, 11.01.1809, 10.11.1813, 26.05.1815 | Zivkovic, Generalität, p.39 | Zivkovic, Heerführer, pp.72, 74, 109, 130-132 | Regele, p.30

Internet Sources Ebert (http://www.napoleon-online.de/AU_Generale/html/chasteler.html) Jewison/Steiner Schmidt-Brentano, Generale

Memoirs of the life of Andrew Hofer: containing an account of the ... - Joseph HORMAYR (Baron von Hortenburg.) - Google Books

From the Preface to the book, which was written by Charles Henry Hall, Esq., published in London in 1820.

“ The History of Hofer” was first printed at Leipsig in the year 1817. It is an ano nymous publication, but it has been con jectured, and not without reason, that it is the production either of Baron Hormayr, one of the most active leaders of the Ty rolese patriots, or of some person in his confidence, whom he supplied with mate rials for the work. It is evidently the production of a man , who, if not an actor himself in the scenes which he describes, wasat least intimately connected with those - who were. There can be no question about the authenticity of his facts, they are supported throughout by the authority of original documents, and the minuteness of his details impresses upon them the charac ter of truth , although they may be devoid of interest to the reader, when they relate to individuals of humble origin and station and unknown beyond the limits of their native mountains. It may perhaps appear extraordinary to the reader, that in a book which professes to be the History of Hofer, Hofer should play so subordinate a part . Whatever blame may be attached to this contradiction between the title and the subject of these few pages, must in justice be thrown on the original, as I could give no more than what my materials gave me, though I certainly was not without suspicion that in more than one instance, the fame of Hofer had been sacrificed by the writer, to that of his more fortunate rival Hormayr. We have seen, however, in some famous poems and popular novels, that the hero scarcely shows his face till the last page, where he is either killed or married ; and here we have a history of real facts, in which the appointed hero does little more than his imaginary brethren . I fear that the character of Hofer would have stood higher in our eyes, if this translation of his memoirs had never appeared ; but as the discovery of truth is of much more importance than the excitement of fictitious interest, perhaps I may not be totally undeserving of thanks for having attempted to make the true character of the Tyrolese Chief familiar to the English public...'

seemingly the usual character assasinations of persons who are disliked by Boney, so therefore they must be bad.

Here from TMP

MightyOwl09 May 2021 1:35 a.m. PST 
'It was however universally reported , that the Tyrolese had murdered their prisoners in cold blood ; and that , on the 13th of April , all the French and Bavarians who had surrendered themselves were massacred at the instigation of Chastelar . A calumny so vile and infamous is scarcely worth refutation , but nothing can be easier if it were necessary , than to prove its falsehood ; for the fact is , that on the 13th Chastelar was still at Brixen , and did not arrive at Innspruck until the prisoners had passed Schwaz , on their road to Salzburg , under a female escort , as the men could not be spared to guard them ; and had he been there , Chastelar ( who was remarkable for the mildness and attention with which he treated his prisoners ) would have shuddered at the idea of such a crime .
But it was the object of Napoleon to efface , if possible , the recollection of his unlucky defeat , by throwing the blame on the conduct of his enemies , and it mattered little to him , how base or infamous the means were to which he resorted , provided they effected his purpose.'
Memoirs of the Life of Andrew Hofer; Containing an Account of the Transactions in the Tyrol During the Year 1809 – Joseph Hormayr (Baron von Hortenburg.)

le Marquis était d'ascendance Belge , son père était gouverneur de Binche en Belgique , alors dépendant de l'empire Austro-Hongrois

Which "massacre" we talk about? The events around the 1st battle of Bergisel (Innsbruck), 12th April 1809? Any sources for the "massacre of French and Bavarians captured by the Tyrolese"?

Regards, Thomas

is that all you know about Chasteler, what German sources did you read on him?

It is a sad joke that Nabulieone who ordered - not just witnessing - the massacre at for example Jaffa - would declare Chasteler vogelfrei.

One of the greatest war criminal of his time shouldn't throw the first stone.

And then he is outraged because the Austrians payed back in identical coin, a madman indeed.