Bernhard Erasmus von Deroy

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Bernhard Erasmus von Deroy

Count Bernhard Erasmus von Deroy (born December 11, 1743 in Mannheim , † August 23, 1812 in Polotsk ) was a German general in the Bavarian army . In the Russian campaign in 1812 he commanded the 19th Division of VI. Corps under de Gouvion St.-Cyr .

Life

Deroy was born on December 11, 1743 in Mannheim as the son of the general and fortress construction chief Matthias Bertram de Roy and his wife Elisabeth Christine, née von Hofstatt. On June 22, 1750 he was appointed ensign in the infantry regiment "Palatine Count Karl August" of the Palatinate Army . In the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), in which he participated from the beginning, he carried the regiment's body flag in the battle of Hastenbeck on June 26, 1757. Promoted to lieutenant on February 14, 1761, and to captain in his regiment on September 5, 1763 , he took over a grenadier company and on October 30, 1775 was promoted to major in the infantry regiment now renamed "Duke Charles II of Zweibrücken" appointed. After being transferred to the "Rodenhausen" infantry regiment, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on June 8, 1784 and to colonel on December 21, 1787 . On March 3, 1788, he returned to his old regiment "Duke Karl" as a commander.

Promoted to major general on November 3, 1792 , he was appointed governor of Mannheim as commander of the fortifications, where he constantly reinforced the fortress for the anticipated French attacks. On December 23 and 24, 1794, Mannheim was heavily bombarded with grenades by the French siege troops, with Deroy himself taking command of the Rheinschanze on the other side of the Rhine, which the French attacked alone. The bridge over the Rhine was destroyed by an ice surge, so that it could only hold the Rheinschanze until December 25, 1794, cut off from the Mannheim fortress. Then he left the Rheinschanze to the French without the enemy's guns, weapons and supplies falling into their hands. After the city of Mannheim was handed over to the French, Deroy left the city on September 22, 1795 and was not allowed to take part in the war against them for several years.

In the spring of 1800 Deroy was given command of the 1st Brigade with a strength of 6000 men in the course of the formation of the Subsidiencorps under General Zweybrücken (it consisted of the grenadier battalion "Reuss", a battalion "Kurprinz", a battalion "Morawitzky", a battalion "Herzog Wilhelm", the battalion "Schloßberg", a company of snipers , three squadrons of Cheveaulegers , foot artillery and a division of mounted artillery ). After being examined by the British commissioner, Minister Plenipotentiary Wickham , Deroy's 1st Brigade was combined with Wrede's 2nd Brigade to form the Subsidien Corps on May 12, 1800 . During the battle of Diedenhofen on June 5, 1800, fighting at the head of his brigade , he contributed a lot to the fact that the general escape was always reluctant to resist. On June 27, 1800, he wrested land taken back from the French in the battle near Neuburg an der Donau and was characterized by personal bravery and military ability. After the Battle of Hohenlinden on December 3, 1800, Deroy and a large part of the Austro-Bavarian corps were taken prisoner by the French.

In 1801, Duke Wilhelm in Bavaria appointed Deroy as a member of the Commission for the Improvement of the Army and made a contribution to the reorganization of the Bavarian army . When the army was redistributed on April 5, 1803, he was entrusted with command of the Lower Bavarian Brigade in Landshut. In the spring of 1804 Deroy and Wrede introduced the rules of war based on the new knowledge of the art of war. Promoted to lieutenant general on April 21, 1804 , he was awarded the Military Medal of Honor by army order of September 28, 1804 , which the Elector personally bestowed on him. On March 16, 1805, Napoleon presented him with the great eagle of the French Legion of Honor .

During the war against Austria in 1805, Deroy was given command of the army consisting of 6 brigades on September 27, 1805. In October 1805 he led his division (3 brigades) to Munich and Salzburg . On November 1, 1805 he received an order from Marshal Bernadotte to take Tyrol from Salzburg . With heavy fighting he conquered the pass heights before Tyrol ( Pass Strub ). During an exploration he was hit on the thigh and handed over the command to Wrede. In the army order of March 1, 1806, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Military Max Joseph Order for his services . On April 13, 1806 he again took command of the Bavarian troops.

In the campaign against Prussia , under the command of Prince Jerome and from December under Vandamme, he led his division from Bayreuth via Dresden to Glogau , which he included and had bombarded from November 13th to 25th. Glogau surrendered on December 2, 1806. Then he first received orders to advance to the Vistula , but then had to turn around and besiege Breslau . After four days of bombardment, he tried to storm it, but was turned away by the Prussian occupation. The fortress gave up on January 6, 1807. He then besieged the fortress of Brzeg , which he received on January 16, 1807. At the end of January, under difficult weather conditions, he besieged Cosel, which was defended by David von Neumann . After a bombardment of the fortress on February 4th and several attacks had no effect, Deroy gave up the siege and in March was satisfied with an enclosure of the fortress. On June 20, 1807, he and his troops advanced before Glatz . After the Prussian camp was smashed on the night of June 24, 1807, surrender negotiations began the following day. The commandant Friedrich Wilhelm von Götzen managed to prevent the actual handover of the fortress. After that, the Bavarian troops stormed the Silberberg fortress from June 26th to 30th , which lasted until the peace agreement and therefore, like the fortresses Kosel and Glatz, remained in Prussian hands after the peace of Tilsit . This ended the fighting in Silesia.

With an army order of December 24, 1807, he was given command of the newly formed General Command in Bavaria. On November 27, 1807 he was appointed to the Privy Council.

Before the war against Austria, he handed over command of his 1st division to Crown Prince Ludwig on April 1, 1809 and received the 3rd division . On April 14, 1809, he advanced to Landshut , which was occupied by strong Austrian troops on April 15. Deroy set up his corps on either side of a bridge over the Isar, where only a frontal attack was possible. After a heavy battle, evading the fight, he stood behind the heights near Weihmichl to fight, attacked the following Austrians with all his might and inflicted such significant losses on them that they retreated behind Pfettrach . On April 17, 1809, he reached Siegenburg and on April 19, he took up position as a reserve for the Bavarian Army near Abensberg . Deployed on the right wing of the Grande Army, Deroy fought happily and successfully in the battles near Schierling (April 21, 1809) and Eggmühl (April 22, 1809). By the beginning of May 1809, the Bavarian Army relocated in front of Tyrol and attacked the Kufstein Fortress , which he knew how to use with great skill. Advancing via Schwaz to Innsbruck , Tyrol seemed subjugated and Deroy was given the task of keeping the country under control with the Bavarian troops as the occupying power. For this purpose, he set up with his troops in Innsbruck and tried to keep in touch with the troops located near Mittenwald , which, however, were not available due to the campaign against Vienna . On May 29, 1809, the allied Austrians and Tyroleans attacked on all fronts and inflicted heavy losses on the Bavarian troops, but Deroy was able to hold the positions. After ammunition and food had been used up, he retreated to Kufstein on the night of May 30, 1809 , which he reached the following day. From Wolfratshausen he went over to the counterattack and restored the starting position of May. At the beginning of August 1809 he again successfully defended his positions near Innsbruck. On August 13, 1809, he was again exposed to a far superior enemy and, after ammunition and provisions were running low, had to retreat via Schwaz to Kufstein. On October 16, 1809, he finally began the successful subjugation of Tyrol. After taking over the general command in Munich, Deroy was appointed general of the infantry on January 1, 1811 .

Deroy coat of arms

In the Russian campaign in 1812 Deroy commanded the 19th Division of VI. Corps under de Gouvion St.-Cyr , with whom he arrived at Płock on the Vistula in April 1812 . Not only Prince Eugene (made Duke of Leuchtenberg in 1817 ) praised General Deroy with the Bavarian contingent after an army show for his discipline, attitude and skill in weapons, where serious grievances had broken down in the armies of other nations due to illness, desertion and other evils. While translating across the Nyemen , Napoleon inspected the Bavarian Corps and he too recognized the good attitude of the Bavarians and their general. Led by Napoleon personally Bavarian contingent was ordered after August 5, Polotsk advance, where he arrived on August 7. By August 17, the Bavarian corps had melted from 13,000 men due to illnesses and deprivation to 5,000 men under arms and was used as a reserve at the First Battle of Polatsk . The next day Deroy occupied spas and positioned his troops along the Polota . From there he attacked in the morning and soon threw back the enemy outposts, but was so covered by cavalry and artillery that he had to evade to spas. He recognized the danger of bypassing and had the 4th Line Infantry Regiment , which had just arrived , march on a hill, where the Russian army immediately brought it to a standstill with combined battalion fire. Deroy saw the opportunity to defeat the enemy and attacked with bayonets erected. While chasing the fleeing Russians, a musket ball hit him in the abdomen. Despite his mortal wound, he still gave the decisive orders and only let himself be carried off the battlefield when he thought the victory was decided. On August 23, 1812 Deroy died in the arms of his nephew Ludwig von Deroy near Polotsk, where he found his final resting place in the churchyard of St. Xavier.

With an army order of December 31, 1812, King Max I Joseph approved that the earl dignity conferred by Napoleon on Deroy's deathbed was transferred to his widow and firstborn son and recognized.

Family relationships

Bernhard Erasmus von Deroy was first married to Anna Katharina von Weiler (1756–1798). With her he had only one child, namely the son:

  • Franz Xaver Ferdinand von Deroy (1778–1829) ∞ Maria Theresia Freiin von Scherer (1778–1849)

After the death of his first wife, General von Deroy married Maria Franziska Freiin von Hertling (1765–1842), whose brother Philipp von Hertling (1756–1810) was the grandfather of the future German Chancellor and Bavarian Prime Minister Georg von Hertling (1843–1919) was. There are four children from this second marriage:

Honors

Statue of Johann von Halbig in Maximilianstrasse in Munich
  • Military Medal, awarded in accordance with the Army Order of September 28, 1804
  • Grand eagle of the French Legion of Honor awarded on March 16, 1805
  • Grand Cross of the Military Max Joseph Order , awarded in accordance with the army order of March 1, 1806
  • In Munich, in 1856, a statue modeled by Johann Halbig was erected on Maximilianstrasse, which was financed by voluntary donations from active and retired officers and is still there today.
  • The Vorwerk I of the fortress Germersheim was named "Deroy-Feste" by King Ludwig I. (1842)
  • Deroystraße in Munich is named after him (until 1923 the location of the Marsfeld barracks , today the seat of the local tax office)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary for Ludwig von Deroy, in: Morgenblatt zur Bayerische Zeitung , Munich, No. 63, of March 3, 1864, page 213 of the volume; Digital scan
  2. ^ Genealogical website on Maria Franziska von Hertling
  3. ↑ Hertling, Philipp Freiherr von. Hessian biography. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
  4. ↑ Genealogical website for Hortense Henriette Sophie Amélie de Tascher de La Pagerie
personal data
SURNAME Deroy, Bernhard Erasmus von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German general in the Bavarian Army
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1743
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim
DATE OF DEATH August 23, 1812
Place of death Polotsk