Francesca Scanagatta

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Francesca Scanagatta

Francesca Scanagatta (born August 1, 1776 in Milan , † 1865 ibid), also Franziska Scanagatta , was an Austrian officer . As one of the many cases in which a woman did her military service as a man , her case is one of the best-documented, according to historian Nikolaus Reisinger .

18th century female soldier

Francesca Scanagatta was the only graduate of the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt between its founding in 1751 and 2003, when four female officers were retired for the first time. She "sneaked out" her training at the military academy. Since she lived outside the academy, her camouflage was not noticed. After her promotion to lieutenant, Scanagatta gave up her military career in 1801 without her identity being revealed. When Emperor Franz II finally found out about it, he still granted her the pension.

Life

In 1794 her father wanted to place her brother Giacomo at the military academy in Wiener Neustadt and she herself in a Viennese convent school. Giacomo confessed to his sister that he had no desire to become a soldier. “But this fraternal confession brought to fruition the bold decision in Francesca's adventurous mind to enter the military academy instead of her brother” (Brosch). A series of lucky coincidences made her plan easier. The siblings traveled under the care of a secretary who had no idea that one of the two "brothers" was a girl in disguise. As an external frequentant, she was able to take quarters with the senior physician of the academy and did not have to live with her comrades, so that it was easier for her to maintain her incognito. She succeeded in doing this with the help of all her cunning and determination during the entire academy period. In January 1797 she was retired as a second lieutenant for the Warasdin Border Infantry Regiment No. 6. As a platoon commander, she took part in the campaign of 1797 and did very well. In 1798 she was transferred to the 56th Infantry Regiment in Galicia , where she barely escaped the danger of being recognized as a girl and then went back to war. She took part in the siege of Genoa with the 12th Border Infantry Regiment, stood out for her particular bravery in defending the Barba outpost and was seriously wounded in the process. This time, too, she barely escaped the danger of being discovered. On March 1, 1800, she was promoted to lieutenant and proudly visited her parents in Milan . These succeeded - with reference to the health risk of constricting her chest - to persuade her to end her military career. Her father obtained an indefinite leave of absence from General der Kavallerie Melas and finally, in 1801, he was retired with a lieutenant's pension. Three years later she married a former Neustadt academic, who had meanwhile found out that his former classmate was a girl. "After more than twenty years of marriage, her husband died as a major and she was the only person in Austria who, by imperial decree, received both the widow's pension of the major and the rest enjoyment of a lieutenant" (Brosch). She always remained devoted to the army and when it had to temporarily evacuate Milan in 1848, she devotedly cared for the wounded who stayed behind. On the centenary of the Theresian Military Academy in 1852, she sent her “most obedient congratulations” and signed “Franz Scanagatta, Lieutenant, Major Spini Widow”. This letter is still in the Museum of the Military Academy today. Francesca Scanagatta was able to experience that her eldest grandson entered Wiener Neustadt as a military academic before she died in her hometown of Milan.

Francesca Scanagatta's motto

Una verace risoluta virtù non trova impresa impossibile a lei. "

(Nothing is impossible to truly determined fortitude).

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. A woman as a "fake officer" on ORF from February 3, 2019, accessed on February 3, 2019