Đura Horvatović

General Đ. Horvatović , work by Stevan Todorović

Đura Horvatović ( Serbian Ђура Хорватовић; born January 17, 1835 in Svinjar, today Davor , Croatia ; † February 28, 1895 in Belgrade ) was a general in the Serbian army.

Baptized as a Roman Catholic as Georgius on January 29, 1835 (the usual Latin form for Đura), son of Stefan (Stephanus) Horvatović and Katarina (Catharina) born. Križanović. This suggests a Croatian ethnicity. Horvatović's father was a member of the Austrian army in Nova Gradiška .

Horvatović first entered the Austrian army and made it to the rank of first lieutenant in the campaign against Italy in 1859 .

In 1862 he joined the Serbian army, became major in 1872 and lieutenant colonel in 1875, shortly before the outbreak of the Serbian-Ottoman war . In the Battle of Knjaževac on August 4, 1876, Horvatović defeated the center of the Turkish armed forces, but could not prevent the defeat of the Serbs. On August 25th he came to the aid of General Chernayev, whom the Turks at Aleksinac were hard pressed to find; he decided the battle for the Serbs and was then appointed colonel . In the second war 1877- 78 to Horvatović proven as commander.

In 1880 he was sent to Saint Petersburg as an envoy extraordinary . In 1886 he took over the War Ministry , but resigned the following year because he was unable to implement his army reform due to the poor financial situation.

literature

• Enciklopedija Jugoslavije , 2nd edition, Volume 4, 1986