Gustav von Erbach-Schönberg

This article deals with the officer Gustav von Erbach-Schönberg. For other people see Gustav Ernst zu Erbach-Schönberg .

Count Gustav von Erbach-Schönberg (born March 18, 1791 in the Zwingenberg castle in Zwingenberg (Bergstrasse) ; † October 16 or 18, 1813 in Stötteritz near Leipzig ) was an officer in French service with the rank of lieutenant and the only member of the house Erbach , who received the highest French award, the Legion of Honor .

Early years

Graf Gustav was the fifth child of the Prussian Major General Gustav Ernst Graf zu Erbach-Schönberg and Henriette Christiana Countess zu Stolberg-Stolberg. As an adolescent, he initially served in the Austrian army. In 1806 the county of Erbach fell to Hesse , whereupon he became an officer in the Hessian service. In this capacity his unit became part of the Napoleonic Army. He then served as an orderly officer for the then French General Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr and later for General Louis Jean Desaix de Veygoux . Erbach-Schönberg also fought in the Battle of Wagram .

Napoleon's Russian campaign

Erbach-Schönberg took part in Napoleon's Russian campaign and reached Moscow , while retreating he fought in the Battle of Krasnoye . At the battle of the Beresina he was assigned as an orderly officer for Napoleon himself. Although he survived the battle and had already succeeded in crossing the river, he received the order to cross the Berezina again against the direction of the fleeing French and to deliver an order from Napoleon to rear French units. Erbach-Schönberg carried out the order, after which he succeeded in crossing the Beresina again. He was awarded the Legion of Honor for his courage and bravery . On December 8, 1812, he reached Wilna together with the remnants of the Hessian Corps. On January 5, 1813, he arrived in Elbing . There he met the Hessian commandant Prince Emil von Hessen , but three fingers of his right hand had to be amputated because of frostbite. He reached Darmstadt on January 23, 1813, together with Colonel August Ludwig von Wittgenstein . The Grand Duke Ludwig awarded him the Knight's Cross 1st Class of the Hessian Order of Ludwig .

1813

After Napoleon's return, he called Erbach-Schönberg again as an officer in the French army. He became an officer in the Hessian body regiment under Marshal Jacques MacDonald . He lost his life in the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig when a cannonball hit him in the face on October 16 or 18, 1813 near Stötteritz. He was buried with other fallen soldiers in a gravel pit near Leipzig.

Erbach-Schönberg remained unmarried and had no offspring.

literature

• Friedrich Höreth: In the shadow of Napoleon: A Count of Erbach receives the cross of the Legion of Honor in: ders. History and stories from the Odenwald , ed. from the district committee of the district of Odenwald, Volume 2, Erbach 1983, p. 107 f.
• Friedrich Höreth: Supplement "Die Heimat" to the "Odenwälder Heimatzeitung, No. 5/1965
• Gustav Simon : The history of the dynasts and counts to Erbach and their country , p. 471 f.