Michael from Melas

Michael from Melas

Michael Friedrich Benedikt Freiherr von Melas (born May 12, 1729 in Radeln , Transylvania , † May 31, 1806 in Elbeteinitz , Bohemia ) was an Austrian general.

Act

Von Melas joined an infantry regiment in 1746 as a cadet, took part in the Seven Years' War as an adjutant to Field Marshal Daun , and in 1781 became a colonel and commander of the Trauttmansdorff cuirassier regiment (from 1798 cuirassier regiment No. 7 "Lorraine"), which he won in the Turkish War of 1788 / 89 commanded. In September 1788 his troops covered the retreat from Lugosch to Caransebesch , on June 16, 1789 his rank was raised to major general . In 1793 he commanded a brigade in the corps of General Blankenstein against the French revolutionary armies in the Austrian Netherlands on the Sambre and rose to field marshal lieutenant in 1794 . His troops occupied Oberkail and Spangen in September 1794, won the battle near Kaiserslautern and occupied strong defensive positions near Blankenheim. On December 1, 1794, he successfully rejected an attack by General Kléber on Trier near Zahlbach and was able to achieve relief from Mainz in 1795 . He then took part in the conquest of Mannheim and worked with his troops to secure the left bank of the Rhine from the Nahe to Speyerbach . Melas came to Italy in May 1796, where under Feldzeugmeister Beaulieus he worked in vain in the relief of the fortress of Mantua . After the Battle of Borghetto and after Beaulieu was recalled (mid-June) and until Wurmser's arrival, he took over command of the Austrian reserve army in South Tyrol and was appointed Commanding General in Veneto in 1798 .

On February 3, 1799 he was promoted to general of the cavalry and appointed commander in chief of the Austrian troops in Italy. After the arrival of the Russian troops in Lombardy, he was placed under the command of Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov . The combined Austrian and Russian troops successfully fought the French troops under Moreau on the Adda on almost 100 kilometers of the front and won the battle of Cassano on April 27th . After the reconquest of Milan, the allies defeated the French army advancing from Naples under General Macdonald in the three-day battle of the Trebbia (June 1799). For his service in the Battle of Novi (August 15, 1799) Melas received the Commander's Cross of the Order of Maria Theresa and the elevation to the baron status. After Suworow had withdrawn to Switzerland against Masséna , he struck on November 4 Leading from around 35,000 Austrians, Jean-Étienne Championnet in the battle of Genola (near Fossano ) and seized the fortress of Cuneo in early December .

In the spring of 1800 he advanced to the Var , he left Field Marshal Lieutenant Ott with a siege corps of around 30,000 men in front of Genoa and advanced into Nice on May 11, 1800 . Melas achieved the surrender of the French garrison in Genoa by the beginning of June and was already preparing for a deeper incursion into Provence when a newly formed French army under Bonaparte advanced in his rear over the St. Bernhard Pass and cut off the imperial supply connections. The Austrians tried to break through to the east at Marengo on June 14th . Melas won the first place, but left the battlefield too soon, whereupon the initial victory turned into complete defeat. He then concluded the Alessandria Convention with Bonaparte , according to which he had to evacuate Italy and withdraw behind the Mincio . Soon afterwards he became the commanding general in Bohemia, retired in 1803 and died on May 31, 1806 in Elbeteinitz.

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Melas, Michael Freiherr von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 17th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1867, pp. 322–328 ( digitized version ).
• Adolf Schinzl :  Melas, Michael Friedrich Benedict Ritter von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 280-283.
• Melas . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 11, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, pp. 445–446.
• Peter Broucek :  Melas, Michael Freiherr von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 1 f. ( Digitized version ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cf. Meyers article on Cassano ( Memento of the original of September 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ See Meyers article on Novi Ligure  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ In the given source (Meyers) is (only) Genolo , but comparison z. B. with the article on Fossano  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. makes it clear that it is Genola (at Fossano).