Thiery de Vaux

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Thiery de Vaux (1748-1820)
Austrian coat of arms
Freiherr von Vaux

Chevalier (from 1792 Freiherr) Thiery de Vaux (born June 4, 1748 in Petit-Failly , † April 4, 1820 in Vienna ) was an Austrian field military officer.

Life

He comes from an old Norman family from Lorraine and attended the engineering school in Sedan and was accepted as a cadet in the Austrian engineering corps on September 20, 1768. In 1773 he became a second lieutenant and in 1778 a first lieutenant. He was a participant in the War of the Bavarian Succession, where he distinguished himself at Mösskirch by building the entrenchments there so skillfully that the Prussian troops had to withdraw on January 10, 1779. This was rewarded on June 19, 1779 with his promotion to staff captain (captain-lieutenant). After the peace agreement, he was assigned to expand the Theresienstadt fortress . There he became a captain on September 27, 1780.

With the outbreak of the Turkish War in 1788 he was transferred to Prince Karl von Liechtenstein in Croatia . Under Colonel von Lauer he was involved in the siege of Turkish Dubiza . As of August 26, 1788, the fortress falls. De Vaux is in the hospital, hit by a bullet in his right arm. He was promoted to major for his bravery during the siege and was already back at the siege of Berbir from June 22nd to July 9th. During the siege of Belgrade in 1789 , panic occurs during a counterattack by the Turks, De Vaux is wounded again in the right arm, but is able to organize the resistance and stop the attack. For this he was rewarded in 1789 with the Knight's Cross of the Maria Theresa Order and on October 15, 1792 with the title of Baron.

After Belgrade, he led the siege of the Turkish Czettin fortress , where he was one of the first in the breach . From here he was transferred to Prague as (Local Genius Director) .

When the first coalition war broke out in 1792 , the Austrians under Prince Hohenlohe-Kirchberg tried to drive the revolutionary troops out of Thionville if de Vaux was to organize the siege, but his legs were severely injured by splinters on September 5, 1792, from which he went up to December, however, recovered. He then works on the fortification of Trier through entrenchments between the Saar and Moselle. The French general Beurnonville had to tighten again. He was involved in the blockade of Valenciennes and on June 25, 1773 even led the storm on the outbuildings. He then fought at Le Quesnoy , the Battle of Saultain , Famars and Wattignies, and the blockade of Maubeuge . For his services he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on August 15, 1793.

In 1794 he was commissioned to improve the defense of Flanders. So he drafted a plan for entrenchments at Ostend and Nieuwpoort . On April 15th, the Allies rallied to drive the French Army out of Landrecies and the Sambre .

In the following battles of Tournai , Charleroi and Fleurus he was able to distinguish himself again. But after the catastrophic defeat in Fleurus, the Austrian Field Marshal Josias von Sachsen-Coburg had to withdraw from Belgium. And De Vaux was assigned to the Jülich Fortress to bring the facilities up to date. In autumn 1795 he was commissioned to blow up the French bridgehead in Neuwied . He attacked the Brückenschanze and was able to force a French unit twice as strong to withdraw on November 1, 1794. He also designed the fortifications that were used for the siege of Mannheim. The commanding General Montaigu surrendered with 9,000 men on November 23, 1795. He was then allowed to design the Austrian camp near Mainz. On May 15, 1796 he was promoted to colonel. He was assigned to Kehl and was an engineer colonel there until Kehl fell . He was shot in the face during the siege. After the French had withdrawn from the right bank of the Rhine, Vaux was ordered back to Vienna and became head of the field genius directorate of the Italian army. He was commissioned to build some fortresses.

With the Second Coalition War he was named major general on November 18, 1799. As such, he fought on May 3, 1800 in the Battle of Engen. On July 5th he became the commander of the troops on the lower Inn , then on the whole Inn, but on August 10th, 1800 he was dispatched to Tyrol to repair the fortresses there. But in September he was ordered back to Germany. He was appointed field genius director in Germany by the Kaiser and took part in the battles of Hohenlinden and Salzburg . After the end of the war in 1801 he was appointed to the post of chief genius. In particular, the fortifications in Tyrol had to be renewed. On August 18, 1801, he was also raised to the command of the Maria Theresa Order.

When it came to the Third Coalition War in 1805 , he became Field Genius Director in Italy. After the rapid defeat of Austria and the conclusion of peace, Vaux was ordered to Vienna to the emperor, from where he accompanied the emperor on trips. On December 31, 1806 he received Infantry Regiment No. 45 from the Kaiser and on May 2, 1807 he was made a Lieutenant Field Marshal . On February 20, 1809 he received the position of field genius prodirector of the army (deputy head of the engineering corps).

During the Fifth Coalition War he was captured during the capitulation of Vienna, was initially released to Vienna on his word of honor and later exchanged for the Bavarian Lieutenant General Kenkel. In 1810 he received the 25th Infantry Regiment, as the 45th Infantry Regiment was disbanded due to the handover of the military district to Bavaria. On September 6, 1813 he was still Feldzeugmeister and on June 28, 1817 privy councilor. He died on April 4, 1820.

family

He was married to Thérèse Verbeck du Château since 1798 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jaromir Hirtenfeld: The Military Maria Theresa Order and its members. Imperial Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1857, p. 1733.
  2. ^ Surrender of Mannheim in Hanauer new European newspaper 1795 (digitized version)
  3. ↑ Jaromir Hirtenfeld: The Military Maria Theresa Order and its members. Imperial Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1857, p. 1742.
personal data
SURNAME Vaux, Thiery de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Devaux, Thiery; Vaux, Karl Thiery Freiherr de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian general and fortress builder
DATE OF BIRTH June 4, 1748
PLACE OF BIRTH Petit failly
DATE OF DEATH April 4, 1820
Place of death Vienna