Thomas Friedrich von Zobel

Thomas Friedrich Freiherr von Zobel-Giebelstadt. Lithograph by Eduard Kaiser , around 1855.

Thomas Friedrich Freiherr Zobel von Giebelstadt and Darstadt (born March 17, 1799 in Bremen , † July 12, 1869 in Villach ) was an Austrian Lieutenant Field Marshal and knight of the Maria Theresa Order .

Life

origin

He was the son of the Bavarian Major General Johann Philipp Zobel (* February 24, 1768, † July 22, 1850) and Anna Evans d'Urell (* 1770, † January 13, 1863), daughter of the English Colonel Sir Thomas Evans d ' Urell.

Military career

At the age of 14 he joined the Imperial and Royal Infantry Regiment Heinrich Fürst Greiz No. 18 as a cadet at the end of November 1813 . He became first lieutenant in 1814 and transferred to Count Colloredo No. 33 Infantry Regiment . In 1814 he waged the war of liberation in the headquarters of Prince Heinrich XIII. Reuss-Greiz and in 1815 that of Archduke Ferdinand von Este . At the beginning of July 1815 he was involved in the demolition of Schlettstadt in Alsace .

After the uprising in Naples in 1821, he followed the advance of the Corps Frimont into southern Italy and took part in the bombardment of the mountain fortress Pescara in Abruzzo as part of the division of Field Marshal Lieutenant Count Wallmoden . In 1829 he was promoted to captain in the Paumgartten Infantry Regiment No. 21 . In March 1831 he fought against Italian insurgents in the battle near San Ambrogio on the Penaro on the aid train for the Pope in Romagna . In March 1836 he rose to major in the Kaiserjäger regiment , where he was promoted to colonel in 1846 .

Knight's Cross of the Military Maria Theresa Order

In the Italian War of 1848 he was the leader of the Kaiserjäger regiment, which secured Melegnano on March 23 and terrified Mantua . In April he was ordered to South Tyrol , where he fought the Italian insurgents in the Trento area , on April 30th he fought with Pastrengo and on May 28th with Bardolino . On June 10, his troops held the Rivoli plateau for several hours against an enemy superiority before they reached the orderly retreat via Spiari and Groara with successful skirmishes. He then took over a brigade in Vorarlberg in the area of ​​the IV Corps. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Leopold and was made a Knight of the Order of Maria Theresa on November 27, 1848 . In the following campaign of 1849 his brigade took part in the storming of the Sesia Bridge near Vercelli . He was appointed major general on April 30, 1849 and took command of the fortified garrison of Verona . On May 12, 1853 he was promoted to field marshal lieutenant.

Ten years later, Zobel commanded the VII Army Corps in the campaign of 1859. His troops fought in the Battle of Palestro (May 31) and on June 4 in the Battle of Magenta . In the battle of Solferino (June 24th) his troops held out successfully in the center near Cavriana for several hours before succumbing to the French troops . In 1859 he became the interim owner of the Grand Duke Alexander No. 61 infantry regiment . In 1863 and 1864 he was sent to Copenhagen and Berlin for diplomatic missions and on March 23, 1864 he was discharged from the army. He retired to Gorizia and died at the age of 70 during a cure in Villach .

family

Zobel had married Emily Karoline (born July 26, 1816) on July 8, 1843, daughter of the English Colonel Tobias Kirkwood of Castletown.

They had two children:

• Aimée (born March 2, 1844)
• Henriette (born April 12, 1846)

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Zobel von Giebelstadt and Darstadt, Thomas Friedrich Freiherr . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 60th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1891, p. 212 ( digitized version ).