Josef Freiherr von Smola (12 June 1764 in Teplice – 29 November 1820 in Vienna) was a (commissioned) officer and holder of the Knight's and Commander's Crosses of the Order of Maria Theresa.

Life

He joined the army as an artillery gunner in 1780. He was awarded the rank of lieutenant in 1786. In the war against the Turks, he significantly participated in the siege of the towns of Sabac and

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

. He became famous for fundamental improvement in artillery organization in Flanders in 1790. In 1792 he took part in the crusade against France, among others, in the

battle of Jemappes The Battle of Jemappes (6 November 1792) took place near the town of Jemappes in Hainaut, Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium), near Mons during the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. One of the first major off ...

. In 1793 he took charge of Archduke Charles horse battery command. Subsequently, he won at the

battle of Neerwiden A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and fo ...

and he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Maria Theresa for this victory. He was badly wounded at the battle of Fleurus in 1794. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1796 for key help during the defence of Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. He was badly wounded at Meßkirch for the second time in 1800. Then he continued as Major in the Czech Legion. In 1805 he battled in Italy. In 1809 he led the 3rd Army Corps already as colonel in

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

. He was awarded the second Cross of the Order of Maria Theresa, this time the Commander's one, and promoted to major general. He was not, however, only a commander, but also an engineer and an author of many innovations in the artillery. One of the famous ones was, for example, wall gun-mounting in 1807. He was married to Mary Smola, Baroness of Häring (1771–1807). His two sons Josef von Smola Jr. and

Karl von Smola Karl Freiherr von Smola (15 November 1802 in České Budějovice - 14 February 1862 in Štýrský Hradec) was an Austrian officer. Life His father was Josef von Smola (1764–1820), officer and holder of the Knight´s Cross of the Military Or ...

were also officers. The last living descendants being Miloslav von Smola (* 29 August 1949 in Prague) and Miloslav von Smola (* 6 January 1986 in Prague), both currently living in the Czech Republic.

References

* Constantin von Wurzbach: ''Smola, Joseph Freiherr von.'' un "''Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich", volume'' 35, published by L. C. Zamarski, Wien 1877, pp. 186–189. * A. Schmidt-Brentano: ''Smola, Josef d. Ä. Frh. von''. in "''Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950'' (ÖBL)", volume 12, published by Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 2001–2005, (direct links to pp
372

373
. {{DEFAULTSORT:Smola, Josef 1764 births 1820 deaths Commanders Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa People from the Holy Roman Empire