Gustav Wilhelm Ludwig Count Wartensleben (11 October 1734 – 21 April 1798) was a Swedish nobleman active in the Dutch military. He was born in

Hesse-Kassel The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Kassel), spelled Hesse-Cassel during its entire existence, was a state in the Holy Roman Empire that was directly subject to the Emperor. The state was created in 1567 when the Lan ...

. He was the younger son of the Swedish royal house and the princely Hesse house of Schaumburg. His father was Karl Philip Christian, Count Wartensleben, and his mother was Albertine Louise, the former Baroness von Quadt and Wykradt. Initially he joined the Dutch army, but transferred his talents to the Habsburg army in 1758, commissioned as a major. He was assigned to the ''Szluiner''

Grenz Infantry Grenz infantry or Grenzers or Granichary (from german: Grenzer "border guard" or "frontiersman"; Serbo-Croatian: graničari, krajišnici, sr-cyr, граничари, крајишници, Russian Cyrillic: граничары) were light infant ...

Regiment. For his service in the

War of the Bavarian Succession The War of the Bavarian Succession (; 3 July 1778 – 13 May 1779) was a dispute between the Austrian Habsburg monarchy and an alliance of Saxony and Prussia over succession to the Electorate of Bavaria after the extinction of the Bavarian br ...

he was promoted to Colonel and Proprietor of the Infantry Regiment Nr. 28, a position he held from 1779 until his death on 21 April 1798. He received the Knights' Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa on 22 April 1790, and the Commander's Cross on 19 December. In 1794, in the

battle of Lambusart The Battle of Lambusart (16 June 1794) saw a Republican French army led by Jean Baptiste Jourdan try to cross the Sambre River against a combined Dutch and Habsburg Austrian army under William V, Hereditary Prince of Orange. This battle wa ...

, he commanded a column operating on the right flank of the army of

Prince of Orange Prince of Orange (or Princess of Orange if the holder is female) is a title originally associated with the sovereign Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France and subsequently held by sovereigns in the Netherlands. The title ...

. He commanded the autonomous force of the Lower Rhine in 1796. When his force finally joined that of

Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen Archduke Charles Louis John Joseph Laurentius of Austria, Duke of Teschen (german: link=no, Erzherzog Karl Ludwig Johann Josef Lorenz von Österreich, Herzog von Teschen; 5 September 177130 April 1847) was an Austrian field-marshal, the third s ...

in August 1796, their combined efforts inflicted the first defeat of the summer campaign on the French army, at the

Battle of Amberg The Battle of Amberg, fought on 24 August 1796, resulted in an Habsburg victory by Archduke Charles over a French army led by Jean-Baptiste Jourdan. This engagement marked a turning point in the Rhine campaign, which had previously seen Fren ...

. He was mortally wounded at the

Battle of Emmendingen At the Battle of Emmendingen, on 19 October 1796, the French Army of Rhin-et-Moselle under Jean Victor Marie Moreau fought the First Coalition Army of the Upper Rhine commanded by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen. Emmendingen is located on ...

on 19 October 1796, in which his left arm was shattered by French caseshot, and died over a year later in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

.* Constant von Wurzbach: ''Biographisches Lexikon des Kaisertums Österreich'' – 53. Band, Wien 1886, S. 11
link

References

Sources

* Constant von Wurzbach: ''Biographisches Lexikon des Kaisertums Österreich'' – 53. Band, Wien 1886,
S. 111
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wartensleben 1798 deaths 1734 births Austrian Empire military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars Military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars Austrian soldiers Austrian generals Austrian people of Swedish descent Commanders Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa