Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 46. (1998)

LUND, Erik: The generation of 1683: Habsburg General Officers and the military technical Corps, 1686–1723

The Generation of 1683

particles. 82 bore neither title nor particle, and must be assumed to be non-noble. These latter occurred at every rank up to Lieutenant Colonel, but predominantly at the lowest ranks of ensign (14), lieutenant (38), and captain (19). The fact that almost a tenth of the 169 officers had relatives either then, about to be, or very recently active in the Imperial general officer corps indicates a good overlap between the officer corps and generals10 11. It should be noted that this list excludes officers of the artillery. A casualty return for the 1739 Battle of “Krozka“ shows some important similarities; of 148 officer casualties, 50 were noble, 57 non-noble, and a total of 14, again just under a tenth, were members of military dynasties. Significantly, fully 27, or just under a fifth were counts or better, a much higher proportion of noble casualties than at Belgrade. Ethnically (and it must be noted that this is a highly uncertain estimate), it includes 92 Germans, Czechs, and Flemings, 12 French, 11 Italians, 12 Hungarians or Slavs, and 21 whose ethnic identities are uncertain. Given the sheer magnitude of the unidentified cadre, larger conclusions are drawn from this sample only with caution but they do suggest some conclusions which will be pressed below1 1. In particular the small number of Italians in both this sample and Belgrade can only partially be explained by the absence of the Italian “national“ regiments in either battle. It may be that Italian junior officers were concentrated elsewhere, for instance the Danube Flotilla, or that regimental service in the Habsburg armies had ceased to be an attractive career for Italians, at least at junior ranks12.

Technical Officers of the Army

Military historians reading this do not need to be reminded that the relationship between class, science and war, is often told in terms of a class divide separating officer corps in general and the two most frequently identified technical corps, the engineers and artillerists. Christopher Duffy’s discussion of the Habsburg technical corps, which is the closest thing the field currently has to an authoritative account, argues that the Imperial army did not train its own engineers, but rather drew them from other armies, particularly from France, and even more particularly, from among Huguenot refugees fleeing the consequences of the 1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Duffy’s discussion quite explicitly asserts a geographic correlation between military technical expertise and region of origin, asserting that Germany and Italy were no longer producing skilled military engineers13. Is there also a confessional correlation? After all, even if Duffy’s claims for the importance of the Huguenots is substantiated, the reasons may still be ones of availability rather than

10 See Feldzüge, Vol. 17, pp.417-421 and 483-487. Note that the 1723 cutoff date will result in an undercounting of generals.

11 Browne, Feldzeugmeister Johan Georg Graf: Türkenkrieg, welcher im Jahr 1737 angefangen und im Jahr 1739 mit dem Belgrader Frieden sich geendiget hat. Vol. 1-5 (Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Wien, Kriegsarchiv, Manuscripte [hereafter: Browne: Türkenkrieg, Feldzüge 1739, Appendix K. K.]).

12 11 French, 9 Italian, and 2 unidentified marine“ officers are cited in an affidavit supporting the actions of the Chevalier Beaumont (Browne: Türkenkrieg, Feldzüge 1739, Appendix E. E. E.).

13 Duffy: Fortress Warfare, p. 25; also see Duffy: Army, pp. 118-122.

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