Wikipedia:Today's featured article/May 3, 2010

Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg (1760–1799) was a soldier in the Austrian service. He achieved the rank of Field Marshal, and died at the Battle of Stockach. The third son of a cadet branch of the Fürstenberg, at his birth his chances of inheriting the family title of Fürst zu Fürstenberg were slight; he was prepared instead for a military career, and a tutor was hired to teach him the military sciences. He entered Habsburg military in 1777, at the age of seventeen years, and was a member of the field army in the short War of the Bavarian Succession. His career progressed steadily during the Habsburg War with the Ottoman Empire. During the French Revolutionary Wars, he fought with distinction again for the First Coalition, particularly at Ketsch and Frœschwiller. He was stationed at key points to protect the movements of the Austrian army. With a force of 10,000, he defended the German Rhineland at Kehl, and reversed a bayonet assault by French troops at Bellheim; his troops also overran Speyer without any losses. By the end of the War of the First Coalition, at the age of 35, he had achieved the rank of Field Marshal. During the War of the Second Coalition, he fought in the first two battles of the German campaign, at Ostrach, 21 March 1799, and at the Battle of Stockach, 25 March 1799. At the latter, while leading a regiment of grenadiers, he was hit with French case shot and knocked off his horse. He died shortly afterward. (more...)

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