Johann von Klenau
Austrian General of Cavalry in Napoleonic Wars
Died when: 61 years 176 days (737 months)Star Sign: Aries
Johann Josef Cajetan Graf von Klenau, Freiherr von Janowitz (Czech: Jan hrabě z Klenové, svobodný pán z Janovic; 13 April 1758 – 6 October 1819) was a field marshal in the Habsburg army.
Klenau, the son of a Bohemian noble, joined the Habsburg military as a teenager and fought in the War of Bavarian Succession against Prussia, Austria's wars with the Ottoman Empire, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars, in which he commanded a corps in several important battles.
In the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars, Klenau distinguished himself at the Wissembourg lines, and led a battle-winning charge at Handschuhsheim in 1795.
As commander of the Coalition's left flank in the Adige campaign in northern Italy in 1799, he was instrumental in isolating the French-held fortresses on the Po River by organizing and supporting a peasant uprising in the countryside.
Afterward, Klenau became the youngest lieutenant field marshal in the history of the Habsburg military.As a corps commander, Klenau led key elements of the Austrian army in its victory at Aspern-Esslingen and its defeat at Wagram, where his troops covered the retreat of the main Austrian force.
He commanded the IV Corps at the 1813 Battle of Dresden and again at the Battle of Nations at Leipzig, where he prevented the French from outflanking the main Austrian force on the first day of the engagement.
After the Battle of Nations, Klenau organized and implemented the successful Dresden blockade and negotiated the French capitulation there.In the 1814–15 campaign, he commanded the Corps Klenau of the Army of Italy.
After the war in 1815, Klenau was appointed commanding general in Moravia and Silesia.He died in 1819.