Karl Mack von Lieberich

Karl Freiherr Mack von Leiberich ( August 25 , 1752 - December 22 , 1828 ), Austrian soldier, was born at Nenslingen, in Bavaria .

In 1770 he joined an Austrian cavalry regiment, in which his uncle, Leiberich, was asquadron commander, becoming an officer seven years later. During the brief war of the Bavarian Succession he was selected forservice on the staff of Count Kinsky , under whom, and subsequently under thecomniander-in-chief Field Marshal Count Lacy , hedid excellent work. He was promoted first lieutenant in 1778, and captain on the quartermaster-general's staff in 1783. CountLacy, then the foremost soldier of the Austrian army, had the highest opinion of his young assistant. In 1785 Mack marriedKatherine Gabrieul, and was ennobled under the name of Mack von Leiberich.

In the Turkish war he was employed on the headquarter staff, becoming in 1788 major and personal aide-de-camp to the emperor,and in 1789 lieutenantcolonel. He distinguished himself greatly in the storming of Belgrade . Shortly after this, disagreements between Mack and Loudon , now commander-in-chief, led to the former's demanding a court-martial andleaving the front. He was, however, given a colonelcy (1789) and the order of Maria Theresa, and in 1790 Loudon and Mack, havingbecome reconciled, were again on the field together. During these campaigns Mack received a severe injury to his head, from whichhe never fully recovered. In 1793 he was made quartermaster-general (chief of staff) to Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg, commandingin the Netherlands ; and he enhanced his reputation by the ensuingcampaign. The young Archduke Charles , who won his own first laurelsin the action of March 1 , 1793 , wrote after thebattle, "Above all we have to thank Colonel Mack for these successes."

Mack distinguished himself again on the field of Neerwinden ; and had a leading part in the negotiations between Coburg and Dumouriez . He continued to serve asquartermaster-general, and was now made titular chief (Inhaber) of a cuirassier regiment. He received a wound at Famars,but in 1794 was once more engaged, having at last been made a major-general. But the failure of the allies, due though it was topolitical and military factors and ideas, over which Mack had no control, was ascribed to him, as their successes of March-April1793 had been, and he fell into disfavour in consequence. In 1797 he was promotedlieutenant field marshal, and in the following year he accepted, at the personal request of the emperor, the command of theNeapolitan army. But with the unpromising material of his new command he could do nothing against the French revolutionarytroops, and before long, being in actual danger of being murdered by his men, he took refuge in the French camp. He was promiseda free pass to his own country, but Napoleon ordered that he should be sent toFrance as a prisoner of war.

Two years later he escaped from Paris in disguise. The allegation that he broke hisparole is false. He was not employed for some years, but in 1804 , when the war party in theAustrian court needed a general to oppose the peace policy of the Archduke Charles, Mack was made quartermaster-general of thearmy, with instructions to prepare for a war with France. He did all that was possible within the available time to reform thearmy, and on the opening of the war of 1805 he was made quartermaster-general to the titular commander-in-chief in Germany, the Archduke Ferdinand . He was the real responsible commander ofthe army which opposed Napoleon in Bavaria, but his position was ill-defined and his authority treated with slight respect by theother general officers. For the events of the Ulm campaign and an estimate of Mack'sresponsibility for the disaster. After Austerlitz, Mack was tried by a court-martial, sitting from February 1806 to June 1807,and sentenced to be deprived of his rank, his regiment, and the order of Maria Theresa, and to be imprisoned for two years. Hewas released in 1808, and in 1819, when the ultimate victory of the allies had obliterated the memory of earlier disasters, hewas, at the request of Prince Schwarzenberg , reinstated in the army as lieutenant field marshal and a memberof the order of Maria Theresa.

See Schweigerd, Oesterreichs Helden (Vienna, 1854); Würzbach, Biogr. Lexikon d. Kaiserthums Oesterr.(Vienna, 1867); Ritter von Rittersberg, Biogr. d. ausgezeichneten Feldherren d. oest. Armee (Prague, 1828); Raumer 's Hist. Taschenbuch(1873) contains Mack's vindication. A short critical memoir will be found in Streffleur for January 1907.

Reference

• This entry incorporates public domain text originally from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica .