Franz Abele von Lilienberg (1766-1861)

Freiherr Franz Maria Abele von Lilienberg (born 29 September 1766 at Szákos/Szakosch in the Temescher Banat; died 17 December 1861 at Graz) was an Austrian officer whose career began in military mapping and staff work and extended through the wars against the Ottoman Empire, Revolutionary France, and Napoleon, culminating in promotion to Feldmarschalleutnant after the Napoleonic period. He came from the noble family Abele von und zu Lilienberg. His father was Freiherr Franz de Paula Maria Kilian Johann Nepomuk Michael Abele von und zu Lilienburg, director of the Banat’s cameral estates, and his mother was Juliana (née von Litschko). He was educated at Temeswar.

He entered the Imperial army on 17 June 1783 as a Kadett in the mapping section (Mappierungsabteilung). In 1788 he transferred as a Fahnenkadett to the St. Georger Grenz-Regiment and was assigned to cadastral survey work, but with the outbreak of the war against the Ottoman Empire he joined field service. During that conflict he participated in the capture of Dubitza, served briefly as commander of a hospital at Agram, then returned to the regiment and served under Feldmarschall Gideon Ernst von Laudon at the siege of Novi Grad. In 1788 he was promoted to Fähnrich. In 1790 he was promoted to Unterleutnant with the Hungarian regiment Splenyi, and after the peace of Sistova (1791) he was posted to Transylvania.

After the declaration of war against France on 20 April 1792, he undertook a gun-transport mission carrying six guns to Valenciennes and participated in the investment of the fortress there. Following the surrender of Valenciennes in July 1793, he was wounded in an action near Douai and spent several weeks in hospital at Brussels. In the same year he took part in the sieges of Le Quesnoy and Landrecies. On 4 April 1794 he was promoted to Oberleutnant in the General Staff (Generalstab) and assigned to the corps maintaining the blockade/occupation around Maubeuge. As the army withdrew, he was attached successively to formations operating along the Maas under Feldmarschalleutnant Maximilian Baillet von Latour; then, after further withdrawal beyond the Rhine, to the corps of Feldmarschalleutnant Joseph Alvinczy von Berberek; and then to the forces operating under Feldzeugmeister Charles Joseph de Croix, comte de Clerfait and Feldmarschall Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser during the operations connected with Mannheim.

In the 1796 campaign he fought at Wetzlar and in the fighting around Würzburg, and he was present during the siege of Hüningen and the siege of Kehl. On 26 January 1797 he was promoted to Hauptmann. During the 1799 campaign he took part in the battles of Ostrach and Stockach. Later in 1799, during operations around Zürich, he was exposed to fire at close quarters but escaped injury; that year he was promoted to Major and assigned in Bohemia.

After the peace of Lunéville (1801), he returned to specialist duties: first to the cartographic section in West Galicia, and then as head of the drawing office (Zeichnungskanzlei) within the Generalquartiermeisterstab in Vienna. In 1805 he was transferred to the headquarters of Feldmarschalleutnant Karl Mack von Leiberich, where he was placed in charge of the general chancellery (Generalkanzlei). In that capacity he repeatedly warned Mack about the developing danger during the Ulm operations; the Austrian army was ultimately encircled at Ulm and forced to capitulate. After the peace of Pressburg he resumed work in Vienna, taking charge of work within the Generalquartiermeisterstab.

On 1 January 1807 he was promoted to Oberstleutnant. Shortly before the 1809 campaign’s early Major operations he was promoted to Oberst (17 March 1809). In 1813 he received promotion to Generalmajor (2 September 1813). In the autumn campaign of 1813 he is recorded leading a brigade in Major actions: at Dresden he assaulted and carried a large redoubt near the Großer Garten; at Kulm he led a cavalry attack and occupied the burning village; and during the Battle of Leipzig he captured Zuckelhausen, sustaining heavy losses while exposed to fire from four French brigades. After Leipzig he took part in the investment of Dresden, then transferred to the Army in Italy and fought in the battle on the Mincio.

After the Napoleonic wars his advancement continued in the peacetime army. In 1827 he was promoted to Feldmarschalleutnant (9 November 1827) and appointed a division commander (Divisionär) at Peterwardein. In 1830 he was appointed Inhaber (second colonel-proprietor) of Infanterie-Regiment “Erzherzog Stephan” Nr. 58, a position he held until his death. He retired from active service on 6 December 1834.

In his personal life he married Katharina Freiin von Mappes (born 2 January 1799) on 23 September 1815; they had three children. He lived in retirement first at Mainz and later moved to Graz after the death of his wife’s parents. He died at Graz on 17 December 1861.