Heinrich von Porbeck (1771-1809)
Command Ratings
Heinrich Philipp Reinhard von Porbeck was born on 15 October 1771 in Cassel and received his early education at the family estate Groß-Englis (Kalbsburg) by private tutors. On 9 October 1787 he entered the military as Fahnenjunker in the garde regiment of the Landgraf von Hessen-Kassel. He was promoted to Fähnrich in 1790 and in 1792 was appointed Adjutant to the Generallieutenant von Wurmb. In this capacity he served on the general staff in the campaigns against Revolutionary France and took part in the operations of the Hessian contingent and its attachments to successive army commands through 1795. He was promoted within the Hessian general staff to Quartiermeisterleutnant in 1797 and by 1801 held the rank of Premierleutnant while serving as Inspections-Adjutant at Marburg.
Following the wars of the 1790s Porbeck turned to military writing and criticism. He published the two-volume Kritische Geschichte der Operationen, welche die Englisch-combinirte Armee zur Vertheidigung von Holland in den Jahren 1794 und 1795 ausgeführt hat (Braunschweig, erster Teil 1802, zweiter Teil 1804). From 1798 he contributed to the Neue militärische Journal and in 1802 became editor and publisher of the periodical Neue Bellona oder Beiträge zur Kriegsgeschichte und Kriegskunst, which appeared in Leipzig and produced ten volumes before 1806. His published criticisms and accounts of the campaigns of the mid-1790s drew responses from contemporaries and entered him visibly into the professional military discourse of the period.
Seeking broader military employment, Porbeck entered the service of the Kurfürst und später Großherzog von Baden in 1803. He took up Badenese service initially as Kapitän and Flügeladjutant and on 27 September 1803 became a member of the badische Kriegsministerium and of a commission charged with reforming the organization of the new state army. He was promoted to Major on 12 May 1804. On 4 October 1805 he was appointed Generaladjutant, and on 28 October 1805 he received promotion to Oberstleutnant with the command of the newly constituted Leib-Grenadier-Garde. In June 1807 Porbeck led that guard battalion, with an additional infantry battalion, a squadron and a half-battery, when Baden supplied troops as part of the corps sent to Pomerania to secure the French lines against possible Swedish operations. In that deployment he served under the command of Marshal Brune and took part in the operations around Stralsund; after the arrival of General von Cloßmann with a badische Division from Danzig the fortress surrendered on 22 August 1807, whereupon Porbeck returned to Baden.
On 27 January 1808, after Markgraf Ludwig relinquished the direct conduct of military organization in Baden, Porbeck was named Chef des Generalstabes. He occupied that post only briefly: at Napoleon's insistence the supreme direction of Baden's military affairs was transferred to General von Geusau, and Porbeck was reassigned to field command. He was thereafter charged with forming and commanding the infantry regiment and the attached battery that Baden was to furnish for service on the Iberian Peninsula. That task required melding companies drawn from two different parent units into a single field regiment and preparing it for campaign service; contemporary observers and later official accounts record that Porbeck imposed discipline and regimental order across the newly constituted force. When Napoleon intervened in matters of officer appointment in the contingent, Porbeck is recorded as having publicly preserved the authority of his sovereign: on one occasion, when the emperor announced directly to certain subordinates "Je vous nomme officiers," Porbeck translated the bestowal in the name of his ruler: "Im Namen Seiner königlichen Hoheit des Großherzogs von Baden ernenne ich Sie zu Officieren."
In August 1808 Porbeck received appointment as Generalmajor and was designated commander of the badische Kontingent attached to the IV. Corps of Marshal François-Joseph Lefebvre. Within the division of General Leval (Lewal) the Baden units, together with Nassau contingents, formed the 1. Brigade which Porbeck led in operations in northern Spain. On 31 October 1808 he commanded the brigade at the action near Zornoza (Zornossa). On 18 November 1808 his brigade fought at Valmaseda (Valmaseda/Balmaseda). In December 1808 Porbeck's brigade participated in the entry of French and allied forces into Madrid.
In mid-February 1809 Porbeck's command moved with Marshal Victor to the province of Estremadura. On 19 March 1809 he is recorded as taking part in the combat referred to in contemporary Badenese and French reports as the Gefecht bei Val de Cannas; on 28 March 1809 he was present and engaged with his brigade at the Schlacht bei Medellín. Following Medellín Porbeck led his brigade in a series of expeditionary operations into La Mancha and the Sierra Morena; Badenese accounts note these movements as ephemeral detachments and foraging and security operations carried out in concert with Victor's corps while the campaign in Extremadura continued.
During the summer of 1809 the Baden contingent remained in the theatre of operations confronting the Anglo-Portuguese forces advancing from Portugal. On 28 July 1809, in the battle fought at Talavera de la Reina, Porbeck's division was ordered about midday to attack the English centre commanded by General Campbell. Porbeck led his regiment in a bayonet charge against the positions in the centre. While leading that attack he was struck by a ball and killed. Contemporary reports and later Badenese notices record that at the moment he fell he wore about his neck the military decoration bearing the inscription "Für Badens Ehre." Badenese correspondence from the immediate aftermath records that news of a promotion had been forwarded on Napoleon's recommendation, and that the notification of his appointment to the higher rank arrived only after his death.
Porbeck's private life is recorded in surviving registers: he married Amalie Bornemann on 29 August 1798 and the couple had children, including Friedrich Ernst Heinrich (born 1802). His published works and editorships—above all the Kritische Geschichte der Operationen (1802–1804) and the editorial production Neue Bellona (which appeared in multiple volumes between 1802 and 1806)—are entered in library catalogues and in national person registers, and his name appears in the personnel files and biographical lexica of Baden and Hessen. Official Badenese service records and contemporary memorial notices list his sequence of appointments and the dates of promotion from his arrival in Badenese service in 1803 through his elevation to field command for the 1808–1809 Iberian campaign. He died on 28 July 1809 at Talavera de la Reina while leading the Baden contingent in action.
Sources
X 09 Talavera (KIA)