Years of service 1757(?) – 1799 | Name Olivier, of | |
Born October 1, 1742Vienna, Austria ( 1742-10-01 ) Rank Feldzeugmeister (General of Infantry)Vice Director General of Artillery, February 1792 – June 1799 Battles/wars Austro-Turkish War (1787–1791)French Revolutionary Wars | ||
Oliver Remigius, Count von Wallis Baron von Carrighmain, the scion of a distinguished Irish family in Austrian military service, served in Austria's wars with the Ottoman Empire (1787–1791), and in the French Revolutionary Wars (1791–1800). He died of wounds received in action at the First Battle of Zürich.
Contents
Family and youth
Oliver Remigius was born on 1 October 1742 into an Irish emigrant family living in the Habsburg empire. During the 17th century, laws introduced in Ireland limited, and eventually removed, authority from the Catholic aristocracy, preventing Catholics from inheriting land, sitting in Parliament, and holding office. Many immigrated to Central Europe and sought service in the Habsburg military. One ancestor, Richard Wallis, or Walsh, as he had been known in Ireland, emigrated with his family in 1612, and was a colonel in the Habsburg military. He was killed at the Battle of Lützen in 1632. Another ancestor of Oliver Remigius, George Olivier, Count von Wallis (son of Richard), also served in the Habsburg military during the Thirty Years War under Wallenstein.
Wallis and his older brother Michael Johann Ignaz were both intended for military service. As a young man, Wallis entered his father's regiment, the 11th Infantry, and from 1769–1777, he commanded it. On 26 November 1777, he was promoted to major general. In the wars against the Turks (1787–92) he served under Field Marshal Ernst Gideon von Laudon and, later, Count von Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt. In 1787, he was promoted to Feldmarschall-leutnant, and in 1791, as Colonel-Proprietor of the 29th Infantry Regiment, which bore his name until 1802.
French Revolutionary Wars
In the 1792 campaign of the War of the First Coalition, Wallis commanded a mixed division in the corps of Friedrich Wilhelm, Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Kirchberg on the upper Rhine and the Moselle, stationed on the Rhine river between Basel and Strassburg. On 21 May 1794, he received his promotion to Feldzeugmeister, or Field Marshal of Artillery. In late 1795, he was transferred to northern Italy. On 22 November, he assumed command of the Army of Lombardy from Joseph Nikolaus De Vins, on the eve of the Battle of Loano. On 24 November, he lost all his artillery and wagon train in the clash of San Giacomo. In April 1796, he was relieved of his command of the Austrian army in Lombardy by Johann Peter Beaulieu.
In 1798, Wallis was commanding General of Venetia. The following year, during the War of the Second Coalition, he commanded part of the Habsburg army in Swabia under Archduke Charles. He led the third column in its assault on the French positions in the Austrian victory over General of Division Jordan's Army of the Danube at the Battle of Ostrach on 21 March. A week later, and in the French defeat at Stockach on 25 March, he commanded the right wing. From 14–25 April, while Archduke Charles was indisposed, Wallis assumed command of the main Austrian army quartered on the shore of the Rhine River. A few weeks later, he commanded the reserve in the First Battle of Zürich on 4 June, where General of Division André Masséna, now commanding the Army of the Danube and the Army of Switzerland, was defeated and forced to withdraw across the Limmat river. During the battle, Wallis led five battalions of grenadiers in storming the French positions on Mount Zürich. He was badly wounded, and died five weeks later, on 19 July 1799.