HESS, HEINRICH HERMANN JOSEF, FREIHERR VON (1788-1870), Austrian
soldier, entered the army in 1805 and was soon employed as a staff
officer on survey work. He distinguished himself as a subaltern at
Aspern and Wagram, and in 1813, as a captain, again served on the staff.
In 1815 he was with Schwarzenberg. He had in the interval between the
two wars been employed as a military commissioner in Piedmont, and at
the peace resumed this post, gaining knowledge which later proved
invaluable to the Austrian army. In 1831, when Radetzky became
commander-in-chief in Austrian Italy, he took Hess as his
chief-of-staff, and thus began the connexion between two famous soldiers
which, like that of Blucher and Gneisenau, is a classical example of
harmonious co-operation of commander and chief-of-staff. Hess put into
shape Radetzky's military ideas, in the form of new drill for each arm,
and, under their guidance, the Austrian army in North Italy, always on a
war footing, became the best in Europe. From 1834 to 1848 Hess was
employed in Moravia, at Vienna, &c., but, on the outbreak of revolution
and war in the latter year, was at once sent out to Radetzky as
chief-of-staff. In the two campaigns against King Charles Albert which
followed, culminating in the victory of Novara, Hess's assistance to his
chief was made still more valuable by his knowledge of the enemy, and
the old field-marshal acknowledged his services in general orders.
Lieut.-Fieldmarshal Hess was at once promoted _Feldzeugmeister_, made a
member of the emperor's council, and _Freiherr_, assuming at the same
time the duties of the quartermaster-general. Next year he became chief
of the staff to the emperor. He was often employed in missions to
various capitals, and he appeared in the field in 1854 at the head of
the Austrian army which intervened so effectually in the Crimean war. In
1859 he was sent to Italy after the early defeats. He became
field-marshal in 1860, and a year later, on resigning his position as
chief-of-staff, he was made captain of the Trabant guard. He died in
Vienna in 1870.
See "General Hess" in _Lebensgeschichtlichen Hinrissen_ (Vienna,
1855).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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