Karl Mack

Austrian General
1752-1828

General Kark Mack learnt soldiering in Austria's campaigns against the Turks and when war with Revolutionary France broke out he took on the role of chief of staff of the emperor's army.

Mack was instrumental in getting France's General Dumouriez to defect, but ruined his reputation by being captured in 1797.

He managed to escape the French three years later and was promoted to quartermaster-general.

Unfortunately, for Mack, his reputation remains sullied by the way in which Napoleon Bonaparte surrounded him at Ulm.

Despite brave attempts at Elchingen and Haslach to break out from the French encirclement, he was eventually forced to surrender his army at Ulm.

He was sacked by the Austrian emperor Francis I and was lucky to have a death sentence reduced to imprisonment. He spent four years in jail.