Johann Ritter von Wagner
Johann Wagner was born on the
19th of April 1815 at Klocoć in the
regimental district of the Szluiner Grenz-Regiment as the son of an officer and
entered the Military Academy at Wiener-Neustadt on the 12th of October 1826. On
graduation from the academy he was appointed as a Fähnrich in Infantry Regiment
Erzherzog Karl Ferdinand Number 51 on the 17th of October 1834 and commissioned
as a Leutnant in the same regiment on the 1st of November 1838. Attached the
General Quartermaster Staff on the staff of Feldmarschall Radetzky in 1840, he
was promoted to Oberlieutenant on the 12th of June 1846 and to Kapitän-Lieutenant
on the 3rd of June 1848 in Infantry Regiment Graf Gyulai Number 33.
During the campaign in Italy in 1848 he was the brigade staff
officer in the brigade of Generalmajor Eduard Graf Clam-Gallas and took part in
the street fighting in Milan, the battles of Santa Lucia, Curtatone and
Montanara and the capture of Vicenza. He saw further action at Sona,
Sommacampagna and Custozza. For his conduct in 1848 he was awarded the Knight's
Cross of the Order of Leopold and promoted to Hauptmann in the General Staff
Corps. With the recommencement of hostilities in Italy the following year he was
initially assigned as the chief of staff to Feldmarschall-Lieutenant Ludwig
Freiherr von Wohlgemuth's division and then rejoined Feldmarschall-Lieutenant
Graf Clam in June until October as chief of staff to the Siebenbürger Corps
where he participated in the actions against the insurgent Hungarian forces at
Szemeria and at the Nyerges Pass. He was given an accelerated promotion to Major
on the 30th of August 1849 and was awarded the Military Merit Cross and
the Russian Saint Vladimir Order 4th Class.
Promoted to Oberstlieutenant on the 18th of July 1853 and to
Oberst on the 27th of March 1857 he started the war in Italy in 1859 initially
as the deputy chief of staff of the 1st Army and was then appointed as chief of
staff of the 11th Army Corps. He distinguished himself at the battle of
Solferino and as a consequence he was awarded the Order of the Iron Crown 3rd
Class as published in army order number 44 dated the 15th of August 1859. Raised
to the Austrian nobility in 1861 taking the title "Ritter von" he had
in the meantime been appointed to head the military history bureau in Vienna. He
was appointed as chief of staff to the Ban of Croatia, Graf Jellačić in
Agram on the 11th of October 1862 followed by his assignment as the brigadier at
Carlstadt on the 13th of November of the same year. Promoted to Generalmajor on
the 29th of October 1863 his brigade was assigned to the Wetzlar Division in
Istria during the campaign of 1866 and following the cessation of hostilities he
was assigned as the brigadier at Semlin on the 6th of September 1866 followed by
his promotion to Feldmarschall-Lieutenant on the 1st of August 1868 and new
appointment as governor and military commander in Dalmatia and commander of the
18th Infantry Division. During the rebellion in Dalmatia he requested his own
relief and after handing over command to Generalmajor Gottfried Graf Auersperg
on the 7th of November 1869 he took up his new post as the commanding general of
the 10th Infantry Division on the 25th of December 1869.
Shortly afterwards, on the 1st of February 1870 he was appointed
as the defence minister for the Austrian half of the Dual Monarchy but following
the fall of the Giskra administration in April 1870 he again asked for his own
relief and this was granted by imperial resolution dated the 12th of April 1870.
Placed initially at disposal, he definitively retired in November 1870. He was
awarded the Imperial Ottoman Medschidie Order on the 2nd of April 1870 and
retired to Samobar in Croatia where he died in 1894.
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