RADETZKY DE RADETZ, COUNT JOSEPH, an eminent Austrian field-marshal, was born in Bohemia in 1766, and entered the Austrian army in 1784. The outbreak of the great continental war against the French soon gave him an opportunity of achieving distinction. His soldier-like qualities then came into notice. Courage and coolness appeared as inherent parts of his nature, which he could not lose. In victory or defeat he was always the same—ever steady and ever valiant. He distinguished himself in the successful battle of the Trebbia in 1799. He was one of the foremost of the victors at Novi in the same year. Even in the disastrous rout of Marengo, in 1800, he did not forego his self-possession. Nor did his ability fail to rise to the high offices of command which were at length assigned him. In 1813 he was the main instrument in gaining the victory of Kulm; in the same year he drew up the plan of the decisive battle of Leipzig; and in 1814 he rode into Paris side by side with the Emperor Alexander. But the greatest achievement of Marshal Radetzky was the part which he took as commander-in-chief in Lombardy, in suppressing the Italian insurrection of 1818. It is true that at first the suddenness of the rebellion threw him off his guard. After three days of barricade fighting, the Milanese forced him to retire from their city; the Sardinians, under King Charles Albert, followed up the advantage; and he was obliged to fall back upon Verona. Yet all this while, like a wary veteran, he was assiduously concentrating his strength for the recovery of the ground he had lost. A sudden and successful recoil was the result. The Italian forces were driven back and dispersed; one post after another was re-captured; on the 6th of August Milan was entered; and on the 24th of March 1849 the insurrection received its death-blow at the battle of Novara. The veteran Radetzky was now handsomely rewarded for these valuable services. Twenty-six cities presented him with their freedom; every continental potentate showered honours upon him; and his own sovereign continued to cherish him with grateful affection till his death, in 1858. (See Eine Biographische Skizze nach den eigenen Dictaturen und der Correspondenz des Feldmarshalls von einem Oesterreichischen Veteranen, von J. G. Cotta'scher Verlag, Stuttgart and Augsburg, 1858.)