Friedrich Zobel

Who was Friedrich Zobel?

Thomas Friedrich Zobel von Giebelstadt und Darstadt was an Austrian lieutenant feldmarshal.

Zobel was born into a family of the lesser Austrian nobility. He studied in the military academy of Vienna and distinguished himself in the riots in Lombardy-Venetia of 1848. On 30 April 1849 he was appointed Major General, becoming the governor of the fortress of Verona, where there was one of the largest Austrian garrisons in northern Italy.

On 12 May 1853 he was named lieutenant feldmarshal in the Austrian army. He defended against the invasion of Lombardy-Venetia by a combined force from the Kingdom of Sardinia and Piedmont, and France, and fought in the battle of Palestro as the Austrian commander, although the battle was lost. He retired from the military career in 1864 and died in 1869.