Mohr von Wald, Johann Friedrich

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Mohr von Wald, Johann Friedrich

Franconian General-Feldwachtmeister (1703-1704)

born 1666/1674 ?

died 1704

Description

Johann Friedrich Mohr von Wald was descended from a family of Knights of the Empire (Reichsritter) in the Rhineland. His parents were Hans Dietrich Mohr von Wald and Maria Ursula von Eltz who died already in 1674. Nevertheless, eleven children were born of the 18-year marriage. Carl Caspar (+ 1657), Anna Hildegard (+ 1686), Lothar Friedrich, Philipp Jacob, Maria Elisabeth, Carl Heinrich, Anna Margret, Wolf Eberhard, Anna Apollonia, Johann Hugo (+1674) and at last Johann Friedrich. As far as they reached adulthood, all daughters chose (or had to choose) the clerical state. So did Wolf Eberhard. Nothing is known of Mohr‘s youth, his reception into the Teutonic Order or his first military service (probably with the Order). The first mention of Mohr is in 1691 as a captain of a mixed company in the Franconia regiment Schönbeck, which combined Teutonic Order, Erbach, Nuremberg and Rothenburg contingents.

In August or September 1692 Mohr became a lieutenant-colonel, seemingly without having ever attained the rank of major (Obristwachtmeister): Major Paulus Tucher and Lieutenant-Colonel Carl August von Brandenburg-Culmbach had left and a Lieutenant-Colonel Wolz had served only a short time.

As a colonel Mohr is mentioned for the first time in October 1701. Presumably the Franconian Circle wanted to console him about the fact that Prince Wilhelm Friedrich von Brandenburg-Ansbach had bought the regiment as a new proprietor. So Mohr had to wait until 1703 for the regiment to be transferred to him. Wilhelm Friedrich, surprisingly made margrave by the untimely death of Georg Friedrich II. von Brandenburg-Ansbach at Schmidmühlen-Emhof (March 28), obviously had resigned the regiment and, likewise surprisingly, no Brandenburg-Ansbach officer was presented. At the same time Mohr was made major-general (Generalfeldwachtmeister).

On 20 September 1703, in the (first) Battle of Höchstädt, Mohr was in command of a brigade in the second line; nothing notable is reported by or about him.

In January 1704 Mohr, in command of only a small detachment south of Nuremberg, had to relinquish Dietfurt and retreat to Weißenburg and later to Roth after Marsin had advanced into Franconia. Treuchtlingen also capitulated against the superior French – the two lieutenants left with 60 men by Mohr didn‘t risk anything against heavy artillery and a few hundred grenadiers and did pay for this with a death penalty and cassation respectively.

Mohr was to be general and proprietor of a regiment only for a short time. On 2 July at the Battle of the Schellenberg, his regiment lost only two officers and 32 men wounded and a mere three men dead or missing (the three Franconian grenadier companies lost four officers and 70 men!). But one of the officers wounded was Mohr and he didn’t survive. He died later in the year, the exact date is unknown. His successor as proprietor of the regiment was Georg Philipp von Boyneburg.

References

Humbracht, Johann M./Helwich, Georg: Die höchste Zierde Teutsch-Lands und Vortrefflichkeit des Teutschen Adels… Frankfurt/M. 1707, S. 156

Muster-lists from the Bavarian state archives, Bamberg.

Willax, Franz: Das Fürstentum Brandenburg-Ansbach und die Reichsstadt Nürnberg im Spanischen Erbfolgekrieg. Ansbach 1984

Acknowledgement

Klaus Roider for the initial version of this article