Józef Wielhorski

Józef Wielhorski (1759–1817) was a Polish officer of the House of Wielhorski, bearing the Kierdeja coat of arms. In his career, he successively served the Holy Roman Empire, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Polish Legions, the Duchy of Warsaw and later Congress Poland.

As an officer (rotmistrz) he fought in the Polish–Russian War of 1792 and later, as a Colonel, in the Kościuszko Uprising. Tadeusz Kościuszko sent him to revolutionary France with the goal of obtaining help from the Committee of Public Safety, his requests for a French expeditionary corps were, however, futile. Under Napoleon, he would become, in 1797, a general in the Polish Legions. From 1797 to 1802, he served in the Polish Legions in Italy, where he commanded the 1st Legion.

During the defense of Mantua, Adjutant General Wielhorski was sick in his bed due to an attack of gout and was replaced by Brigadier Meyer at Defensive Fortification Migliaretto and the Island of Te. Wielhorski, on the other hand, continually praised and supported the activity of the artillery commander Jakubowski, who was in Saint George's Fort, which became necessary to evacuate because of the impossibilty to resist any longer. The losses of its garrison were considerable. The captured Wielhorski and his staff later voiced complaints of the Austrian treatment of Polish captives, which went unheard. As a protest against the French-Austrian peace, he returned to partitioned Poland.

In 1809, with France again at war with Austria and finding his country under threats, he would organized armed forces in Kraków and Kielce, joining the pro-French Polish forces and was made a Divisional General in the Duchy of Warsaw, Wielhorski was a Knight of the Order of the White Eagle (1815), awarded the Virtuti Militari, and the Legion of Honor.