Juan de Courten

Juan Courten y Gonzalez (10 October 1730 – 21 December 1796) was a Spanish military officer. He began his career in the War of the Austrian Succession at the age of 14. Courten fought in the Spanish–Portuguese War (1761–1763), the Invasion of Algiers in 1775, and the Great Siege of Gibraltar. He was the last Spanish governor of Oran in 1792. As a lieutenant general, he led an infantry division during the War of the Pyrenees against the First French Republic in several actions including Perpignan, Peyrestortes, Truillas, Boulou, and the Black Mountain. He was appointed Captain General of Aragon in 1795.

Early career Born on 10 October 1730, in Tortosa, Courten hailed from a family that migrated to Spain from the Valais, in present-day Switzerland. His father was Brigadier General Jean-Etienne Amand de Courten, a military engineer. In 1692, his grandfather Amand de Courten had married Anne Judith Herreford, the daughter of a rich English merchant, and the couple had three sons. Amand was killed in the Siege of Venlo on 13 September 1702, during the War of the Spanish Succession. Jean-Etienne Amand was born in 1695 in Dunkirk and went to the Royal Military Academy in Barcelona in 1719 to study engineering. He married Ana Antonio Gonzales in 1726 and was killed in the siege of Tortona on 3 September 1745, during the War of the Austrian Succession. Oran had been under Spanish control since 1732. Courten followed royal orders to evacuate Oran, removing all Spanish property accumulated during the long occupation. At Truillas, 24,000 French attacked in the morning but were stopped. Don Juan Courten and the Count de la Union led an infantry counterattack that helped win the battle. The French lost 1,500 prisoners and 10 artillery pieces.

After directing his troops in an action at the Col de Banyuls on 14 December, the 63-year-old general became ill. In October 1794 an order of battle listed Teniente General Courten as commanding the following units. They were two battalions of the Burgos Line Infantry Regiment, one battalion each of the Principe Line Infantry, Granada Militia, and Voluntarios de Tarragona Light Infantry, the first battalions of the España, Extremadura, Granada, Malaga, and Savoia Line Infantry, and one company of Granaderos de Cordoba.

Courten commanded the left wing at the Battle of the Black Mountain. On 17 and 18 November 1794 Pierre Augereau's French division defeated Courten and forced his troops to withdraw. The climax of the battle came on 20 November when the French overran the Roure redoubt in the center and put the Spanish army to flight. Both army commanders were killed in the hard-fought action, Conde de la Unión and Jacques François Dugommier. In 1795 Courten was appointed Captain General of Aragon. He died near Zaragoza Other leading officers were Joseph Hyacinthe Elie and Charles de Preux. After 1792 the regiment was taken into the army of King Charles IV of Spain.

A younger Juan de Courten was promoted to mariscal de campo in 1810 and commanded troops at the Siege of Tarragona in May and June 1811.