User:Kges1901/1st Infantry Regiment (Austria-Hungary)

The 1st Kaiser Infantry Regiment (Infanterieregiment „Kaiser“ Nr. 1 (IR.1)) was an infantry regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army.

History
The regiment began forming during 1715 in accordance with the capitulation of Elector of Trier Charles Joseph of Lorraine as an electoral regiment. It included eight companies from the Osnabrück-Bevern Regiment of the elector and nine new companies recruited from Mainz, Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Mannheim, Heilbronn, Cologne, Bingen, Kreuznach, Worms, Aschaffenburg and smaller towns in western Germany. When the elector died at the end of 1715 his brother, Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, oversaw the completion of the formation of the regiment, which was henceforth referred to as a Lorraine regiment. It entered imperial service in April 1716 as the Senior Lorraine Regiment (Regiment Alt-Lothringen) for a ten-year contract. The regiment was brought up to strength by 300 men from the disbanded Trautson Regiment in 1721. At the end of its term in 1726, the regiment was retained in service as an imperial regiment. A fourth battalion was established in 1727, which was broken up in 1731 to bring the Junior Wallis (Regiment Jung-Wallis) and Bettendorf Regiments up to strength. A company of the dissolved Schmettau Regiment was incorporated into the Kaiser Regiment in 1741.

The regiment was numbered as the 1st in 1769 when imperial regiments received numbers.

During the French invasion of Russia, the regiment did not see action while assigned initially to the reserve and then the Auxiliary Corps of Schwarzenberg. During the German Campaign of 1813, the regiment distinguished itself at the Battle of Dresden, but two of its companies were captured while covering the retreat of the Division Weissenwolf. It subsequently fought at Großzschocher, Kleinzschocher, and Hochheim during the Battle of Leipzig. The Grenadiers, designated Bataillon Frisch, served with the Army of the Danube and later fought at the Battle of Hanau. The 4th Battalion fought in the capture of Aussig.

During the 1814 Campaign in north-east France, the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the regiment fought at the First Battle of Bar-sur-Aube and the Battle of Brienne. Alongside the 41st Regiment, without firing a shot, the two battalions stormed the bridge at Laferté-sur-Aube and the dominating heights above it. The regiment was then at La Guillotière (Villeneuve). The 2nd Battalion fought in the Siege of Belfort, while the Grenadiers and the 1st Landwehr Battalion, which moved to the theatre of war, did not see action. In the 1815 War of the Seventh Coalition, the regiment participated in the Siege of Hüningen.

The regiment fought at the Battles of Rieti and Antrodocco during the 1821 expedition to suppress the Neapolitan revolution of 1820. In 1848, its 1st and 2nd Battalions distinguished themselves in two days of street fighting in Milan, then fought in the storming of Vicenza, the Battles of Soma, Sommacampagna, Custoza, and Volta, the advance on Milan at Vigentino, and at Morazzone against the troops of Giuseppe Garibaldi during the First Italian War of Independence. Meanwhile, the Grenadiers fought as Bataillon Strastil at Tabor Bridge and alongside the 3rd and Landwehr Battalions fought in the encirclement and capture of Vienna in suppression of the Vienna Uprising.

In early 1849, the elements of the regiment in Italy fought in the defeats of Italian forces at the Battles of Mortara and Novara, and the Siege of Livorno. The 3rd and Landwehr Battalions and the Grenadiers fought in the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, with the 3rd and Landwehr Battalions fighting at Ács, Marczaltó, and the capture of Győr. The Grenadiers participated in the first siege of Komárom (including the action at Kács), the Battle of Zsigárd, the Battle of Pered, and the Battle of Puszta-Herkäly, but saw little involvement in the further advance to the Tisza at the Battle of Szőreg and the Battle of Temesvár.

When the 63rd through 80th Infantry Regiments were formed in 1860, a battalion of the 1st transferred to the 70th Line Infantry Regiment. In 1882, when the 81st through 102nd Infantry Regiments were formed, a battalion of the 1st transferred to the 81st.