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Joseph O'Donnell y O'Donnell

Irish-born army officer in the service of Spain (1722–1787) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Joseph O'Donnell and O'Donnell or José O'Donnell y Donnell (20 December 1722 – 22 March 1787) was an Irish-Spanish general and Colonel of Spain's Irlanda Regiment.[1] His six sons fought during the Peninsular War; three became Spanish generals.

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Biography

Born in Ireland, to Charles O'Donnell and Mary O'Donnell,[1] Joseph O'Donnell went to Spain in 1739, when he was sixteen years old and enlisted as a cadet in the 2nd Battalion of the Irlanda Regiment in 1739.[2] Two distant relatives of his had come to Spain earlier; Lieutenant-colonel John O'Donnell, who died in 1740, and Carlos O'Donnell, who had enlisted as a cadet in the Irlanda Regiment in 1734 and would later also become a lieutenant-colonel of that regiment.[2]

Career

Promoted to captain in 1758, Joseph O'Donnell went on to study at the Royal Military and Mathematics Academy of Barcelona. In 1768, he was appointed sargento mayor of his regiment, lieutenant colonel in 1773 and, in 1777, he was appointed colonel of the Irlanda Regiment.[2]

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Family

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O'Donnell married María Ana de Anhetan, in Luxembourg in 1765.[3] The couple had two daughters[1] and six sons. All six sons fought during the Peninsular War, the eldest and the youngest dying before it was over and three of them became Spanish generals:[2]

  • Leopoldo O'Donnell y Anhetan (died 1811): Killed at the Siege of Figueras (1811)[1]
  • Alejandro O'Donnell (born in Luxembourg, c. 1763 – La Coruña, 1 December 1837)[1] As commander of the 3rd Battalion of the Hibernia Regiment, O'Donnell was captured at the Battle of Coruña and taken prisoner to France.[4]
  • Francisco O'Donnell (born La Coruña – died in France as a prisoner of war):[1] enlisted as a child cadet in the Hibernia Regiment, by 1805 he was a lieutenant in the sister regiment of Irlanda at Cádiz.[2]

O'Donnell enlisted his three eldest sons, Leopoldo, José and Carlos, in his own regiment, and the three youngest, Henry, Alejandro and Francisco, in one of its sister regiments, the Hibernia.[2]

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References

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