They joined the military and in 1695 fought under Count Friedrich Veterani in the seven cavalry regiments of 6,500 men and 800 infantry at Lugos against Sultan Mustafa II.
[1] Maximilian was badly injured at Lugos; this wound never healed and in later life made it difficult, or impossible, for him to mount a horse.
Earnst Gottlieb married Elizabeth von Fritz (or Friss), a favorite maid of the Empress Maria Theresa, and they had a son, Franz, born in 1746 at the family estate in Prerau, and a daughter, who married the son of Claude-Hyacinthe-Henri Foucher, Baron de Bretton (d. 24 March 1779).
[5][6][7] Little is evident of Franz Petrasch's early life other than that he was the son of Ernst Gottlieb, a favored courtier, and was born on his father's estates in Prerau, Moravia.
In September he commanded a 5,564 man mobile corps detached between the Neckar and the Rhine, securing the territories between the Austrian garrisons of Mannheim and Philippsburg).
Petrasch then re-joined Charles and Latour to defeat Moreau at the Battle of Emmendingen, where he assumed command of Wartensleben's column after the old general was wounded.
[10] In August 1799, when Charles took most of the army north into Swabia, Petrasch remained in Switzerland, as second-in-command of Hotze's Austrian corps (11 battalions, 10 squadrons, total of 10,000 men), cooperating with the Russians under lieutenant general Alexander Korsakov.
When Hotze was killed while on a reconnaissance ride on 25 September, prior to the Second Battle of Zürich, Petrasch took over command and withdrew to Feldkirch, losing 5,000 men, 25 guns and 4 colors.
At the beginning of hostilities Petrasch commanded a Division of Wallis' 1st Corps under Charles on the Danube, and served at the Battle of Stockach 25 March.