Military Service
Jurij left Ljubljana five years after graduation and entered military service in 1780 as Professor of Mathematics at the Artillery School in Vienna. At that time he started to sign his last name as Vega and no longer Veha. When Jurij was 33 he married Josefa Svoboda (Jožefa Swoboda) (1771–1800), a Czech noble from České Budějovice who was 16 at that time.
Vega participated in several wars. In 1788 he served under Austrian Imperial Field-Marshal Ernst Gideon von Laudon (1717–1790) in a campaign against the Turks at Belgrade. His command of several mortar batteries contributed considerably to the fall of the Belgrade fortress. Between 1793 and 1797 he fought French Revolutionaries under the command of Austrian General Dagobert-Sigismond de Wurmser (1724–1797) with the European coalition on the Austrian side. He fought at Fort Louis, Mannheim, Mainz, Wiesbaden, Kehl, and Dietz. In 1795 he had two 30-pound (14 kilogram) mortars cast, with conically drilled bases and a greater charge, for a firing range up to 3000 metres (3300 yards). The old 60 lb (27 kg) mortars had a range of only 1800 m (2000 yd).
In September 1802 Jurij Vega was reported missing. After a few days' search his body was found. The police report concluded that it was an accident. However, the true cause of his death remains a mystery, but it is believed that he died on 1802-09-26 in Nußdorf on the Danube, near the Austrian capital, Vienna. There is a well-backed theory about his death: he loved horses, and apparently he found out a miller owned a magnificent one. When he went to the miller to negotiate about the price, the miller, upon seeing his Lord and military insignia, took interest in the money he was carrying with him, murdered him; one of Jurij's tools (compass) was found in the mill one year after his disappearance and it had "J V" initials on it.
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