Gneisenau was born at Schildau in the Electorate of Saxony. He was the son of a Saxon lieutenant of artillery, August William Neidhardt, and his wife Maria Eva Neidhardt, née Müller. He grew up in great poverty at Schildau, and subsequently at Würzburg and Erfurt.
In 1777 he entered Erfurt university; but two years later joined an Austrian regiment there quartered.
Frederick the Great gave him a commission as first lieutenant in the infantry.
In 1806 he was one of Hohenlohe's staff-officers, fought at Jena, and a little later commanded a provisional infantry brigade which fought under Lestocq in the Lithuanian campaign.
Early in 1807 Major von Gneisenau was sent as commandant to Colberg, which, small and ill-protected as it was, succeeded in holding out until the peace of Tilsit.
A wider sphere of work was now opened to him.
H. Swinburne, Travels in the Two Sicilies (London, 179°), ii- x5> mentions the walls as being 8 yds.
In open military work and secret machinations his energy and patriotism were equally tested, and with the outbreak of the War of Liberation, Major-General Gneisenau became Bliicher's quartermaster-general.
With Bliicher, Gneisenau served to the capture of Paris; his military character was the exact complement of Bliicher's, and under this happy guidance the young troops of Prussia, often defeated but never discouraged, fought their way into the heart of France.
The plan of the march on Paris, which led directly to the fall of Napoleon, was specifically the work of the chief-of-staff.
It is known that Gneisenau had the deepest distrust of the British commander, who, he considered, had left the Prussians in the lurch at Ligny, and that to the hour of victory he had grave doubts as to whether he ought not to fall back on the Rhine.
Bliicher, however, soon recovered from his injuries, and, with Grolmann, the quartermaster- general, he managed to convince Gneisenau.
The relations of the two may be illustrated by Brigadier-General Hardinge's report.
Bliicher burst into Hardinge's room at Wavre, saying " Gneisenau has given way, and we are to march at once to your chief.
"On the field of Waterloo, however, Gneisenau was quick to realize the magnitude of the victory, and he carried out the pursuit with a relentless vigour which has few parallels in history.
In 1825 he became general field marshal.
In 1831 he was appointed to the command of the Army of Observation on the Polish frontier, with Clausewitz as his chief - of - staff.
As a man, his noble character and virtuous life secured him the affection and reverence not only of his superiors and subordinates in the service, but of the whole Prussian nation.
