(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1294241923/?tag=2022091-20
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1167541421/?tag=2022091-20
military officer Lieutenant-General
He was born on the 3rd of February 1721 in Kalkar in the Duchy of Cleves, where his father, a major of Prussian cavalry, was stationed. In 1726, his father left military service and moved the family to Schwedt, where he became a forestry master in East Prussia; the senior Seydlitz died in 1728, leaving a widow and children in restricted financial circumstances.
Limited schooling was available to young Seydlitz; sources differ whether he knew how to speak and write in French, the lingua franca of Frederick's Court. One biographer, Bernhard von Poten, maintained that his German was good, and if he knew French, he preferred German and wrote it with a "fine, firm hand, unusually correct, in well-formed sentences and with apt expression, " and he knew enough Latin to express himself well.
At the age of thirteen he went as a page to the court of the margrave of Schwedt, who had been his father's colonel. Here he acquired a superb mastery of horsemanship, and many stories are told of his feats, the best known of which was his riding between the sails of a wind-mill in full swing. In 1740 he was commissioned a cornet in the margrave's regiment of Prussian cuirassiers.
He was taken prisoner in May 1742 after so gallant a defence that King Frederick offered to exchange an Austrian captain for him. In 1743 the king made him a captain in the 4th Hussars, and he brought his squadron to a state of conspicuous efficiency. He served through the second war, and after Hohenfriedberg was promoted major at the age of twenty-four. At the close of the war he had an opportunity of successfully handling 15 squadrons in front of the enemy, and this, with other displays of his capacity of leading cavalry in the searching tests of Frederick's "reviews, " secured his promotion in 1752 to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and in 1753 to the command of the 8th cuirassiers. Under his hands this regiment soon became a pattern to the rest of the army. In 1755 he was made colonel. Next year the Seven Years' War, that was to make his name immortal, broke out. In 1757, regardless of the custom of keeping back the heavy cavalry in reserve, he took his regiment to join the advanced guard, at Prague he nearly lost his life in attempting to ride through a marshy pool, and at Kolin, at the head of a cavalry brigade, he distinguished himself in checking the Austrian pursuit by a brilliant charge. Two days later the king made him major-general and gave him the order pour le merite, which promotion he felt to be no more than his deserts, for to Zieten's congratulations he responded: "It was high time, Excellency, if they wanted more work out of me. am already thirty-six. " Four times in the dismal weeks that followed the disaster of Kolin, Seydlitz asserted his energy and spirit in cavalry encounters, and on the morning of Rossbach Frederick, superseding two senior generals, placed Seydlitz in command of the whole of his cavalry. The result of the battle was the complete rout and disorganization of the enemy, and in achieving that result only seven battalions of Frederick's army had fired a shot. The rest was the work of Seydlitz and his 38 squadrons. The same night the king gave him the order of the Black Eagle, and promoted him lieutenant-general. But he had received a wound in the melee, and for some months he was away from the army. He rejoined the king in 1758, and at the battle of Zorndorf Seydlitz's cavalry again saved the day and won the victory. At Hochkirch with 108 squadrons he covered the Prussian retreat, and in the great disaster of Kunersdorf he was severely wounded in a hopeless attempt to storm a hill held by the Russians. He rejoined the army in May 1760, but his health was so impaired that Frederick sent him home again. It was not until 1761 that he reappeared at the front. He now commanded a wing of Prince Henry's army, composed of troops of all arms, and many doubts were expressed as to his fitness for this command, as his service had hitherto been with the cavalry exclusively. But he answered his critics by his conduct at the battle of Freyburg (October 29, 1762), in which, leading his infantry and his cavalry in turn, he decided the day. After the peace of Hubertusburg he was made inspector-general of the cavalry in Silesia, where eleven regiments were permanently stationed and whither Frederick sent all his most promising officers to be trained by him. In 1767 he was made a general of cavalry. But his later years were clouded by domestic unhappiness. His wife was unfaithful to him, and his two daughters, each several times married, were both divorced, the elder once and the younger twice. His formerly close friendship with the king was brought to an end by some misunderstanding, and it was only in his last illness, and a few weeks before his death, that they met again. Seydlitz died of paralysis at Ohlau on the 27th of August 1773.
Frederick the Great rewarded him with Order of the Black Eagle on the field after the Battle of Rossbach; he had already received the Pour le Mérite for his action at the Battle of Kolin.
In 1851, Frederick William IV, Frederick's great-great nephew, included Seydlitz's name on the Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great in Berlin, honoring those who had helped to build the Prussian state. Seydlitz holds a position of honor as one of the four full-sized mounted figures, sharing the first tier of the plinth with the King's brother, his cousin, and Hans Joachim von Zieten. A bronze sculpture installed at Zietenplatz, in Berlin, was created by Anton Lulvès, a copper worker from Hamburg. Finally, SMS Seydlitz, representing the first generation of battlecruiser, was ordered in 1910 and commissioned in May 1913, the fourth such vessel built for the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet.
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
Quotations: “After the battle the king can do what he likes with my head, but during the battle will he please allow me to use it? [During the battle of Zorndorf in 1758 goaded by interference of Frederick the Great of Prussia]”
According to Anton König, who wrote in 1780–1790, Seydlitz performed best at taverns and excelled in practical jokes: one would gather that Seydlitz was a drunkard, a rake, and a savage, but another of his biographers, Bernhard Poten, cited conflicting descriptions offered by Seydlitz's contemporaries, particularly Warnery, as more accurate. Nevertheless, there is some evidence to support König's assertion, at least of Seydlitz's excesses: Seydlitz was no doubt dependent upon his tobacco and had been since his teenage years, although he smoked a pipe rather than using snuff, as many officers did; he was indeed reckless, as his career testified; he enjoyed the company of women; and Seydlitz indeed suffered from recurring illness.
During his convalescence in Berlin, on 18 April 1761, he had married Susannah Johanna Albertine Hacke, daughter of Hans Christoph Friedrich Graf von Hacke, and she was eventually unfaithful to him, reportedly due to the syphilis from which he had suffered for decades. He had at least one daughter, according to an early biographer, Anton König, and two according to another biographer, Robert Lawley. The oldest daughter married first to an official from Breslau, and was divorced. She married second to a Polish count, and divorced soon after. She eventually converted to Catholicism, but died in a madhouse in Brieg. The youngest lived to old age and died in poverty near Lausitz.
