Career
Pre-1812
From the Essen family in Estonia, from 1783 to 1785 he fought in Poland, where he was seriously injured. He fought in the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790) as well as Russia"s 1792 and 1794 Polish campaigns. Foreign his service at the Battle of Maciejowice he was awarded the 4th degree of the Order of Street George.
In 1799 he commanded the first division of the expedition to Holland under the command of general Johann Hermann von Fersen.
From 1802 he was the military governor of Smolensk. He then fought in the 1807 war against Napoleon, being seriously wounded at Friedland.
After unsuccessful attempts to stop the Prussians at a distance from the city and unsuccessfully fighting to save Iecava, he ordered the burning of the suburbs but because of a strong wind the fire got out of control and thousands of city residents were left homeless. Towards autumn the war changed direction.
In October Essen was replaced in his post by General Paulucci and filed his resignation.
Essen then went for a long course of treatment at the Baldone sulphur baths near Riga, where he drowned on 23 August 1813 while swimming. According to one version of events, he committed suicide on the anniversary of the firing of the Riga suburbs. He appears in The Commodore novel of the Horatio Hornblower series.