August Wilhelm Antonius Graf von Neidhardt Gneisenau (27 October 1760-23 August 1831) was a Field Marshal of Prussia during the Napoleonic Wars. He took over the command of Prussian troops during the 1815 Battle of Ligny after general Gebhard von Blucher was wounded, and saved the Prussian army from disaster.
Biography[]
August Wilhelm Antonius Graf von Neidhardt Gneisenau was born in Schildau, Saxony (present-day Germany) in 1760 and in 1779 he joined the Austrian Empire's armed forces while studying at the University of Erfurt. He later joined Bayreuth-Ansbach's army and fought in the American Revolutionary War under pay from Great Britain, and in 1786 he applied for service under Prussia. King Frederick the Great gave him the rank of captain in the infantry, and he fought Poland-Lithuania from 1793 to 1794.
In 1806, Gneisenau served as a staff officer under the command of Friedrich von Hohenloe-Ingelfingen. At the Battle of Saalfeld and the Battle of Jena, he commanded Prussian forces, although both battles were defeats. He eventually became a general and in 1813 during the Sixth Coalition he fought as the leader of the Prussian army that advanced into Germany to liberate central Europe from France. In the 1814 Defense of France campaign, Gneisenau helped Blucher's army advance into France through Lorraine. When the old Marshal was trapped under his horse at the 1815 Battle of Ligny, Gneisenau took command of his army and oversaw the retreat of the Prussian army, which defeated France once and for all at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.
Gneisenau gained the Order of the Black Eagle after the battle, but retired in 1816 due to health and political reasons. In 1831, with Carl von Clausewitz serving under him, Gneisenau fought against the Cadets' Revolution in Poland and died of cholera in Poznan (Posen).