Curt von Stedingk (26 October 1746 – 7 January 1837) was a Swedish Field Marshal who fought in the Seven Years War, American Revolutionary War, Second Russo-Turkish War, and War of the Sixth Coalition.
Biography[]
Curt von Stedingk was born in Swedish Pommerania (present-day Germany) in 1746, and enlisted in the Swedish army as an ensign during the Seven Years War. In 1763, after the end of the war, he joined the Royal Suedois regiment of the French Army, which was owned by his friend Axel von Fersen. The regiment took part in the siege of Savannah during the American Revolutionary War, and he was made a colonel in the Continental Army and the French Army. In 1783 he was made a member of the Society of Cincinnati by George Washington, but King Gustav III of Sweden forbade him from wearing any American awards or medals because they were rebels against absolute monarchs like him.
During the Second Russo-Turkish War he defended Sweden against numerically-superior Russian forces and won many victories and in the Finland War of 1808-1809 he alleviated harsh terms placed on Sweden by Russia because he was on good terms with the House of Romanov. In 1813 he fought at the Battle of Leipzig in the War of the Sixth Coalition against the French Empire, after Grossbeeren and Dennewitz. He died at the age of 90 in 1837.