Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

Early life

Blücher was born on 16 December 1742 in Rostock a Baltic port in northern Germany then in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.^[5] His father was a retired army captain, and his family had been landowners in northern Germany since at least the 13th century.^[6]

He began his military career at the age of sixteen,^{[lower-alpha 1]} when he joined the Swedish Army as a hussar.^[7] At the time, Sweden was at war with Prussia in the Seven Years' War. Blücher took part in the Pomeranian campaign of 1760, where Prussian hussars captured him in a skirmish. The colonel of the Prussian regiment, Wilhelm Sebastian von Belling (a distant relative), was impressed with the young hussar and had him join his own regiment.^[5][8]

Blücher took part in the later battles of the Seven Years' War, and as a hussar officer gained much experience in light cavalry work. In peace, however, his ardent spirit led him into excesses of all kinds, such as the mock execution of a priest suspected of supporting Polish uprisings in 1772. As a result, he was passed over for promotion to major. Blücher submitted a rude letter of resignation in 1773, which Frederick the Great replied to with "Captain Blücher can take himself to the devil" (1773).^[5]

Blücher settled down to farming. Within fifteen years, he had acquired independence and had become a Freemason. During Frederick the Great's lifetime, Blücher could not return to the army. However, the monarch died in 1786, and the following year Blücher was reinstated as a major in his old regiment, the Red Hussars. He took part in the expedition to the Netherlands in 1787, and the next year was promoted to lieutenant colonel. In 1789, he received Prussia's highest military order, the Pour le Mérite, and in 1794 he became colonel of the Red Hussars. In 1793 and 1794, Blücher distinguished himself in cavalry actions against the French, and for his victory at Kirrweiler on 28 May 1794 he was promoted to major general. In 1801, he was made a lieutenant general.^[5]

Napoleonic Wars

Marschall Vorwärts by Emil Hünten (1863)

Blücher was one of the leaders of the war party in Prussia in 1805, and he served as a cavalry general in the disastrous campaign of 1806. At the double Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, Blücher fought at Auerstedt, repeatedly leading the charges of the Prussian cavalry, but without success. During the retreat of the broken armies, he commanded the rearguard composed of Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe's corps.^[5] With the capitulation of the main body after the Battle of Prenzlau on 28 October,^[5] he found his march toward the north-east blocked.^[9] He led the remnant of his corps away to the north-west.^[5] Reinforcing his numbers with a division previously commanded by Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Blücher and his new chief of staff, Gerhard von Scharnhorst, reorganised his forces into two small corps totaling 21,000 men and 44 cannons.^[10] Nevertheless, he was defeated by two French corps at the Battle of Lübeck ^[5] on 6 November. The next day, trapped against the Danish frontier by 40,000 French troops, he was compelled to surrender with less than 10,000 soldiers at Ratekau.^[11] Blücher insisted that clauses be written in the capitulation document that he had had to surrender due to lack of provisions and ammunition,^[5] and that his soldiers should be honoured by a French formation along the street. He was allowed to keep his sabre and to move freely, bound only by his word of honour,^[12] and was soon exchanged for future Marshal Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno, and was actively employed in Pomerania, at Berlin, and at Königsberg until the conclusion of the war.^[5]

After the war, Blücher was looked upon as the natural leader of the Patriot Party, with which he was in close touch during the period of Napoleonic domination. But his hopes of an alliance with Austria in the war of 1809 were disappointed. In this year he was made general of cavalry. In 1812 he expressed himself so openly on the alliance of Russia with France that he was recalled from his military governorship of Pomerania and virtually banished from the court.^[5]

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher in Bautzen by Bogdan Willewalde (1885).

Following the start of the War of Liberation in the Spring of 1813, Blücher was again placed in high command, and he was present at Lützen and Bautzen. During the Summer truce, he worked on the organisation of the Prussian forces; when the war was resumed, he became commander-in-chief of the Army of Silesia, with August von Gneisenau and Karl von Müffling as his principal staff officers and 40,000 Prussians and 50,000 Russians under his command during the Autumn Campaign. The most conspicuous military quality displayed by Blücher was his unrelenting energy.^[5]

The irresolution and divergence of interests usual in Sixth Coalition armies found in him a restless opponent. Knowing that if he could not induce others to co-operate he was prepared to attempt the task at hand by himself which often caused other generals to follow his lead. He defeated Marshal MacDonald at the Katzbach, and by his victory over Marshal Marmont at Möckern led the way to the decisive defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig. Blücher's own army stormed Leipzig on the evening of the last day of the battle.^[5] This was the fourth battle between Napoleon and Blücher, and the first that Blücher had won.

On the day of Möckern (16 October 1813) Blücher was made a field marshal, and after the victory he pursued the French with his accustomed energy. In the winter of 1813–1814 Blücher, with his chief staff officers, was mainly instrumental in inducing the Coalition sovereigns to carry the war into France itself.^[5]

Old Blucher beating the Corsican Big Drum, George Cruikshank, 8 April 1814.

The Battle of Brienne and the Battle of La Rothière were the chief incidents of the first stage of the celebrated 1814 campaign in north-east France, and they were quickly followed by victories of Napoleon over Blücher at Champaubert, Vauchamps, and Montmirail. But the courage of the Prussian leader was undiminished, and his victory against the vastly outnumbered French, at Laon (9 and 10 March) practically decided the fate of the campaign.^[5] However, his health had been severely affected by the strains of the previous two months, and he now suffered a breakdown, during which he lost his sight and suffered a delusion that a Frenchman had impregnated him with an elephant.^[13] Dominic Lieven wrote that the breakdown "revealed the fragility of the coalition armies' command structure and just how much the Army of Silesia had depended on Blücher's drive, courage and charisma.... The result was that for more than a week after the battle of Laon the Army of Silesia... played no useful role in the war".^[14]

After this, Blücher infused some of his energy into the operations of the Prince Schwarzenberg's Army of Bohemia, and at last this army and the Army of Silesia marched in one body directly towards Paris. The victory of Montmartre, the entry of the allies into the French capital, and the overthrow of the First Empire were the direct consequences.^[5]

Blücher was inclined to punish the city of Paris severely for the sufferings of Prussia at the hands of the French armies, but the allied commanders intervened. Blowing up the Jena Bridge near the Champ de Mars^[5] was said by the Duke of Wellington to have been one of his contemplated acts:

About blowing up the bridge of Jena there were two parties in the Prussian Army—Gneisenau and Muffling against, but Blucher violently for it. In spite of all I could do, he did make the attempt, even while I believe my sentinel was standing at one end of the bridge. But the Prussians had no experience of blowing up bridges. We, who had blown up so many in Spain, could have done it in five minutes. The Prussians made a hole in one of the pillars, but their powder blew out instead of up, and I believe hurt some of their own people.^[15]

In gratitude for his victories in 1814, King Frederick William III of Prussia created Blücher Prince of Wahlstatt (in Silesia on the Katzbach battlefield).^{[5][lower-alpha 2]} The king also awarded him estates near Krieblowitz (now Krobielowice, Poland) in Lower Silesia and a grand mansion at 2, Pariser Platz in Berlin (which in 1930 became the Embassy of the United States, Berlin). Soon afterward Blücher paid a visit to England, where he was received with royal honors and cheered enthusiastically everywhere he went.^[5]

Hundred Days and later life

The Prussian attack on Plancenoit during the Battle of Waterloo, painted by Adolph Northen

After the war Blücher retired to Silesia. However, the return of Napoleon from Elba and his entry into Paris at the start of the Hundred Days, called him back to service. He was put in command of the Army of the Lower Rhine, with General August von Gneisenau as his chief of staff. At the outset of the Waterloo Campaign of 1815 the Prussians sustained a serious defeat at Ligny (16 June), in the course of which the old field marshal lay trapped under his dead horse for several hours and was repeatedly ridden over by cavalry, his life only saved by the devotion of his aide-de-camp Count Nostitz, who threw a greatcoat over his commander, in order to obscure Blücher's rank and identity from the passing French. As Blücher was unable to resume command for some hours Gneisenau took command, drew off the defeated army and rallied it.^[5] In spite of Gneisenau's distrust of Wellington, he obeyed Blücher's last orders to direct the army's retreat towards Wavre, rather than Liege, in order to keep alive the possibility of joining the Prussian and Wellington's Anglo-allied armies together.^[16]

After bathing his wounds in a liniment of rhubarb and garlic, and fortified by a liberal internal dose of schnapps, Blücher rejoined his army. Gneisenau feared that the British had reneged on their earlier agreements and favored a withdrawal, but Blücher convinced him to send two Corps to join Wellington at Waterloo.^[17][18] He then led his army on a tortuous march along muddy paths, arriving on the field of Waterloo in the late afternoon. In spite of his age, the pain of his wounds, and the effort it must have taken for him to remain on horseback, Bernard Cornwell states that several soldiers attested to Blücher's high spirits and his determination to beat Napoleon:

"Forwards!" he was quoted as saying. "I hear you say it's impossible, but it has to be done! I have given my promise to Wellington, and you surely don't want me to break it? Push yourselves, my children, and we'll have victory!" It is impossible not to like Blücher. He was seventy-four years (sic) old,^[19] still in pain and discomfort from his adventures at Ligny, still stinking of schnapps and of rhubarb liniment, yet he is all enthusiasm and energy. If Napoleon's demeanour that day was one of sullen disdain for an enemy he underestimated, and Wellington's a cold, calculating calmness that hid concern, then Blücher is all passion.^[20]

Blücher and Wellington meeting close to La Belle Alliance.

With the battle hanging in the balance Blücher's army intervened with decisive and crushing effect, his vanguard drawing off Napoleon's badly needed reserves, and his main body being instrumental in crushing French resistance. This victory led the way to a decisive victory through the relentless pursuit of the French by the Prussians. The two Coalition armies entered Paris on 7 July.^[5]

Prince Blücher remained in the French capital for a few months, but his age and infirmities compelled him to retire to his Silesian residence at Krieblowitz.^[5] At the invitation of the British government, he made another state visit to England, to be formally thanked for his and his army's role in the Waterloo Campaign. When his carriage stopped on Blackheath hill, overlooking London, he is said to have exclaimed, "What a city to sack!"^[21] He died at Krieblowitz on 12 September 1819, aged 77.^[5] After his death, an imposing mausoleum was built for his remains.