REIHERR VON Prussian soldier, one of the greatest cavalry generals of history, was born on Feb. 3, 1721 at Calcar, in the duchy of Cleve. 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 be tween the sails of a wind-mill in full swing. In 174o he was com missioned a cornet in the margrave's regiment of Prussian cuiras siers. He served through the first and second Silesian wars, and in 1753 became lieutenant-colonel of the 8th cuirassiers. Under his hands this regiment soon became a pattern to the rest of the army. The Seven Years' War gave Seydlitz his opportunity. . 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. In reply to Zieten's con gratulations he said : "It was high time, Excellency, if they wanted more work out of me. I 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. Seydlitz was wounded, but rejoined the king in 1758, and at the battle of Zorn dorf his cavalry again won the victory. At Hochkirch with io8 squadrons he covered the Prussian retreat, and in the great dis aster of Kunersdorf he was severely wounded in a hopeless attempt to storm a hill held by the Russians. During his convalescence he married Countess Albertine Hacke. In 1761 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 (Oct. 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 a few weeks before his death that they met again. Seydlitz died at Ohlau on Aug. 27, 1773.
See Varnhagen von Ense, Das Leben des Generals von Seydlitz (Berlin, 1834) ; and Bismarck, Die kgl. preussische Reiterei unter Friedrich dem Grossen (Karlsruhe, 1837).