Edwin Freiherr von Manteuffel

Who was Edwin Freiherr von Manteuffel?

Edwin Freiherr von Manteuffel was a German Generalfeldmarschall noted for his victories in the Franco-Prussian War.

Son of the president of the superior court of Magdeburg, he was born at Dresden, and brought up with his cousin, Otto von Manteuffel, the Prussian statesman, entered the guard cavalry at Berlin in 1827, and became an officer in 1828. After attending the War Academy for two years, and serving successively as aide-de-camp to General von Müffling and to Prince Albert of Prussia, he was promoted captain in 1843 and major in 1848, when he became aide-de-camp to Frederick William IV, whose confidence he had gained during the revolutionary movement in Berlin.

Promoted lieutenant-colonel in 1852, and colonel in 1853, he was sent on important diplomatic missions to Vienna and St Petersburg. In 1857 he was promoted to major-general and chief of the Prussian Military Cabinet. He gave strong support to the Prince Regent's plans for the reorganization of the army. In 1861 he was violently attacked in a pamphlet by Karl Twesten, a Liberal leader, whom he wounded in a duel, for which Manteuffel insisted in being briefly imprisoned. He served as lieutenant-general in the Danish war of 1864, and at its conclusion was appointed civil and military governor of Schleswig. In the Austrian War of 1866 he first occupied Holstein and afterwards commanded a division under Vogel von Falkenstein in the Hanoverian campaign, and succeeded him, in July, in command of the Army of the Main.