BRUNSWICK WATERLOO

A FINE AND RARE BRUNSWICK WATERLOO 1815 TO A CAPTAIN, 2ND LINE BATTALION, HIS BATTALION SUSTAINING THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF CASUALTIES OF ANY BRUNSWICK UNIT DURING THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN. PREVIOUSLY AN OFFICER OF THE PRUSSIAN ARMY WHO WOULD HAVE FOUGHT AT THE GREAT BATTLE OF AUERSTEDT IN 1806, THE DECISIVE BATTLE OF THE WAR OF THE FOURTH COALITION

BRUNSWICK WATERLOO 1815 ‘HEINR. V. BOHLEN, CAPT. 2. LIN. BT.’

Heinrich von Bohlen was born in Campen, Saxony, in 1778. On 16 November 1799 he became a Cadet (Officer Candidate), serving in the Prussian Infantry Regiment, Prinz Heinrich von Preussen No. 35. He was commissioned a Lieutenant on 9 January 1803 and fought in the war against France in 1806 during the war of the Fourth Coalition against France.

Lieutenant von Bohlen would have fought with his Regiment at the great battle of Auerstedt on 14 October 1806, the decisive battles of the war. Here, Prinz Heinrich Infantry Regiment 35, served in General-Major von Schimonsky’s brigade, Von Schmettau’s 3rd Division, which formed the vanguard of the Prussian Army at the battle of Auerstedt. The battle, in which 64,000 Prussian and Saxon troops commanded by the Duke of Brunswick, faced 26,000 French troops under Marshal Davout was a victory for the French and proved to be the decisive battle of the war. It is estimated the the Prussians lost 18,000 men, the French 7,000.

http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_auerstadt.html

With the defeat of and the subjugation of Prussia to France, von Bohlen left the military service.

He returned to military service with Brunswick on 4 January 1814 when he was appointed a Lieutenant in a Jäger training unit. On 12 March 1814 he was promoted to Captain in the 2nd Line Battalion and in 1815 participated in the Waterloo campaign.

At the battle of Quatre Bras, the 2nd Line Battalion particularly distinguished themselves when in square formation they were repeatedly attacked by French cuirassiers, each time inflicting heavy losses and hindering the enemy’s advance. Their steadfastness as not without suffering great losses themselves. Along with the Leib battalion, they later made a bayonet charge against French stoops posted between the Sheep Farm and woods. At Waterloo, the battalion, as others formed square against repeated cavalry charges, before being ordered, along with 44th Foot, 95th, and two Jager battalions, to advance against the French attacking Hougoumont. Between the two battles, the 2nd Line Battalion lost 8 Officers and 193 men killed and wounded, more than any other Brunswick unit and approximately a third of their number.

On 30 March 1816 he was appointed Forest Master in Helmstedt. Heinrich von Bohlen died at Helmstedt on 14 October 1822.

Condition VF. Replacement steel clip and ring suspension. A fine Brunswick Waterloo and rare to an Officer who served in the Prussian war of 1806. Ex DNW 2009 (£3000).