Alexander Ferdinand von Mellentin

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Alexander Ferdinand von Mellentin (born September 16, 1759 in Zwickau , other year of birth: 1757; † February 16, 1823 in Dresden ) was a royal Saxon major general .

Life

origin

Alexander Ferdinand von Mellentin came from an old noble family and was the son of George Dietrich von Mellentin († 1768), captain in an infantry regiment who retired in 1764, and his wife, a née von Schleinitz .

Military career

After his father's early death, he was taken in by a relative of his mother's; At the age of fourteen he joined the Prince Maximilian Infantry Regiment in 1773 as a cadet . In 1775 he came to the aristocratic knight academy , the cadet corps , in Dresden. In 1777 he was promoted to NCO and in 1780 he was transferred to the Prince Gotha Infantry Regiment as Souslieutnant , where he was promoted to the position of Regimental Adjutant as Prime Lieutenant in 1791 . During this time he took part in the campaigns against revolutionary France in 1793 and 1796 . In 1799 he was promoted to captain and company commander . In 1805 he was appointed major and in 1806 took part in the battle of Jena .

After the Kingdom of Saxony joined the Rhine Confederation , its battalion had to take part in the Silesian campaign . After he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the spring of 1809 , he was transferred to the Prince Clemens Infantry Regiment . Because the regimental commander Karl Christian Erdmann had meanwhile been promoted to major general by Le Coq and had taken over a brigade, Alexander Ferdinand von Mellentin became the commander of the infantry regiment, which shortly afterwards took part in the campaign against Austria under the command of the French marshal Karl XIV Johann ; in the battle of Wagram on July 5 and 6, 1809, the regiment lost seven officers. After the fighting, he became seriously ill and was only able to return to work in the autumn. In early 1810, the Saxon troops returned from Austria to Saxony and he was promoted to colonel on February 20, 1810 .

In 1812 his regiment, led by Major General Friedrich Gottlob von Steindel, took part in the Russian campaign and fought in the Battle of Podobna and the battles on October 11, 1812 on the Lesna , on October 18, 1812 near Biala , on the 15th and 16th November 1812 at Wolkowysk and on February 13, 1813 in the Battle of Kalisch .

Alexander Ferdinand von Mellentin was the only Saxon colonel who could lead his regiment back to Dresden, even if it only consisted of a tenth. In May 1813, Saxon troops had to rejoin the French army. He took over the first brigade of the Saxon division, appointed major general on May 14, 1813 . He took part in the Battle of Bautzen , the Battle of Reichenbach and Markersdorf and Leopoldshain , the Battle of Großbeeren on August 23, 1813 and the Battle of Dennewitz on September 6, 1813. During the fighting near Dennewitz, he and his brigade took the village of Gölsdorf several times before he had to give way to the superior forces.

On September 22, 1813, he took command of the Saxon troops that were in the Torgau Fortress. When a siege of the city by the Prussians was to be expected, he had a meeting with the French governor Louis Marie de Narbonne-Lara , in which he asked to leave the city with his Saxon soldiers, because the Saxon army is probably with would ally the Prussians and then stay in the Blockade Corps; he received free retreat with luggage and weapons. Thereupon he led about 1,000 men to the Saxon headquarters in Leipzig and then hurried to Dresden, as the commander of the replacement troops that were gathering there.

After the return of King Friedrich August I of Saxony in 1815, he was given command of an infantry brigade and commanded the brigade until he was appointed commander of Dresden and Neustadt on August 6, 1822.

family

Alexander Ferdinand von Mellentin remained unmarried throughout his life.

Awards

  • For his bravery in the battle of Wagram he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of St. Heinrich .
  • On February 13, 1822 he celebrated his fiftieth anniversary of service and on this occasion received the Commander's Cross of the Order of St. Heinrich from King Friedrich August I.

Fonts (selection)

  • The Hn. Dedicated to General-Major and Brigadier von Mellentin at his service jubilee of the Leib-Infanterie-Regiment . Dresden, 1822.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Leipziger Zeitung . P. 399 f. 1823 ( google.de [accessed April 2, 2019]).
  2. ^ Hugo von Bose: Handbook of geography, statistics and topography of the Kingdom of Saxony . P. 172. Adler et al. Dietze, 1847 ( google.de [accessed April 2, 2019]).