Bergische Brigade

The Bergische Brigade was placed under Prussian rule from recruits from the Duchy of Berg .

In February 1814 it consisted of the 1st and 2nd Bergisch Infantry - Regiment , an infantry - battalion and a hussar regiment. It was commanded by the Prussian Lieutenant General Hünerbein .

When the Bergische Brigade marched on Mainz to free the city from Napoleon , many recruits deserted. The reason was possibly the bad treatment, possibly also the fact that there was still a company of Bergischer Lanziers on the French side in Mainz . After the French occupation of Mainz surrendered on April 30, 1814, the Bergische Brigade moved into quarters in Düsseldorf.

On March 25, 1815, it was renamed by decree of King Friedrich Wilhelm III. The 1st Bergische Infantry Regiment became the Infantry Regiment 28, the 2nd Infantry Regiment 29. The Bergisches Lanzier Regiment became the Westphalian Hussar Regiment No. 11 .

On March 30, 1815, the units went into the summer campaign of 1815 to stop Napoleon, who had returned from Elba . The 29th Infantry Regiment was part of the I. Army Corps under General Jagow and took part in the lost battle of Ligny and the decisive victory in the Battle of Waterloo . The advance to Paris followed . After taking Avesnes and Guise , the army corps moved past the fortress La Fère to Compiègne , where on June 26th it met 20,000 - after Napoleon's resignation - war-weary French. On July 7th, 1815, Bergische troops entered Paris and the war was over.

literature

• Karl Schröder: Between the French Revolution and Prussia's Gloria. Heimatverein Eitorf 1989
• Armand Léon von Ardenne , Bergische Lanziers, Westphalian Hussars No. 11 , digitized