Gregor von Berg

General Gregor von Berg, portrait by George Dawe

Gregory Berg ( Russian Григорий Максимович Берг * August 5 ^{. Jul} / 16th August  1765 ^greg. In Lunia , † March 14 ^jul. / 26. March  1838 ^greg. In Reval ) was a Russian general of the infantry .

Life

Gregor was a member of the Baltic noble family von Berg from the Kattentack family . His parents were the Russian general en chef Magnus Johann von Berg (1719–1784) and Eleonora Elisabeth Dorothea, née Freiin von Münnich (1729–1775). The Russian Lieutenant General Burchard Magnus von Berg (1764-1838) was his older brother.

In 1792 he married the widow of his cousin Lieutenant Colonel Christian Wilhelm von Berg († 1789), Hedwig Dorothea, née von Sivers (1764-1830), sister of the Livonian district administrator Peter Reinhold von Sivers (1760-1835). Eight children emerged from the marriage, but only four of them reached adulthood, only two daughters entered the state of marriage and the son became captain of the artillery guards.

Berg began his career in the Imperial Russian Army in 1778 as a second lieutenant . He was promoted to prime lieutenant in 1782 and captain in an infantry regiment and adjutant to a general in 1783 . In 1784 he became secondary major and in 1789 Prime Major in Finland, finally in 1790 Major du jour with General Igelström , where he rose to lieutenant colonel in the same year . In 1794 he was used as the commandant of Vilnius , advanced to colonel in 1797 and became head of a musketeer regiment in 1798 . Meanwhile major general , in 1800 he became chief of what was later to become the Minorussian Grenadier Regiment in Volhynia . During the Third Coalition War , he was seriously wounded and taken prisoner in the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805 . In 1806 he was appointed in command of Reval.

In the Patriotic War of 1812 he was in the 1st Army Corps under Count von Wittgenstein, commander of the 5th Infantry Division. After his service in the Battle of Kljastizy he received his promotion to Lieutenant General and the Order of St. George III. Class. As a result, he fought to protect the Daugava line in the two battles of Polotsk and pursued the French after the victory at Tschaschniki over the Lukomla to Smolyani. In the wars of liberation he proved himself after participating in the siege of Danzig (January 19-26, 1813), especially in the spring campaign . At the beginning of March 1813, his corps fought under General Count von Wittgenstein in the Berlin area, and for his service in the Battle of Möckern he was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle of Prussia. In the final phase of the Battle of Lützen (May 2) he covered the Allied retreat, for this achievement he was awarded the Order of St. George 3rd Class on June 2, 1813. During the Battle of Bautzen (May 20/21, 1813) his troops were able to prevent French troops from bypassing one of the flanks of the Russian-Prussian battle line. He was seriously wounded again on May 22, 1813 near Reichenbach and had to leave the battlefield. He was then reinstated as commandant of Reval. On December 12, 1823 he was promoted to general of the infantry and received the Alexander Nevsky Order in 1827 . From March 25, 1828 to February 9, 1832, he was military governor of Reval.

Works

• Autobiography of General of the Infantry Gregor von Berg. Dresden 1871 ( archive.org ).

Web links

• Baltic Historical Commission (ed.): Entry on Gregor von Berg. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital

Individual evidence

1. ^ Otto Magnus von Stackelberg (arr.): Genealogical Handbook of the Baltic Knights , Part 2, 1.2: Estland, Görlitz 1930, p. 660 ;
   Genealogical Handbook of the Baltic Knighthoods (New Series) , Hamburg 2011, Volume 1, pp. 73 and 76 ( Genealogy of the Berg family as a reading sample ).