Hellmuth from Lepel

Baron Eugen August Hellmuth von Lepel , count from 1810 , (* March 7, 1773 in Ludwigsburg ; † September 12, 1812 in Moshaisk , Russia ) was a royal Westphalian officer and first stable master of King Jérôme . He was seriously wounded in the Battle of Borodino on September 7, 1812 and died days later in the hospital.

origin

His parents were Joachim Otto Friedrich von Lepel (* March 12, 1740; † May 14, 1802) from the Grambow family and his first wife Karoline Maria Friederike geb. von Röder (born November 1, 1749; † June 3, 1802) (divorced September 20, 1781), a daughter of Field Marshal General and Baron August Gottlob von Röder. His father was Oberstwachtmeister of the life guards on horseback and Oberhofmarschall of the prince Wolfgang Ernst II of Isenburg zu Birstein.

Life

Eugen August Hellmuth von Lepel was an officer in Prussian service from 1791 to 1800 . He then entered service in Württemberg and rose to the rank of colonel . At the end of 1807 he changed to the service of the Kingdom of Westphalia and in January 1808 became the king's stable master. On January 10, 1810 he was raised to the Westphalian count status. From June 9, 1810 he was adjutant to the king and brigadier general .

During the Russian campaign in 1812 Lepel was major general and commander of the Westphalian Cuirassier Brigade in Napoleon's Grande Armée (2nd Brigade, 4th Cavalry Division, IV Corps). He lost his left arm up to his shoulder in the Battle of Borodino when the IV Corps under Marshal Murat attacked Russian positions through a grape ball. Despite the amputation, the wound was too severe and he died in the hospital in Mozhaisk . He was posthumously awarded the Legion of Honor on October 15, 1812 .

“General von Lepel was considered the most beautiful officer in the Westphalian army; he was the darling of Friederike Katharinen, the wife of King Jérôme. We just saw him with his pallasch raised in front of his brigade, when a passport ball threw him from his horse. Wounded to death, he named his queen and died. "

- Theodor Fontane : Before the storm: Chapter 11. Borodino

literature

• Noel Charavay: Les Généraux morts pour la patrie: armées de terre et de mer. Notices biographiques: 2 série 1805–1815. Charavay, Paris, 1908
• Yearbook of the German Nobility , Volume 2, 1898, p. 405
• Historisch-Genealogisches Handbuch des Familie v. Lepel (Lepell). Based on family history sources, developed by Andreas Hansert and Oskar Matthias Freiherr von Lepel with the assistance of Klaus Bernhard Freiherr von Lepel and Herbert Stoyan. German Family Archives, Volume 151, Verlag Degener & Co., Insingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-7686-5201-8
• Lepel, Joachim Otto Friedrich von. Hessian biography. (As of April 9, 2015). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

Web links

• family tree