Ludwig Ernst von Benkendorf

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Lieutenant General von Benkendorff

Ludwig Ernst von Benkendorf (born June 5, 1711 in Ansbach , † May 5, 1801 in Dresden ) was a Saxon general of the cavalry .

origin

His parents were Johann Achatz von Benkendorff (* June 17, 1677; † November 4, 1743) and his wife Ernestine Magdalene von Lengefeld (* December 15, 1680; † 1746). His father was a margrave-speaking Privy Councilor , Oberamtmann von Feuchtwangen and a knight of the Red Eagle Order . His brother Johann August (* February 16, 1715; † 1768) became a Saxon-Gotha master stable master, his brother Johann Friedrich (* December 23, 1716; † 1767) a Prussian colonel .

Life

Ludwig Ernst studied law, entered the military service in Electoral Saxony in 1733 . In the Silesian Wars he took part in the campaign in Bohemia and Moravia in 1741 and fought as a captain with distinction against the Prussians near Kesselsdorf in 1745 .

During the Seven Years' War in the Battle of Kolin he was able to have contributed the Prussian left wing to the victory of Daun through a fortunate cavalry attack by the regiment "Duke of Courland" and was promoted to colonel .

Even later, Benkendorff took an honorable part in several victories of the Austrians, in particular at Breslau (November 22, 1757) and at Domstadtl in Moravia (June 18, 1758), where a large Prussian transport was taken away.

In 1762 Benkendorf fought as a major general in the battle of Freiberg . After carefully covering the retreat of the Imperial Army to Frauenstein, the Saxon court sent him to Vienna to collect the arrears of war money. After the death of King August III. (1763) he directed the withdrawal of the Saxons from Poland and in 1775 became inspector general of the cavalry. For his services he was knighted on September 4, 1768, Knight of the Military Order of St. Henry . In the War of the Bavarian Succession in 1778 he joined the Prussian army with the Saxon troops . In 1788 he was made head of the Garde du Corps and died on May 5, 1801 in Dresden. Most recently he lived in the Boxberg'schen Palais .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. The Royal Saxon Military St. Heinrichs Order 1736–1918. An honor sheet of the Saxon Army. Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1937, p. 35.
  2. ^ Adolf Hantzsch: Outstanding personalities in Dresden and their apartments, Dresden 1918, p. 81