Wilhelm Carpelan

Wilhelm Carpelan (born April 7, 1700 in Grelsby Kungsgård , Åland , † July 3, 1788 in Åbo ) was a Swedish lieutenant general .

Life

Wilhelm Carpelan was the youngest child of Carl Carpelan (1648–1720) and his second wife Ingeborg Margaretha von Torken (1674–1759). At 16, he became a commissioned officer in the Swedish military service and was 1,717 Sergeant in the Royal Guard . Promoted to ensign in 1718 , he took part in the siege of the Fredriksten Fortress near Fredrikshald . He was then adjutant to the regiment until 1733 before becoming a captain in the Kronobergs regiment. In 1741 he became a major in the newly established Hamilton Regiment. With this he moved into a garrison in Malmö . In 1746 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and transferred to the Björneborgs regiment, in 1747 he went to the Österbotten regiment as a colonel . The following year he was made Knight of the Order of the Sword .

During the Seven Years' War his regiment was transferred to Swedish Pomerania in 1757 . In the same year he was transferred to the Westerbottens Regiment, with whom he went to garrison in Demmin in December 1757 . The Demmin Fortress was besieged by Prussian troops under Field Marshal Johann von Lehwaldt from December 29th . The crew initially withstood the heavy artillery fire and the assault. Because of the hopeless situation Carpelan accepted the offer to surrender and received free withdrawal with his troops on January 1, 1758. In recognition of his services, he was promoted to major general on January 23, 1758 . In the same year he was involved in battles at Pasewalk , Gollnitz and Rosenau. In 1759 he was given command of a squadron of the archipelago fleet . With this he succeeded in entering the Stettiner Haff and defeating a Prussian fleet, which allowed Swedish troops under Axel von Fersen to cross from Usedom to Wollin and take the island.

In 1760 he was appointed commander of the Grand Cross of the Order of the Sword. After further battles in Brandenburg and Pomerania, he took part in the winter campaign in Mecklenburg in 1762 . In 1763 he was promoted to lieutenant general. On March 2, 1770, he was granted his retirement from the military and on October 15, 1771 he was raised to the rank of baron. In the last few months before his death, he lived in Åbo, where he died unmarried and without children in 1788. He was buried in the family grave in Villnäs . His nephew Carl Ephraim Carpelan (1732-1819) inherited possession and title.

literature

• Fredric Wilhelm Radloff: Description of Åland. Åbo 1795, pp. 258-260 ( Google books ).
• Gabriel Anrep : Svenska Adelns Ättar-Taflor. Part 1, Norstedt & Söner, Stockholm 1858, p. 405 ( Google books ).