Prince Of Prussia August

Vocation

Notable

Family

Prussian general and the youngest son of Prince August Ferdinand of Prussia (the brother of King Frederick the Great) and Margravine Elisabeth Louise of Brandenburg-Schwedt. August joined the Prussian army as a young man, earning the rank of captain by eighteen years old. In 1803, he became a major and was granted an infantry battalion of his own. Three years later, now a lieutenant colonel, he and his battalion took part in the Battle of Auerstedt. His brother, Prince Ludwig Ferdinand, had been killed by the French army under Napoleon I four days earlier. August himself was captured and held by the French until 1807. In March 1808, his cousin, King Fiedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, made him brigadier general. The Prince spent the next five years reorganizing the Prussian artillery together with Gerhard von Scharnhorst. Seven years after the failure of the Prussian army at Auerstedt, the Prince distinguished himself at the Battle of Leipzig. He continued his campaign against Napoleon throughout 1814. In the winter of 1814-1815, August attended the Congress of Vienna. He moved to the north of France in June 1818 and then back to Berlin after the war had ended. He spent his last years inspecting artillery units in various garrison towns. He died suddenly in Bromberg during one such trip, on 19 July 1843, aged 63. Link to Wikipedia biography