Edwin Freiherr von Manteuffel

Edwin Karl Rochus Freiherr von Manteuffel (24 February 180917 June 1885) was a Prussian ''Generalfeldmarschall'' noted for his victories in the Franco-Prussian War, and the first Imperial Lieutenant (german: Reichsstatthalter) of Alsace–Lorraine from 1879 until his death.

Biography

Son of the president of the superior court of Magdeburg, Manteuffel was born at Dresden and brought up with his cousin, Otto von Manteuffel (1805–1882), the Prussian statesman. He entered the guards cavalry at Berlin in 1827 and became an officer in 1828. After attending the War Academy for two years, and serving successively as '' aide-de-camp'' to General von Müffling and to Prince Albert of Prussia, he was promoted captain in 1843 and major in 1848, when he became ''aide-de-camp'' to Frederick William IV, whose confidence he had gained during the revolutionary movement in Berlin.

Promoted lieutenant-colonel in 1852, and colonel (and commanding officer of the 5th Uhlans) in 1853, Manteuffel was sent on important diplomatic missions to Vienna and St Petersburg. In 1857 he was promoted to major-general and chief of the Prussian Military Cabinet (the King's military advisers). He gave strong support to the Prince Regent's plans for the reorganization of the army. In 1861 he was violently attacked in a pamphlet by Karl Twesten (1820–1870), a Liberal leader, whom he had wounded in a duel, for which Manteuffel insisted on being briefly imprisoned. He was promoted to lieutenant-general for the coronation of William I on 18 October 1861 and saw active service in that rank in the Danish War of 1864, then at its conclusion was appointed civil and military governor of Schleswig. In the Austrian War of 1866 he first occupied Holstein and afterwards commanded a division under Vogel von Falkenstein in the Hanoverian campaign, then in July succeeded Vogel in command of the Army of the Main.

Manteuffel's successful campaign ended with the occupation of Würzburg, and he received the order Pour le Mérite. However, on account of his monarchist political views throughout the political crises of the 1860s, and of his almost bigoted Roman Catholicism, he was regarded by Liberal politicians as a reactionary, and, unlike the other army commanders, he was not granted a financial reward for his services. He then went on a diplomatic mission to St Petersburg, where he was ''persona grata'', and gained Russia's acquiescence to Prussia's domination of north Germany. On his return he was made honorary colonel of the 5th Dragoon Regiment. He was appointed to the command of the IX (Schleswig-Holstein) Corps in 1866. But having previously exercised both civil and military control in the Elbe duchies he was unwilling to be a purely military commander under one of his former civil subordinates, and retired from the army for a year.

In 1868, however, Manteuffel returned to active service and on 18 September 1869 he received the Grand Cross of the Order of the Red Eagle. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 he commanded the I Corps under Steinmetz, distinguishing himself in the Battle of Borny-Colombey, and in the repulse of Bazaine at Noisseville. In October he succeeded Steinmetz in the command of the 1st Army, won the Battle of Amiens against ''Général de brigade'' Jean-Joseph Farre, and occupied Rouen. However he was less fortunate against Faidherbe at Pont Noyelles and Bapaume.

In January 1871 he commanded the newly formed ''Army of the South'', which he led, in spite of hard frost, through the Côte-d'Or

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