SAVING THE GUNS:

THE PRUSSIAN

5TH KURMARK LANDWEHR INFANTRY REGIMENT

AT RHEIMS, 13 MARCH 1814

translated by Geert van Uythoven

Anonymous: “Ausgezeignete Thaten betreffend das 5te Kurmärkische Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment”:

“During the storming of Rheims on 7 March 1814, and the retreat from there on the 13th of the same month, Lieutenant Willmann, and the landwehr men Gottfried Frieß, Peter Gerth, Wilhelm Schäffer and David Saphie especially distinguished themselves. When the troop retreat into the city before the superior enemy, General von jagow noticed that two Prussian cannon with their horse teams, but abandoned by their crews, had stayed behind outside the gate. They would undoubtly have fallen in the hands of the enemy, which pushed forward in force, when no steps would be taken to save them quickly. General von Jagow ordered the 2nd battalion [of the 5th Kurmark Landwehr Infantry Regiment] to save the cannon. Immediately, the above mentioned officer and landwehr men decide to retrieve both cannon, and under canister fire of the enemy they debouched out of the city again, took possession of both cannon, brought them into the city and later turned them over to the 2nd Army Corps. On this day, the regiment suffered fifty dead and one hundred and fifty wounded.”

Source: Militair-Wochenblatt, 3. Jahrgang (Berlin 1818), No. 104, p.616.

© Geert van Uythoven