Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Blumenthal, Leonard von
BLUMENTHAL, Lieutenant-General Leonard von, Chief of the General Staff of the Army of the Crown Prince of Prussia, was born on July 30, 1810, at Schweldt, on the Oder. He was, like the majority of the leaders of the Prussian army, a soldier from childhood. Educated from 1820 to 1827 in the military academies of Culm and Berlin, he was entered on July 27, 1827, as Second Lieutenant in the Guard Landwehr regiment (the present Fusilier Guards), attended from 1830–1833 the general military schools in Berlin, was from 1837–1845 Adjutant to the Coblenz Landwehr battalion, and became for the first time in 1846 Premier Lieutenant in the topographical division of the General Staff. In order to make himself thoroughly acquainted with technical military science, Blumenthal had been ordered for service during the following years to the Artillery Guards and the division of the Pioneer Guards, and had already, in March, 1848, taken part as Lieutenant in the Fusilier battalions of the 31st Infantry Regiment in the street-fights in Berlin. Some months later, Blumenthal was transferred as Captain (Jan. 1, 1849) to the General Staff, to which he has, with slight interruptions, belonged for some twenty-two years. In 1849 he took, as a member of the staff of General von Bonin, part in the Schleswig-Holstein campaign, and fought in the skirmishes at Auenbüll and Beuschau, in the battle of Colding, and in the affairs at Alminde, Gudsöe, and Tauloo-Church, and took, in the siege and battle of Fredericia, so active and conspicuous a part, that he was on May 14, 1849, promoted as Chief of the General Staff of the Schleswig-Holstein Army. His capabilities were regarded as being so brilliant, that in the following year (1850) he was named as General Staff's officer of the Mobile Division under General von Tietzen in the electorate of Hesse. He was next sent, intrusted with special military propositions, to England, and was rewarded with the Order of the Red Eagle (fourth class, with swords). On the 18th of June, 1853, advanced to the rank of Major in the Grand General Staff, Blumenthal was, as military companion and as General Staff's officer of the 8th Division, appointed to take part in the spring exercises of that year (1853) in Thuringia and at Berlin. His linguistic and departmental knowledge led to his being intrusted with further commissions to England. In 1859 he was named the personal Adjutant of Prince Frederic Charles. On July 1, 1860, he became Colonel and Commander of the 31st, later of the 71st Infantry Regiment. In 1861 he accompanied General von Bonin to the British Court, and became then the conductor of the foreign officers at the autumn manoeuvres on the Rhine, and military companion of the Crown Prince of Saxony at the coronation in Königsberg. Colonel von Blumenthal had been for some time Chief of the Staff of the Third Army Corps, when, on Dec. 15, 1863, he was nominated the Chief of the General Staff of the combined Mobile Army Corps against Denmark, and now had the first opportunity of discovering his splendid abilities. The part which he took in this war, especially at Missunde, in the storming of the trenches at Düppel, and the passage on to the island of Alsen, was so extremely important, that on June 25, 1864, he was promoted to be Major-General, and received the Order pour le Mérite. After the peace, General von Blumenthal commanded first the 7th and next the 30th Infantry Brigade. In the Austrian war of 1866 he was Chief of the General Staff of the Second Army of the Crown Prince, and for his distinguished services received the Oak-leaf of the Order pour le Mérite (one of the rarest distinctions in the army) and the Star of Knight Commander of the Order of the House of Hohenzollern. On Oct. 30, 1866, he was designated Commander of the 14th Division in Düsseldorf, and accompanied the Crown Prince in the autumn of 1866 to St. Petersburg. When, on the outbreak of the war with France, the Crown Prince was intrusted with the supreme command of the Third Army, General von Blumenthal was requested to accept the important post of Chief of the General Staff; and his Imperial Highness, when presented by the Emperor of Germany with the Iron Cross, declared that the same distinction was equally due to General von Blumenthal. In 1871 he was sent to England to represent the German Empire at the autumn manoeuvres at Cobham. It is unnecessary to add more than that Lieutenant-General von Blumenthal is recognised as one of the most distinguished strategists of modern times.