Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/774

 MANTETJPFEL.

767

passage of the Sdilei, and led the military actions, which issued, in March, in the occupation of Jut- land. On the conclusion of the war with Denmark, when the course of affairs in the Elbe Duchies, and the question of their administration and distribution, gave rise to mis- understandings between Prussia and Austria, General von Man- teuffel exerted himself to bring about an amicable agreement be- tween the two powers. The Con- vention of G^a8tein, which effected this object, was chiefly the work of the General. Already in June, 1865, he had been intrusted with the supreme command of the troops in the Elbe Duchies ; and, as a re- sult of the Gastein Convention, was, on Aug. 22, nominated Gover- nor of the Duchy of Schleswig, and Commander of the Prussian troops in Holstein, and of the Prussian marines stationed at Kiel. The outbreak of the war witJi Austria, in 1866, called the General a second time to active warfare. On June 6 he received orders to advance into Holstein j on the 11th he occupied Altona, and undertook the govern- ment of Holstein ; on the 15th he crossed the Elbe near Altona, and advanced into Northern Hanover; on the 18th he passed with those troops of his corps which had ad- vanced into Hanover under the command of the General of In- fantry, Vogel von Falkenstein, and took part in the hemming in of the Hanoverian troops, and in the operations in Saxony and Fran- conia. On July 20 General Man- teuffel undertook the command-in- chief of the Army of the Maine, in succession to General Vogel von Falkenstein, and led it, strength- ened by various additions of troops, towards Darmstadt and the Oden- wald, in order to engage it with the 7th and 8th Army Corps, taking part personally in the fights of Hansen, Helmstadt, Vettingen, Boesbrunn, and Wflrzburg. For these services the King of Prusia

conferred upon him the order P<mr le M4rite, After the conclusion of peace, Manteuffel received a diplo- matic mission to St. Petersburg, iot the purpose of obtaining the recog- nition by the Eussian government of the results of the war. On his return &om Russia, General Man- teuffel was named General-in-Com- mand of the troops in Schleswig- Holstein; and on Sept. 20 was advanced to the rank of General of Cavalry and Chief of the Rhenish Eegiment of Dragoons (No. 5) ; and on Oct. 80, to that of Commandant of the Ninth Army Corps. On Jan. 19, 1867, he was, at his own request, released from this appointment, and settled down in Naumberg, where he held a canonry, with the view of obtaining repose. On April 8, 1868, he was nominated General- in-Command of the First Army Corps, in place of General von Falkenstein, which corps, that of the East Prussians, the General again led into the field in 1870-71. This army corps came under fire first at CourceUes and Noisseville, was concerned after the capitula- tion of Metz with the evacuation of the camp and the transport of the prisoners of war to Germany ; re-entered the campaign against the north-eastern fortresses, and against the Army of the North, organised under General Bourbaki. Having rendered brilliant services, he was transferred with a corps to the south, to the line of the Sa6ne, in order to undertake the command of the German army, and operate against the south and soutii-east armies of the French. Here, by a dexterous and rapid flank march, he cut the communication between the army of Bourbaki, beaten back by General von Werder, and Lyon and Nevers, and so absolutely com- pleted its defeat, driving it, by the passes of the Jura, on to the Swiss territory. General Manteuffel was formally invested, at Berlin, with the insignia of the Order of the Black Eagle, Jan. 18, 1872. He