1830.] 



Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 



477 



applied himself unremittingly to the study 

 of the military sciences ; a study to which, 

 throughout his life, nearly all his leisure 

 hours were devoted. On the attainment 

 of his twentieth year, he entered the service 

 of the Margrave of Anspach, as an officer, 

 and went with the troops of that prince to 

 America, to assist the English in the war 

 against the colonists. 



It was not until the year 1792 that 

 Gneisenan attached himself to the service 

 of his native country. His regiment was at 

 that time quartered in Silesia. Ten years 

 afterwards he obtained a company ; in 1806 

 he was made a major ; and, in 1807? th g 

 king of Prussia sent him from Konings- 

 berg, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, 

 to take the command of Colberg, which, 

 through his exertions, was one of the few 

 strong-holds of Prussia that did not sur- 

 render to the force of Buonaparte, before the 

 peace of Tilsit. 



During the siege of Colberg he was pro- 

 moted to the rank of colonel. After the 

 treaty of Tilsit he left the army, apparently 

 in disgust, and came over to England ; but, 

 in point of fact, he was sent to this country 

 on a secret diplomatic mission. 



Colonel Gneisenan returned to Berlin in 

 1810, and was for some time employed in 

 the war office. In 1813, he was appointed 

 major-general, and quarter-master-general, 

 in which capacity he commanded the me- 

 morable retreat of the combined Russian 

 and Prussian forces, from the scene of their 

 discomfiture by Buonaparte, at Lutzen, to 

 Breslau. During the armistic that suc- 

 ceeded, he exerted himself in forming the 

 national militia of Prussia, called the 

 Landwher. 



His next appointment was that of chief 

 of the Prussian staff, to which we have 

 already alluded. After the armistice he re- 

 mained with Blucher's army, and the de- 

 struction of the French Marshal Macdo- 

 nald's corps on the Katzback, the subsequent 

 crossing of the Elbe, and the glorious 

 results of the battle of Mockcrn, near 

 Leipsic, on the 16th of October, 1813, 

 were ascribed chiefly to his able advice. 



Raised to the rank of lieutenant-general, 

 Gneisenan, in 1814, contributed greatly to 

 the victories of the allies at Brienne, and 

 Paris, as he had done in the battle of 

 Montmirail. It is said to have been chiefly 

 his opinion which determined the bold 

 march upon Paris. 



For these and former services the king 

 of Prussia now raised Gneisenan to the 

 dignity of a count, appointed him general 

 of infantry, and gave him landed estates in 

 Silesia, the rent roll of which exceeded ten 

 thousand dollars a year. 



It was chiefly General Gneisenan who, in 

 1815, enabled the Prussian army, which 

 had been defeated by the French in a san- 

 guinary engagement, near Ligny, on the 

 16th of June, to resume the offensive in the 

 course of two days, and to advance to the 

 assistance of (lie Duke of Wellington at 



Waterloo, with whom he, under Blucher's 

 command, pursued the enemy up to the 

 very gates of Paris. 



Count Gneisenan assisted at the subse- 

 quent negociations in the French capital ; 

 and, after the conclusion of the general 

 peace which followed, he was appointed 

 governor of the Prussian provinces on the 

 Rhine. 



In the following year, however, his name 

 having been often mentioned by M. 

 Schmaltz, in his Memoirs of the Secret 

 Societies in Germany, Count Gneisenan 

 demanded an inquiry into his conduct ; 

 and, as the king conceived it unnecessary to 

 to grant this, he solicited leave to retire. 

 His majesty accordingly allowed him to 

 retire on full pay, and to reside wherever he 

 might choose, simply on the condition of 

 relying upon his services in the event of a 

 war. 



A few years afterwards Count Gneisenan 

 was appointed a Prussian field-marshal, and 

 governor of Berlin. 



The count married in 1796, and had by 

 his lady, who survives him, seven children, 

 the eldest of whom is an officer in the Prus- 

 sian foot guards. He occasionally resided 

 on his estate in Silesia, where he died, in 

 the autumn of 1829, in his 69th year. 



THE REV. THOMAS BELSHAM. 



The Rev. Thomas Belsham, the Unita- 

 rian minister of the chapel in Essex-street, 

 Strand, died at Hampstead in the early 

 part of November, in the 80th year of his 

 age. This gentleman was the brother of 

 William Belsham, the furious Whig histo- 

 rian, who died a year or two since. Ir) 

 early life, he was some time tutor at the 

 dissenting academy at Daventiy ; but in- 

 clining to Unitarianism, he removed to the 

 New College, Hackney, whence he suc- 

 ceeded Dr. Priestley in 1794, at the UnU 

 tarian Meeting-house near that village. 

 There he continued till 1 808, when he was 

 chosen to occupy the pulpit of Essex-street 

 chapel, vacated by the death of the Rev. 

 Thomas Lindsay. 



By his sect and party, Mr. Belsham was 

 regarded as an able and powerful advocate 

 of the Unitarian doctrine. He was the 

 author of several sermons ; A Charge at 

 the Ordination of Thomas Kenrick, at Exe- 

 ' ter, 1785 A Review of Mr. Wilberforce's 

 Practical View of the Christian Religion- 

 Elements of the Philosophy of the Mind", 

 and of Moral Philosophy A Summary 

 View of the Evidences and Importance of 

 Christian Revelation Letters on Armi- 

 nianism and other Topics on Metaphysics 

 and Religion Biographical Memoir, and 

 a Sermon on the Death of Mr. Lindsay 

 A Calm Review of the Scripture Doctrine 

 concerning the Person of Christ Letter to 

 Lord Sidmouth on the Bill relative to Prp- 

 testant Dissenting Ministers The Rights 

 of Conscience asserted, with respect to the 

 Interpretation of the Toleration Acts Me- 

 moirs of the late Rev. Thomas Lindsay, 6cc. 



