Biographical Memoir of the late Friedrich Hoffmann, S 



lingly at the Gymnasium, but he had not yet reached an age 

 included in the call to join the army. After the passage of the 

 French over the Elbe, Berlin was no longer deemed a safe resi- 

 dence for the superior government authorities ; and Hoffmann's 

 father received an order to repair to Breslau with the other 

 ofBcial individuals connected with the statistical office, and 

 proceeded there with his family. He had scarcely reached 

 Breslau when he was ordered to leave it, and remove to Lands- 

 berg on the Warthe ; but his family remained behind, and 

 Friedrich Hoffmann now entered the volunteers. Although at 

 that time only sixteen years of age, he was, at his own request, 

 admitted into the rifle company of the second battalion of the 

 guards, in which his elder brother also served. After the an- 

 nouncement of the armistice, he accompanied his corps to Dres- 

 den, Leipzic, and Frankfort on the Maine. His brother then 

 left him, having, with many of his comrades, been raised to the 

 rank of an officer, and transferred to the troops which were 

 destined to occupy again the fortresses of the Elbe. His father 

 was brought unexpectedly to his neighbourhood, for, in the 

 middle of December 1813, he was commanded to accompany 

 the Chancellor of State to Frankfort, and afterwards still for- 

 ther. The father and son met at Freiburg in Breisgau, and 

 again at Basel, where, on the ISth January 1814, the guard* 

 crossed the Rhine. From this time the two were always so near 

 that the communication of intelligence was easy and rapid; 

 and the father learned that his son had been attacked by dy- 

 sentery after the battle of Brienne, and obtained permission to 

 have him brought to be under his own care, instead of being 

 sent to an hospital. Although but little could be done for the 

 sick in the unsettled kind of life that was then necessarily led, 

 young Hoffmann soon recovered. Ere he was again fit for ser- 

 vice, the war took a turn which rendered it impossible for him 

 to rejoin his own company. While the guards, with the chief 

 army of the allies, were directed towards Paris, the French 

 army under the command of Napoleon himself, broke up the 

 communication between the army and the diplomatic head- 

 quarters, which latter were withdrawn southwards to Dijoru 

 Here intelligence was received of the entrance of the allies into 

 Paris, to which capital the road was soon opened for the oflt- 



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