382 



FRIEDRICH CARL, PRINCE. 



of the customs duties, a measure that extends 

 to Cambodia, Annam, and Tonquin, as part of 

 the Indo-Chinese Customs Union. A credit 

 was voted in August, 1885, for the organiza- 

 tion of the colony of Obock and of a protector- 

 ate over Tadjourah and neighboring territories 

 as far as Gabbet Karah. The object is to es- 

 tablish a coaling-station at Obock. 



FRIEDRICH CARL, Prince, a German general, 

 born in Berlin, March 20, 1828; died of apo- 

 plexy, June 15, 1885, at Schloss Glienecke, 

 near Potsdam. Prince Friedrich Carl of Prus- 

 sia was the only son of Prince Carl, broth- 

 er of the Emperor Friedrich Wilhelm. His 

 mother, .Princess Marie of Saxe- Weimar, was 

 the sister of the Empress Augusta. Among 

 the various military tutors that attended to 

 his education was Major von Roon, afterward 

 Prussian Minister of War. In 1848 the Prince 

 became a captain in the Foot-Guards. As a 

 very young man he earned the name of a brave 

 and dashing soldier in the Danish War of 1849, 

 in which he held the rank of captain of the 

 Guards. He led a regiment in a flank attack at 

 Schleswig which decided the battle. Sent with 

 a dispatch by Marshal Wrangel, and finding 

 it inapplicable, he executed the manoeuvre 

 on his own responsibility. In the campaign 

 against the revolutionists in Baden, he was 

 twice wounded at Wiesenthal. He was ap- 

 pointed colonel of the Dragoon Guards in 

 J852. In 1855 he visited Paris and studied 

 the French military system. After the Franco- 

 Austrian War of 1859 he had lithographed for 

 private circulation a pamphlet containing criti- 

 cisms on the French tactics, and suggestions as 

 to the best way of opposing them, which was 

 published without authority by a Frankfort 

 bookseller, and caused ill feelings in France. 

 He had already written several military essays 

 that gained him a high reputation for profes- 

 sional ability. He became a major-general 

 in 1854 and a lieutenant-general in 1856. He 

 was placed in command of the Third or Bran- 

 denburg Army Corps in 1860, and in 1861 be- 

 came a general of cavalry. For ten years he 

 was commander of the Third Army Corps, 

 which he brought to a high degree of tactical 

 excellence. In the Danish War of 1864 he 

 commanded the Prussian corps that formed 

 the right wing of the allied army. In this 

 campaign he won the reputation of a cautious 

 and able strategist in addition to that of a 

 brilliant and daring cavalry commander. He 

 had the credit of forcing the Danes to evacu- 

 ate Schleswig. In the beginning of Febru- 

 ary, 1864, he marched his troops over the 

 Eider and began the siege of Dtippel, which 

 fell April 18. In the gallant storming he led 

 the Prussian assault. The soldiers gave him 

 the nickname of "Prinz Allezeit Yoran" 

 3 Prince Ever to the Front). In May, upon 

 the retirement of Field-Marshal von Wrangel, 

 he took chief command of the army of opera- 

 tions, and ordered the crossing over to Alsen 

 on the 29th of June. 



In the Austrian War of 1866 he was given 

 command of the First Army. The campaign 

 was for him a succession of triumphs. He 

 marched into Saxony, advanced through Bo- 

 hemia, won the battles of Miinchengratz and 

 Gitschin, took part in the battle of Koniggratz, 

 occupied Saarbrunn and Sunderburg, advanced 

 into Hungary, and would have taken a whole 

 army corps prisoners of war at Presburg if an 

 armistice had not intervened. The Austrian 

 General Benedek expected the Prussians to 

 act on the defensive, and was unprepared for 

 their rapid advance through Bohemia. Prince 

 Friedrich was exceedingly popular with the 

 soldiers of the Prussian army, winning their 

 admiration by his rough and ready manner, 

 and their attachment by sharing dangers with 

 them, and attending to their needs and com- 

 forts. In the decisive battle of Koniggratz, or 

 Sadowa, he held his troops in the center, sus- 

 taining the brunt of the whole battle against 

 overpowering odds, until the army of the 

 Crown Prince came up just in time to save 

 them from defeat. Prince Friedrich Carl has 

 been accused of opening the fight an hour be- 

 fore he was ordered, in order to win the deci- 

 sive victory before the arrival of the Crown 

 Prince. But his conduct of the battle was so 

 skillful, and the action reflected such luster 

 on the Prussian arms, that this grave fault, 

 if he committed it, was condoned. 



In the Franco-German War Prince Friedrich 

 Carl commanded the largest of the three Ger- 

 man armies, and gained some of the brightest 

 victories of the war, achieving a place among 

 the imperishable names of German military 

 history. At the head of the Second Army, 

 numbering 260,000 men, he defeated Gen. 

 Froissart, at Speichern, won the victories of 

 Mars la Tour, Gravelotte, and St. Privat, and 

 drove Bazaine back to Metz, where he shut up 

 the army of 173,000 men, repelling the numer- 

 ous brilliant sallies, in which they lost 40,000 

 men, until starvation compelled them to sur- 

 render. Then, marching over to the Loire, the 

 Red Prince, as the French called him, because 

 he always wore the scarlet uniform of the 

 Uhlans, conducted the most difficult operations 

 in the war, a campaign against superior num- 

 bers, conducted with great prudence, vigilance, 

 and sagacity. In the beginning of December, 

 1870, he advanced upon Orleans and defeated 

 the army of Aurelle de Paladines. Then, as 

 the Loire Army under Gen. Chanzy was pre 

 paring to take the offensive, he advanced tx 

 Le Mans, and in a seven days' fight crush< 

 the last army that could have succored Paris. 



He was made a field-marshal as a rewan 

 for the capture of Metz, and was loaded wiw 

 honors for his brilliant services during t 

 war. After the war was over, as inspecto 

 general of the cavalry, he gave his attenti< 

 to improving the horsemanship and tactic 

 evolutions of that arm. 



Prince Friedrich married in 1854 Princes: 

 Maria Anna, of Anhalt-Dessau, who was ir 



