20 REQUEST FOR ADMISSION INTO THE PRUSSIAN ARMY. 



my toilet to proceed with me to General you Ranch, 

 the chief of the corps of Engineers, and to inform 

 him of my desire. 



The general strongly dissuaded me. as so many 

 cadets were already waiting their call to the artillery 

 and engineering school, so that I could not hope to get 

 in in less than four or five years. He advised me 

 to try the Artillery, whose cadets attended the same 

 school as the engineers and had considerably better 

 prospects*- I accordingly made up my mind to try my 

 luck in the artillery, and as there was no getting into 

 the Guards, I obtained an introduction from lieutenant 

 von Huet's father, colonel on the retired list, to Colonel 

 von Scharnhorst, commander of the 3rd Artillery- 

 Brigade, and proceeded blithe of heart to Magdeburg. 



' The colonel - - a son of the celebrated organizer 

 of the Prussian army also indeed at first made 



sundry difficulties, remarking that the applications for 

 cadetships were very numerous, and that of the 

 fifteen young men, who had already offered them- 

 selves, he could only take the four \vho should pass 

 the best examination* He finally however acceded 

 to my request, and promised to admit me to the 

 examination, provided his Majesty the King was pleased 

 to allow me, although a foreigner, to enter the army 

 of Prussia. My frank resolute bearing evidently took 

 his fancy; but most influential perhaps was the circum- 

 stance, that he saw from my papers that my mother 

 was a Deichmann of Poggenhageri, which adjoined his 

 father's estate. 





