Ferdinand von Schill
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Ferdinand Baptista von Schill (6 January 1776 – 31 May 1809) was a Prussian officer who revolted unsuccessfully against French domination in May 1809.
Schill was born near Dresden, Saxony, and entered the Prussian Army's cavalry at the age of twelve. He was still a subaltern of dragoons when he was wounded at the battle of Auerstadt. From that field he escaped to Kolberg, where he played a very prominent part in the celebrated siege of 1807, as the commander of a volunteer force of all arms. After the Treaty of Tilsit, he was promoted to major and given the command of a hussar regiment formed from his Kolberg men.
In 1809 the political situation in Europe appeared to Schill to favor an attempt to liberate his country from the French domination of Napoleon Bonaparte. Leading out his regiment from Berlin under pretext of manoeuvres, he raised the standard of revolt, and, joined by many officers and a company of light infantry, marched for the Elbe. At the village of Dodendorf on May 5, 1809, he had a brush with the Magdeburg garrison, but was soon driven northwards, where he hoped to find British support. King Frederick William III of Prussia's proclamations prevented the patriots from receiving any appreciable assistance, and with little more than his original force Schill was surrounded by 5,000 Danish and Dutch troops in the neighborhood of Wismar.
Schill escaped to Stralsund through combat at Damgarten on May 24, and attempted to put Stralsund's crumbling fortifications in order. The Danes and Dutch soon hemmed him in, and by sheer numbers overwhelmed the defenders on May 31. Schill himself was killed. Some parties escaped to Prussia, where the officers were tried by court-martial, cashiered and imprisoned. A few escaped to Swinemünde, but the rest were either killed or taken. Handed over to the French, the soldiers were sent to the galleys, and the eleven officers shot at Wesel on September 16. The body of Schill was buried at Stralsund, his head sent to Leiden, where it remained until 1837. Monuments were erected at Braunschweig, Stralsund and Wesel, and the 1st Silesian Leib-Hussars carried Schill's name since 1889.
[edit] References
- Haken, Ferdinand von Schill (Leipzig, 1824)
- Barsch, Ferdinand von Schills Zug und Tod (Leipzig, 1860)
- Ferdinand von Schill, ein Charakterbild (Potsdam, 1860)
- Petrich, Pommersche Lebensbilder. vol. ii. (Stettin, 1884)
- Francke, Aus Stralsunds Französenzeit (1890).
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
