19TH CENTURY PRUSSIAN FIELD MARSHAL  LEONHARD GRAF VON BLUMENTHAL AUTOGRAPH

Partial autograph letter signed dated 1866 

Measures 4" x 5 1/2"

In very good condition

Karl Konstantin Albrecht Leonhard Graf[a] von Blumenthal (30 July 1810 – 21 December 1900) was an officer of the Prussian Army and field marshal of the Imperial German Army, chiefly remembered for his decisive intervention at the Battle of Königgrätz in 1866, his victories at Wörth and Weißenburg, and above all his refusal to bombard Paris in 1870 during the siege, of which he was in command.

Born in Schwedt, Brandenburg, on 30 July 1810, Leonhard was the son of Ludwig Albrecht von Blumenthal (1774–1813) and his wife Friederike Charlotte Dorothea von Below (1783–1853). Ludwig was a captain in the Brandenburg Dragoon Regiment who was wounded in the Battle of Dennewitz, and later died from his injuries at Potsdam. Leonhard had a younger brother, Karl (1811-1903), who would later serve as a major-general in the army.

Leonhard was brought up on his grandfather's estate at Reddentin, where his uncle Gustav von Below was founding what would become the Pentecostal movement. He was educated at the military schools of Culm and Berlin, entering the Guards as a 2nd lieutenant in 1827, and studied at the Berlin General War School (later called the Prussian Military Academy).