"IR1 Winterfeldt Regiment Question" Topic

So Winterfeldt was the "inhaber" of this Prussian infantry regiment during the SYW (at least until his death in 1757), but who would have been the commanding officer of the regiment on the battlefield when Winterfeldt was commanding a wing of the army or an independent army corps?

I need the name of the individual for my project.

I might have that info….
let me dig around.

That would be the lieutenant colonel, the one who actually commanded each Prussian regiment in the field. This was standard practice in all Prussian units. Unfortunately, I have not come across such listing of commanding officers anywhere…Very interesting question!

Indeed a good question. From the online German sources, I found Lexicons, Listing of Generals during the SYW, but not regimental commanders. When Winterfeld died, the next inhaber to be awarded the position was in May of 1758.

Good regiment, but they took a serious pounding at Prague and with more than two-third losses.

Cheers,

Answer to this question in Kronoskaf SYW project :
"During the Seven Years' War, the regiment was commanded by:
May 1756: Hans von Winterfeldt
January 1758: Johann von Latorff
February 1760: Karl von Zeuner "

But, you're right, we don't know who was the commander of the regiment when Winterfelt was also a wing commandant.
Surely the colonel or lieutenant-colonel…

Günther Dorn's "Die Infanterie-Regimenter Friedrich des Großen" has uniform/colours information and unit histories. Sometimes, regimental commanders (not the "inhabers") are named; mostly when they got shot! Unfortunately, no such information for IR 1 at that time.

You may have to ask Prof. Duffy next time you see him. Interesting question, if some form of records regarding regimental commanders do exist.

I checked the General Staff History, Vol.1 whose Appendix is dedicated to the Armies. They don't give any informations about Regimental commanders, only about Grenadier battalion commanders.
I think you should look at some regimental history, if I remember well there should be something (in German) at Zinnfiguren.

Merry Christmas

It sometimes happened that commanders became "Chef" of the regiment they commanded. Checking Winterfeldt's successors, it turns out that Lattorf (an Austrian by birth) had commanded Regt. Itzenplitz before his appointment, but Karl Christoph von Zeuner (born 1703 in Stettin) had joined IR 1 in 1740 as a captain (transferring from Margrave Albrecht's IR 19), and became Major in 1749, Lt. Colonel in 1757 and Colonel in 1758 before being granted the "Chef" position, with the rank of Major-General, in 1760 (died 1768 in Berlin).
- Not absolute proof unfortunately, but perhaps a strong enough probablity for Your Majesty's purpose?

@DAF,

First of all a merry christmas to you.
I had a look at the officers casualty table of the battle of Prague, 6 May 1757 as recorded in the Generalstab-History vol. 2. app. I remember this regiment suffered severely at that day. It has a certain Colonel von Münchow listed being wounded. IMHO, he should be the man you are looking for.

Cheers,
Christian

Christian: thank you for this information. I will use Colonel von Munchow as the name of the regimental colonel for IR1. In my new armies, I will field both battalions of the regiment and also have a mounted colonel figure for each regiment.

Fritz

I stand corrected, with thanks to Christian: König lists Lorenz Ernst von Münchow, born 1700, as commanding the Winterfeldt regiment during the campaigns of 1756 and 1757. In Dec. 1757 he was made Major-General and Chef of the former Hautcharmoy Regt. (IR 28) – which may well have been when Zeuner took over command of IR 1.

What is 'König' if its a book, sounds like I should be getting it. good info thanks

König, Anton Balthasar: Biographisches Lexikon aller Helden und Militairpersonen, welche sich in Preußischen Diensten berühmt gemacht haben. – Berlin 1788ss.

While focussing on Frederick the Great's time, the author includes 17th century Brandenburg officers that he had knowledge of, as well as many ones active during the War of Spanish Succession.

A reprint (presumably) is on sale for over 300 Euro from Berliner Zinnfiguren, but several volumes are accessible online via Google books. I found Münchow here:
link

Some volumes don't seem to come up when you just google the title, but combining the name with "Biographische Lexikon" worked for several other officers.

ah thank you musketier, they will be very useful in my research, will get downloading straight away, yes Google books works in strange ways.

If one had the time, it might be possible to extract most regimental commanders from those biographies, and at least partial tables of regimental officers – but it's not something I can contemplate doing before my retirement…

Does anyone have information on the regimental officer for IR5 Alt Braunschweig as well? The inhaber would have been Ferdinand of Brunswick, but obviously someone would have commanded the regiment while Ferdinand was commanding the allied army in western Germany.

Until Rossbach, the commander was Colonel Johann Christoph von Prignitz, who fell there. On the evening of Torgau, the regiment was rallied by Major Lestwitz, which implies that everyone above him was 'hors de combat'.
The above is according to Dorn/Engelmann, will search for more.