Friedrich Christoph von Saldern

Friedrich Christoph von Saldern (2 January 1719 – 14 March 1785) was a Prussian general and military writer. He proved his organizational mettle with the battlefield clean up after Liegnitz in 1760. At the Battle of Torgau he proved his tactical and command mettle in the assault Austrian lines, which changed the course of the battle. His refusal to sack Hubertusburg in 1763 led to his resignation from the army. Despite retirement from command, however, Frederick the Great promoted him to lieutenant general and made him inspector of troops. Saldern wrote at least two missives on infantry tactics. He received the Order Pour le Mérite and the Order of the Black Eagle; in 1851, his name was included on the Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great.

Family

Saldern was born in the Prignitz into a family of the old Lower Saxon nobility Friedrich Christoph Saldern comes from the old Lower Saxon noble family of Saldern. At his birth in 1719 his father Otto Ludolph von Saldern (26 June 1686 – 5 April 1753) was battalion commander of Kolberg; his mother was Lucrezia Tugendreich von Holtzendorf (1700–1728). After her death his father married Sophie Wilhemine von Sack (1709–1780), the daughter of the commander of Kolberg, Siegmund von Sack.

Saldern married three times, first on 1 June 1748 to Sophie Antoinette Katharina von Tettau (1720–1759), a lady in waiting for Queen Elizabeth Christine and daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Carl von Tettau, second, to Wilhelmine von Borcke (6 April 1742, Kassel – 15 May 1766, Potsdam, at age 24) on 5 January 1763; after her death, third, he married in 1767 her sister, Helene Bernhardine von Borcke (1743–1831, Berlin). He had two children who predeceased him.

Military career He entered the Prussian Army in 1735 in Stettin. Due to his height, he was transferred to the Guards in 1739. When this regiment was dissolved after Frederick II ascension, he was transferred to the second battalion of the new guard regiment as a first lieutenant. This opened the way for rapid promotions. By the end of 1740, with the death of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, Prussia and Austria were at war over Maria Theresa's succession. With the outbreak of war with Austria, he remained with the king as an aide-de-camp, and he was the first to discover the approach of Neipperg's Austrians preliminary to the Battle of Mollwitz. In 1766 he became lieutenant-general.

Saldern spent the remainder of his life studying military sciences, in which he became a pedant. In one of his works he discussed at great length the question of the proper cadence for the infantry: was it 75 paces per minute, or 76? The "Saldern-tactics" proliferated in the Prussian military following Frederick's death, and contributed powerfully to the disaster of Jena in 1806. His works included Taktik der Infanterie (Dresden, 1784) and Taktische Grundsatze (Dresden, 1786), and were the basis of the British "Dundas" drill-book.

Saldern received the Order Pour le Mérite and the Order of the Black Eagle; in 1851, his name was included on the Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great.