Johann Heinrich von Fersen
Brunswick-Lüneburg Colonel
Johann Heinrich von Fersen, Colonel of the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg, was appointed lieutenant colonel of Soubiron (No. 6-B) on 9 January 1753, despite the fact that five older majors enjoyed seniority over him, on 20 January 1758, he was made commanding officer of the Füsilier-Regiment (No. 13-A), and on 25 July 1758, colonel of the same, with a commission dated 29 June 1758.
A corps of 6,000 men with eight cannons under Colonel Fersen and Major August Christian von Bülow was checked and defeated by Lieutenant-General Jacques Philippe de Choiseul-Stainville behind enemy lines on September 13, 1760, in the Battle of Rhadern (Sachsenberg) in the Principality of Waldeck. Colonel Fersen was killed in a French cavalry attack, and Major Bülow was taken prisoner, so severely wounded that he died of fever on September 24 in Stadtberge, today‘s Marsberg. The French took 400 prisoners, captured eight cannons, 40 ammunition carts, 1,200 horses, and the entire baggage.
Bibliography
- Düring, G. W. von: Geschichte des Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburgischen Karabinier- und Jäger-Korps (Berlin, Posen und Bromberg, 1828)
Source: J. F. Seyfart, Geschichte des seit 1756 in Deutschland u. dessen angrenzenden Ländern geführten Krieges (Frankf. u. Leipz. 1758–1765)