Blücher, GEBHARD LEBERECHT VON, Prince of Wahlstadt, Field-marshall of Prussia, was born at Rostock, in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, December 16, 1742. In 1757, shortly after the commencement of the Seven Years' War, he joined a regiment of Swedish hussars, and in his first action was taken prisoner by the Prussian hussars, whose colonel persuaded him to exchange out of the service of Sweden into that of Prussia, and gave him a lieutenantcy. He attained the rank of captain, but his dissipated habits lost him the favour of his colonel, who promoted a younger officer over his head, and Blücher, in 1772, left the service in disgust. He retired to his estate of Grossraddow, in Pomerania, and for fifteen years devoted himself to farming. In 1793, having returned to the army, he fought, as colonel of hussars, against the French on the Rhine, evincing great genius as a leader of cavalry. The breaking out of the war of 1806 led him, as lieutenant-general, to the battle of Auerstädt. He, with the greater part of the cavalry, occupied the left flank of the Prince of Hohenlohe's army in the retreat to Pomerania. Blücher himself marched into the territory of the free town of Lübeck, and hastily fortified the city; but the French took it by storm, and he was forced to surrender at Ratkau, whither he had escaped with a few troops. A fortnight after, he was exchanged for the French general Victor, and was sent, at the head of a corps, to assist in the defence of Stralsund. After the peace of Tilsit, he was employed at Königsberg and Berlin, and subsequently became commander in Pomerania. When the Prussians at last rose in opposition to France, Blücher was appointed to the chief command in Silesia, and at the battles of Lützen, Bautzen, and Haynau, he displayed heroic courage. At the Katzbach, he defeated Marshal Macdonald, and cleared Silesia of the enemy. In vain did Napoleon himself attempt to stop the 'old captain of hussars,' as he called him, in his victorious career.
In the battle of Leipzig he won great advantage over Marshal Marmont at Möckern, October 16, 1813; and on the 18th, in conjunction with the crown prince of Sweden, he had a great share in the defeat of the French, his troops being the first to enter Leipzig, the next day. In January 1814 he crossed the Rhine, and after winning the battle of La Rothière, pressed forward to Paris; but his scattered corps were routed by Napoleon, and he fought his way back to Chalons with great loss. On the 9th March, however, he defeated Napoleon at Laon; and at the end of the month he again advanced towards Paris, although sickness compelled him to make the journey in a wagon. The day at Montmartre crowned the brilliant deeds of this campaign, and, on the 31st March, Blücher entered the French capital. Frederick-William III. created him Prince of Wahlstadt, in remembrance of the victory at the Katzbach, and gave him an estate in Silesia. In England, whither he followed the Allied Sovereigns, he received the freedom of the city of London, and the university of Oxford conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws. After Napoleon's return in 1815, Blücher once more assumed the general command, and promptly led the army into the Netherlands. On June 16, 1815, he suffered a severe defeat at Ligny, but he personally rallied his scattered troops, and Wellington's victory at the battle of Waterloo was completed by his timely appearance on the field. Blücher despatched his Prussians after the fleeing enemy, and the pursuit lasted all through the night. Declining the offered truce, he marched again against Paris, and on the second taking of that city manifested a strong desire to retaliate on Paris the spoliation that other capitals had suffered; but he was held in check by the Duke of Wellington. In order to reward Blücher's services, Frederick-William III. created a new order, the badge of which consisted of an iron cross surrounded by golden rays. In 1819 a colossal bronze statue was erected in his honour in his native town, and others were afterwards raised in Breslau and Berlin. He died September 12, 1819, after a short illness, at his estate of Krieblowitz, in Silesia. 'Marshal Forwards' was not a great tactician, his victories being due mainly to his dash and energy. In speech and behaviour he was rough and uncultivated; his character was a noble compound of frankness, valour, integrity, and loyalty. His ardent enthusiasm for the liberation of Prussia and Germany from a foreign yoke, and his uncompromising pursuit of this noble aim, have justly rendered him a hero in the eyes of the German people. The statue of Blücher at Breslau is Rauch's masterpiece. The best biographies are those by Förster (Leip. 1821); Scherr (1865); Blasendorff (Berlin, 1877); and the second volume of Wigger's Geschichte der Familie von Blücher (Rostock, 1878).