Wir WILHELM I. von Gottes Gnaden des heiligen Römischen Reiches Kurfürst, souverainer Land- graf zu Hessen, Fürst zu Hersfeld, Hanau und Fritzlar, Graf zu Catzenelnbogen, Dietz, Ziegenhain, Nidda und Schaumburg etc.
In dem jetzigen wichtigen Zeitraum, wo die alten, braven, treuen Hessen wieder wirklich für ihr Vaterland, für die Erhaltung ihrer teutschen Rechte, Sitten un Sprache fechten, verdient der kräftige Sinn durch ganz eigen- thümliche Monumente geehrt und verewigt zu werden.
Wir haben daher beschlossen, das Verdienst, welche in dem jetzigen Kriege, im wirklichen Kampf mit dem Feinde, für Teutschlands Freyheit und Selbständigkeit, für den rechtmäβigem Fürst und Vaterland, erworben wird besonderes auszuzeichnen, und diese eigenthümliche Auszeichnung nach diesem Kriege nicht weiter zu verleihen.
Dem gemäβ verordnen Wir wie folgt:
1) Die nur für diesen Krieg bestehende Auszeichnung des Militär-Ver- dienstes Unserer Unterthanen um des Vaterlandes ist: Der eiserne Helm auf dem Brabanter Kreutz von zwey Clas- sen und einem Groβkreuz.
2) Beyde Classen haben ein ganz gleiches in Silber gefaβtes schwarzes Brabanter Kreutz von Guβeisen, auf der Vorderseite, in der Mitte den offe- nen Helm, an dessen beyden Seiten auf dem Kreutz Unsern Namenszug W. K., und unten die Jahrzahl 1814; beyde Classen erden in einem ro- then Bande mit weiβer Einfassung im Knopfloch getragen. Die erste Classe hat neben dieser Decoration noch ein Kreutz von rothem Bande mit weiβer Einfassung auf der linken Brust; und das Groβkreutz, noch einmal so groβ als das der beyden Classen, wird an dem rothen Bande mit weiβer Einfas- sung um den Hals getragen.
3) Über die Ertheilung des eisernen Helms wird ein Patent ausgefer- tiget, welches der Familie als ein ewiges Denkmal verbleibt; die Namen der- jenigen, welchen es ertheilt wird, werden in den öffentlichen Blättern bekannt gemacht, und jede Gemeinde verzeichnet die Ritter aus ihrer Mitte auf eine Tafel und hängt dieselbe an einen in die Augen fallenden Ort in ihrer Kirche auf.
4) Der eiserne Helm wird durchgängig von Officieren und Gemeinen auf gleiche Weise in den angeordneten zwey Classen getragen.
5) Die zweyte Classe des eisernen Helms soll durchgängig zuerst verlie- hen werden; die erste kann nicht anders erfolgen, als wenn die zweyte schon erworben war.
6) Daraus folgt, daβ auch diejenigen, welche andere Ordens schon be- sitzen, und sich in diesem Kriege auszeichnen, zunächst nur den eisernen Helm zweyter Classe erhalten können.
7) Das Groβkreutz kann nur dem ertheilt werden, der bey einer gewon- nenen Schlacht als kommandirender Unsrer Truppen entscheidend bey- getragen, oder für eine gewonnene entscheidende Affäre, desgleichen für Wegnahme oder für die anhaltende Vertheidigung einer Festung, die nicht in feindliche Hände fallt, jedoch jedesmal nur dem kommandirenden Officier.
8) In Rücksicht der Art des verwürkten Verlustes dieser Auszeichnung, hat es bey der in Ansehung Unseres Militair-Verdienst-Ordens gegebenen Vorschrift sein Bewenden.
9) Obgleich in der Regel nur einer in Unsern Diensten stehenden Mili- tairperson den Orden des eisernen Helms ertheilt werden kann, so wollen Wir doch als eine ganz besondere Auszeichnung ihn auch dem erhtei- len, der von den aliirten Machten bey Unsern Truppen activ gegen den Feind dient, und sich durch hohe That hervorthut.
Urkundlich unter Unserer Höchsteigenhändigen Unterschrift und beygedrucktem Kurfürstlichen Insiegel.
Gegeben Cassel am 18ten März 1814
WILHELM K.
2. Quellen 2a. Archivarische Quellen overview of archival sources in the Staatsarchiv Marburg (HStAM) and the Stadtarchiv Kassel (StadtA KS) related to the Order of the Iron Helmet:
It is interesting to notice a couple of things: a) The original shape of the Order of the Iron Helmet had the helmet placed on the Brabanterkreuz. Lateron, without an official change in the statutes of the Order, the shape of the cross was changed to the Deutsche Kreuz, which had the shape of an Iron Cross, with longer vertical arms. b) Although there were several grades of the order, only the 2nd class of the order has ever been awarded. The first class was not even worn by the Kurprinz, neither at the time of his award (22.09.1814) nor lateron, when he was the Grandmaster of the order. c) The Order was indeed also awarded to foreign -militairy- officers of the allied armies, to prussian and austrian as well as russian officers. d) In the preambule to the Statutes, we see Wilhelm Inaming himself Kurfürst of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations. This Empire had ceased to exits in 1806. The foundation of the Order of the Iron Helmet came before the Kurfürst established his new titles and predicates in the 1814-1816 periode. E.g. he is also not named Grossherzog von Fulda yet.
Statistics 1: Awards per year
Diagram 1
At first I will have a look on how the awards of the OEH were divided over the years the campaign lasted. Interesting to see that there were a considerable amount of awards in 1816, although the campaigns were fought in 1814 and 1815. The reason for the later awards, I assume is that the 1815 campaign lasted from April to December of that year and not all recommendations for awards of the Order were already administrated by the end of the year. However, the final 2 awards took place in July 1816. One to an austrian Feldmarschallieutenant turned diplomat (Nr 145). He might have gotten it for diplomatic reasons; whilst the other awardee (13.07.1816) was to a Rittmeister of the Leib-Dragoner Regiment. Why this officer was decorated only so late in 1816, I have yet to find out.
Sources: besides the wikipedia pages; the source I used for the list to is: Sauer, W.: Die Orden und Ehrenzeichen des Kurfürstentums Hessen-Kassel [Kleine Reihe für freunde der Ordens- und Ehrenzeichkunde No 7] p. 23-25. That this is not the only and/or an incomplete list we will find out later. It is the list I work with.
Statistics 2: 1814-1: Awards per branche
Before I look into the various units that took part in the campaigns, first I will make an overview per branche. In doing so, I recognize 4 different braches: Staff, Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery. Were the awards divided equally amongst them, was any unit maybe left out?
It appears that at least in the 1814, the Artillery was not decorated at all. Not entirely true ofcourse, as the commander of the Artillerie-Brigade, Oberst Franz Wilhelm Koehler was indeed decorated, but in this overview he is counted under the awards to staff-officers. As we look at the awards percentage-wise. We see that over half of the 1814 decorations went to the Infanterie-units (54%), followed by Cavallarie (26%) and Staff (19%).
Sources: Renouard, C.: Die Kurhessen im Feldzuge von 1814 : ein Beitrag zur hessischen Kriegsgeschichte, p. 10-11.
Statistics 3: 1814-2: Awards per unit
On page 97-98, Renouard gives an overview of the mobilised units, ready to go to France:
Infanterie - 1. Grenadier-Bataillon von Haller (consisting out of the Grenadiers of the Regiments Kurfürst and Kurprinz) - Regiment Kurfürst - Regiment Kurprinz - 2. Grenadier-Bataillon von Lossberg (consisting out of the Grenadiers of the Regiments Landgraf Karl and Prinz Solms) - Regiment Landgraf Karl - Regiment Prinz Solms - 1., 2. and 3. Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment - ‘gelernte’ Jäger Bataillon - 4 companies of voluntary (freiwillige) Jäger zu Fuss
Cavalry - 4 Escadres of Leib-Dragoner - 4 Escadres of Husaren - 4 Escadres of freiwillige reitende Jäger
Artillery and auxillary - 4 Batteries of Artillery - 1 freiwillige Mineur- und Pioniercompany - 2 Park-Colonnen
I will look at the awards per unit, in the order as mentioned above.
As mentioned before, with the exception of their commander, the artillery was left out. Another decorated officer on the General Staff (Kellermann) served in the artillery before and after the 1814 campaign.
Sources: Renouard, C.: Die Kurhessen im Feldzuge von 1814 : ein Beitrag zur hessischen Kriegsgeschichte, p. 97-98 and the aformentioned list by Sauer, which I published here
Statistics 4: 1814-3: Awards foreigners/domestic
Clearly from the diagram displayed below we can conclude the OEH at least for 1814 to be largely a domestic decoration. The only two to foreigners were a General in british service; Wilhelm Freiherr von Dörnberg and the other was Friedrich August von Pflug(k) (d. 1849) who came out of sachson service and was at the time (since 11.08.1813) as Brigade-Adjutant in the russian-german legion, subsequently (12.08.1815) in prussian service as Major (pensioned as Oberstleutnant 12.02.1827) in the 8th Husaren-Regiment (1. westfälisches). Next to the OEH, Major v. Pflugk also received the FEL5; RStW4; RStA2; SHO3 (04.08.1809 for his bravour at Wagram); and as one of the final in 1815 to receive the EK2 (No 8700 of 8719).
Source: Quistorp, B. von: Die Kaiserlich Russisch-Deutsche Legion ein Beitrag zur Preussischen Armee-Geschichte (Berlin, 1860) p. 293 ; Venzky, G.: Die Russisch-deutsche Legion in den Jahren 1813-1815 (1966); NN: Geschichte des 1. Westfälischen Husaren-Regiments Nr 8 (Berlin, 1882) p. 159. All the credits for finding these data on von Pflugk go to the enthusiastics at the napoleon series forum.
Statistics 5: 1815-1: Awards per branche
For 1815 I recognize the same 4 branches as per 1814, in alphabetical order: - Artillerie - Cavallerie - Infanterie - Stab
GL Engelhard, although an Artillerie officer, is numbered amongst the awards to the staff.
Percentage-wise, the following numbers appear: 75% to Infanterie-units, 10% to Cavallerie-units and Stab and Artillerie got 7,5% each. Interesting to see the larger difference between awards to cavalry units when 1814 and 1815 are compared. Where 1814 saw over 25% of awards to cavalry units, in 1815 those numbers were more than cut in half.
Awards to foreigners are not take into account in these analysis of the 1815 campaign, as they were not a member of a kurhessian unit. I will look into the awards to foreign officers in another diagram.
Statistics: 1815-2: Awards per unit: A Infantry 70% of the awards to infantry units following the 1815 campaign were to the light infantry (Jäger-Bataillon). An increase of over 200% compared to the awards the previous year. In 1814 the combined voluntary and regular light infantry units were awarded a total of 20 OEH. The voluntary light units which were awarded 12 OEH's in 1814 (4 to the light infantry, 8 to the light cavalry) were dissolved by the end of that campaign and not re-established for the 1815 campaign. Together with the 8 awards to members of the regular light infantry unit, they amounted for almost a quarter of the total decorations that year. Also interesting to see is of the other infantry units, both the 2 Grenadier-Bataillons and the Regiment Kurprinz went without awards in 1815.
Statistics: 1815-2: Awards per unit: B Cavalry
Statistics 7: 1815-3: foreign/domestic awards
In a previous post we saw that at least the 1814 awardees were mainly in kurhessian service (79 out of 81 decorations were domestic). Now lets look at the decorations awarded in 1815. Out of the 46 awards in 1815 7 went to foreign officers. In totall, 4 prussians, 2 austrians and a russian officer were decorated. The 2 austrians were both sons of the Kurfürst Wilhelm I., Major Julius Freiherr v. Haynau and Rittmeister Wilhelm Graf v. Hessenstein. Brothers of the two had already been decorated, the kurhessian Oberst Wilhelm Carl Freiherr v. Haynau who was a Brigadecommandant during the 1814 campaign, and Rittmeister Ludwig Graf v. Hessenstein, who stood in his fathers service as a Rittmeister in the Husaren-Regiment.
The 4 prussian officers were:
Oberst Karl Ernst Job Wilhelm v. Witzleben (20.07.1783-09.07.1837), Chief of the Staff of the North-German Bundeskorps, decorated with many foreign and domestic orders and decorations, and later Generaladjutant and Kriegsminister (Source: Soldatisches Führertum Bd 4 S. 275 Nr 1324) .
Major Friedrich Wilhelm v. d. Gröben (24.11.1774-19.07.1839). Von der Gröben had seen action in the Royal Westfalian Army after having been inactivated from prussian service following the Surrender of Hameln in 1806. He received the Legion d’honneur for the 1812 Campaign against Russia. After re-entering prussian service in 1813, he saw action in France and received the EK2 for the Battle at Sevres, for Belle Alliance he was subsequently awarded the RStG3. He died in active service as Generallieutenant and Commandant of the Festung Koblenz, decorated with the PROA2amE. (Source: Soldatisches Führertum Bd 5 S. 78 Nr 1433).
Captain Carl v. Rhade (-28.03.1827), an engineerofficer who was on duty in the General Staff during the campaigns against France. In 1816 he stood as Compagny-Commander of the 1st Compagny of the 8th Abtheilung of the prussian Pionier-Corps at Luxembourg. Since 14.11.1817 as Engineerofficer in the town of Wesel. Next to the Iron Helmet he received the prussian EK2.
Lieutenant Alexander Friedrich Carl v. Wangenheim (22.09.1792-15.06.1867) later a Generalmajor (1850) and Direktor des allgemeinen Kriegsdepartements in the prussian War Office, he received the EK2, PJO; PDK; OHO2a;PROA2amE and the RStW4. (Source: Soldatisches Führertum Bd 6 S. 289 Nr 1909 and the kind consultation of the work by my friend and fellow researcher Mr A. Baus).
The russian officer was Friedrich Wilhelm Leopold Paul von Driesen genannt von der Oest, a son of a noble family from Courland, born 1791. He entered prussian service in april 1806 in the Husaren-Regiment von Rudorff (2.roth.), after he was laid off in 1807 he joined the Schillschen Kavalerie on 3.5.1807, 14.6.1807 readmitted as prussian Cornet im Husaren-Regiment von Prittwitz Nr 5., 10.12.1807 Secondelieutenant, 20.12.1808 when his regiment was split up he was relocated to the Husaren-Regiment Nr 2. On 3.11.1811 he took his leave from prussian service as a Premierleutnant, and ended up in russian service, which he still was in 1828.
Statistics 6: Section 4 of the Statutes
As per the 4th section of the Statuten, the Iron Helmet could be awarded to Commissioned officers, Non-commissioned officers and regulars alike. In the diagram and list below, an overview of the number of awards to the ranks is shown. Almost two-thirds of the awardees were commissoned officers.
Just to get started, the first part of the Statistics 7 Careers of the Knights, some data I derived from the magnificent work by Marco Arndt: Militär und Staat in Kurhessen 1813-1866. I will use this book as a source in more posts to come.
Westphalian service of the officers serving in the Kurhessian army during the 1814-15 Campaign in general
Many officers who were in kurhessian service during the Befreiungskriege had been in westphalian service. Arndt states that in November of 1813, 311 officers applied for and were taken into kurhessian service. 87% of them had been in westphalian service, 9% had served the Kurfürst before 1807. Soon after, another 63 officers were recruited, of whome 37% were from Westphalen and 44% had been in kurhessian service before. In totall, the number of officers was 374, with 292 of them (78%) having served under King Jerome, 15% had served Wilhelm I before (56 Officers). (Arndt, p. 29).
