Lützow Free Corps
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Lützow Free Corps (German: Lützowsches Freikorps) was a voluntary force of the Prussian army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was named after it's commander Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow.
The unit was officially founded in February 1813 as Königlich Preußisches Freikorps von Lützow (Royal Prussian Free Corps von Lützow). It consisted mostly of students and academics from all over Germany, who had volunteered to fight against Napoleon. Because Prussia already had problems financing and equipping it's regular forces, the volunteers had to equip and supply themselves by their own means, as they weren't even paid wages. This lead to adoption of black as the color of the units uniforms, because this was the only color that could be used to dye the civilian clothing (with all other colors the final outcome was influenced by the clothing's original tone, resulting in an unacceptable mix of colors for the corps as a whole). Red was chosen for the rank-insignia and gold for the buttons.
The average size of the corps was 2900 infantry, 600 cavalry and 120 artillery, varying throughout the war. It fought in many battles, operating first independently in the rear of the French, later as a regular unit in the allied armies.
After the peace of 1814 the corps was dissolved, the infantry becoming the 25th Regiment, the cavalry the 6th Ulans. Both regiments fought at Ligny and Waterloo.
Despite it's relative small size the corps became famous after the war, as it was the only unit in the army consisting of people from all over Germany and contained several well known people:
