| Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th Edition | Public Domain via Project Gutenberg |
Duke of (1715-1781), Prussian soldier, son of Ernst Ferdinand, duke of Brunswick-Bevern, was born at Brunswick in 1715, and entered the Prussian army in 1731, becoming colonel of an infantry regiment in 1739. He won great distinction at Hohenfriedeberg as a major-general, and was promoted lieutenant-general in 1750. He was one of the most experienced and exact soldiers in the army of Frederick the Great. He commanded a wing in the battle of Lobositz in 1756, and defeated the Austrians under Marshal Konigsegg in a well-fought battle at Reichenberg on the 21st of April 1757. He took part in the battles of Prague and Kolin and the retreat to Görlitz, and subsequently commanded the Prussians left behind by Frederick in the autumn of 1757 when he marched against the French. Bevern conducted a defensive campaign against overwhelming numbers with great skill, but he soon lost the valuable assistance of General Winterfeld, who was killed in a skirmish at Moys; and he was eventually brought to battle and suffered a heavy defeat at Breslau on the 22nd of November. He fell into the hands of the Austrians on the following morning, and remained prisoner for a year. He was made general of infantry in 1759, and on the 11th of August 1762 inflicted a severe defeat at Reichenbach on an Austrian army endeavouring to relieve Schweidnitz. Bevern retired, after the peace of Hubertusburg, to his government of Stettin, where he died in 1781.