25. A Lucky Break for a Weird Soldier
The hero of Waterloo, Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher (1742 – 1819), was born in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in northern Germany. He came from a noble family whose aristocratic roots went back to the thirteenth century. He left home to become a soldier at age sixteen, and became a hussar in the Swedish Army. Sweden fought against Prussia in the Seven Years War (1756 – 1763), and in a 1760 skirmish, Blucher was captured by the Prussians. Luckily for him, the colonel of the Prussian regiment that took him prisoner was a distant relative. Impressed by Blucher, he invited the young man to join his regiment. Blucher accepted the offer, switched sides, and fought the rest of the war on the Prussian side.
With the exception of one long spell of forced retirement caused by his being a nutjob, Blucher remained in Prussian service for the rest of his life. He gained significant experience as a cavalry officer in the Seven Years War. He had an abundance of wild courage and an aggressive way about him. On the one hand, that made him a great combat officer. However, while that kind of high strung and aggressive temperament was an asset in wartime, it was a serious liability in peacetime. As seen below, that became clear in 1772, when then-Captain Blucher subjected an unruly priest to a mock execution.
