field
army sent against Napoleon in 1806. The disasters of the campaign aroused
his energies. He did excellent service under Lestocq's command in the
latter part of the war, was wounded in action, and finally designated for a
brigade command in Bluecher's force. In 1808 he married the sister of his
first wife, a girl of eighteen. He was made a major-general in the same
year, and henceforward he devoted himself wholly to the regeneration of
Prussia. The intensity of his patriotism threw him into conflict even with
Bluecher and led to his temporary retirement; in 1811, however, he was again
employed. In the critical days preceding the War of Liberation he kept his
troops in hand without committing himself to any irrevocable step until the
decision was made. On the 14th of March 1813 he was made a
lieutenant-general. He fought against Oudinot in defence of Berlin (see
NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS), and in the summer came under the command of
Bernadotte, crown prince of Sweden. At the head of an army corps Buelow
distinguished himself very greatly in the battle of Gross Beeren, a victory
which was attributed almost entirely to his leadership. A little later he
won the great victory of Dennewitz, which for the third time checked
Napoleon's advance on Berlin. This inspired the greatest enthusiasm in
Prussia, as being won by purely Prussian forces, and rendered Buelow's
popularity almost equal to that of Bluecher. Buelow's corps played a
conspicuous part in the final overthrow of Napoleon at Leipzig, and he was
then entrusted with the task of evicting the French from Holland and
Belgium. In an almost uniformly successful campaign he won a signal victory
at Hoogstraaten, and in the campaign of 1814 he invaded France from the
north-west, joined Bluecher, and took part in the brilliant victory of Laon
in March. He was now made general of infantry and received the title of
Count Buelow von Dennewitz. In the short peace of 1814-1815 he was at
Konigsberg as commander-in-chief in Prussia proper. He was soon called to
the field again, and in the Waterloo campaign commanded the IV. corps of
Bluecher's army. He was not present at Ligny, but his corps headed the flank
attack upon Napoleon at Waterloo, and bore the heaviest part in the
fighting of the Prussian troops. He took part in the invasion of France,
but died suddenly on the 25th of February 1816, a month after his return to
the Koenigsberg command.

See _General Graf Buelow von Dennewitz,