) Thielmann was born at Dresden. Entering the
Saxon cavalry in 1782, he saw service against the French in the
Rhine campaigns and served on the side of Prussia in the
Jena campaign. After the
disaster of Jena, Thielmann was sent by Saxony as ambassador to
Napoleon I, became his ardent admirer, and did much to bring about the Franco-Saxon alliance. Thielmann accompanied the Saxon contingent which fought at the
siege of Danzig and at
Friedland. In 1809, as colonel of
Free-Corps, he opposed the advance of the Austrians into Saxony, and was rewarded for his services with the grade of major-general, further promotion to lieutenant-general following in 1810. As commander of the Saxon Heavy Cavalry Brigade he took part in the advance on
Moscow two years later, and his exceptional bravery at
Borodino attracted the attention of
Napoleon, who took Thielmann into his own suite. His own sovereign at the same time made him
Freiherr. In the
war of the Sixth Coalition, Thielmann, now von Thielmann, took a prominent part. As governor of
Torgau, by his king's orders he at first observed the strictest neutrality, but on receipt of an order to hand over the fortress to the French he resigned his command and, accompanied by his staff officer Aster, joined the Coalition. As a Russian general he was employed in reorganizing the Saxon army after
Leipzig, and in 1814 he commanded the Saxon corps operating in the
Low Countries. Early in the following year he became a lieutenant-general in the Prussian service, and in command of the III Corps (with
Carl von Clausewitz as his chief of staff) he took part in the
Waterloo campaign. From the
field of Ligny he retired with the rest of
Blücher's army on
Wavre, and when the other corps marched towards Waterloo, von Thielmann defended this movement against
Grouchy, fighting in the
Battle of Wavre (18–19 June 1815), thus contributing materially to the victory at Waterloo. Later in life, he was a corps commander at
Münster (
VII Corps) and at
Coblenz (
VIII Corps), and at the latter place he died in 1824, as a
general of cavalry. ==Notes==