General of the Infantry Georg Wilhelm Baron von dem Bussche-Haddenhausen (19 July 1726 – 11 December 1794) was a Hanoverian Army officer. Born in Minden, he joined the Hanoverian army in 1743 and served in the War of the Austrian Succession and Seven Years' War, seeing action at the battles of Minden and Lutterberg. Bussche also commanded a Hanoverian battalion during the Great Siege of Gibraltar in the American Revolutionary War. During the War of the First Coalition, he fought at the battles of Valenciennes, Hondschoote, Mouscron, Tourcoing and Tournai. In 1794, while defending the Dutch town of Bommelerwaard from the French army, his hand was torn off by a cannonball and he died shortly afterward.
Contents
Early career
Bussche was born in Minden, then part of the Kingdom of Prussia, on 19 July 1726. His father, Albrecht Hilmar von dem Bussche, who was a member of the judicial council, descended from a long line of Westphalian nobility. The Bussche family was a noble family of the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück which was closely connected with the Electorate of Hanover.
The early death of his father caused Bussche to move to Hanover and become a Page of Honour to Elector George II, Elector of Hanover, who also ruled the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1743 he joined the Hanoverian Army and served in the War of the Austrian Succession, gradually advancing in rank.
Rise to general
In the Seven Years' War he distinguished himself at the Battle of Minden in 1759; the same year he was promoted to major. He also performed with distinction at the Battle of Lutterberg in 1762, the same year he became Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel). He received command of a Hanoverian battalion in garrison at Gibraltar in 1775. He relinquished this position because of his subsequent promotion to Oberst (colonel) in 1776 and to Generalmajor in 1778. Nevertheless, one source placed him in command of the 1st Battalion of the 6th Hardenberg Hanoverian Regiment as lieutenant colonel during the November 1781 sortie in the Great Siege of Gibraltar. He became Inspector of Infantry in 1783 and lieutenant general in 1788.
Flanders Campaign
After the outbreak of the War of the First Coalition, Bussche was ordered to Kassel to organize the Hanoverian forces being collected there. When France declared war on Great Britain and the Dutch Republic on 1 February 1793, the Hanoverians were put under the overall command of Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany and Bussche given command of the 1st Division. At the Siege of Valenciennes from 25 May to 27 July 1793 Bussche led the 3rd Hanoverian Cavalry Brigade which included two squadrons each of the 1st Leib and 4th Bussche Cuirassier Regiments. The Duke of York began the Siege of Dunkirk on 24 August 1793 with 29,700 infantry and 5,400 cavalry. In the Hanoverian order of battle, Bussche was still leader of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, consisting of the 9th and 10th Light Dragoons in addition to the 1st and 4th Regiments.
The commander of the French Army of the North, Jean Nicolas Houchard determined to raise the siege by attacking the 16,000-man covering army led by Hanoverian Field Marshal Wilhelm von Freytag. Not counting the 8,000-strong garrison of Dunkirk, Houchard had 45,800 troops available for the operation. The Battle of Hondschoote was fought on 6–8 September 1793. On the 6th the French advanced in six columns. The 9,000 men of the far right column sat still for two days and only moved against Ypres on the 8th, accomplishing nothing. The left two columns were repulsed, while the two right columns made progress. In the center, Jean-Baptiste Jourdan's 13,000 troops captured Houtkerque, Herzeele and Bambecque, and then, at the urging of the political commissioner Nicolas Hentz, they seized Rexpoëde. By this time it was evening and it began to rain.
Hearing that the French were nearer to Hondschoote than most of his covering force, at 8:00 pm Freytag gathered his soldiers into two columns and began to retreat toward Rexpoëde, believing the village was still in Coalition hands. When the right column reached Rexpoëde, it was charged by French cavalrymen who wounded and captured Freytag. The right column recoiled from the village and stumbled cross-country, but Johann Ludwig, Reichsgraf von Wallmoden-Gimborn leading the left column attacked Rexpoëde. The Hanoverians rescued Freytag and routed the French from the village, reaching Hondschoote early the next morning. Houchard and Jourdan spent all of 7 September rallying the center column at Herzeele. Bussche was also credited with the recapture of Rexpoëde and the freeing of Freytag. On 8 September Houchard with 22,000 soldiers defeated Wallmoden with 14,600 at Hondschoote after a stiff fight. The Duke of York abandoned the siege that day and withdrew.
Death
The French recaptured Le Quesnoy, Valenciennes and Condé-sur-l'Escaut in August. By mid-September the Coalition-held fortresses in rear were reduced and the French resumed their advance to the north. On 2 December 1794, the Duke of York returned to Great Britain, leaving Lieutenant General Count Wallmoden to take command of the 45,000-man Coalition army in the Dutch Republic. At that time there were 32 British battalions and 30 squadrons, 14 Hanoverian battalions and 16 squadrons, 14 Hessian battalions and 14 squadrons and eight French Royalist battalions and 20 squadrons. On 10 December, under the direction of Daendels, the French launched an amphibious operation across the Meuse (Dutch: Maas) against the Bommelerwaard. The attack on Fort Sint-Andries failed completely because the garrison was warned by a French deserter. To the east, a diversionary attack led by Vandamme crossed the Waal under the cover of a fog and seized a Hanoverian battery near Gendt. Bussche appeared with the 1st and 3rd Hanoverian Grenadier Battalions and counterattacked. After a struggle in which Bussche was killed, the French spiked some of the guns and withdrew to their boats. According to one account, a cannonball tore off Bussche's hand and he died soon afterward. He was buried in the cathedral of Arnhem on 14 December 1794.