page_title: Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz
section_title: Development of cavalry tactics
hierarchical_section_title: Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz / Military career / Development of cavalry tactics
caption_attribution_description: English: Major General von Seydlitz throws his pipe in the air as he leads his Prussian cavalry to the attack at the Battle of Rossbach, picture by Richard Knötel.
context_page_description: Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Seydlitz was a Prussian officer, lieutenant general, and among the greatest of the Prussian cavalry generals. He commanded one of the first Hussar squadrons of Frederick the Great's army and is credited with the development of the Prussian cavalry to its efficient level of performance in the Seven Years' War. His cavalryman father retired and then died while Seydlitz was still young. Subsequently, he was mentored by Margrave Frederick William of Brandenburg-Schwedt. Seydlitz's superb horsemanship and his recklessness combined to make him a stand-out subaltern, and he emerged as a redoubtable Rittmeister in the War of Austrian Succession during the First and Second Silesian Wars.
  Seydlitz became legendary throughout the Prussian Army both for his leadership and for his reckless courage. During the Seven Years' War, he came into his own as a cavalry general, known for his coup d'œil, his ability to assess at a glance the entire battlefield situation and to understand intuitively what needed to be done: he excelled at converting the King's directives into flexible tactics.
context_section_description: After Frederick concluded the peace on 25 December 1748, Seydlitz returned with his squadron to Trebnitz. In the subsequent years of peace, Seydlitz developed flexible cavalry tactics. He assembled a plan on tactical form and training for the Prussian cavalry and presented it to the King.  Frederick approved the procedures and Seydlitz established a rigorous training program. He would leave his own estate by jumping the gate; he required similar horsemanship from all his men, regardless of whether they were cuirassiers, hussars or dragoons. They had to be capable of galloping across broken fields, wheeling in formation, and riding in close action. Furthermore, they had to be prepared to support any movement of infantry, or to react to any action from the enemy. Under Seydlitz's direction, Prussian cavalry learned to use only their swords, not the pistols or carbines that could not be fired with accuracy or then had to be reloaded. Frederick set up straw dummies for his troopers to shoot; their shots were woefully inaccurate, but Seydlitz's tactics demonstrated that the troopers could hit their target with a sword every time. Generally, cavalry horses were the sturdy warm-blood Trakehners, from Frederick's stud farm in Trakenhen, East Prussia.
  On 21 September 1752, after a successful review in which the different cavalry forms demonstrated their competencies, the King promoted Seydlitz to lieutenant colonel and the commander-in-chief of cavalry and, on 13 October of the same year, to the commander of the Dragoon Regiment Württemberg No. 12, whose staff was at Treptow. Frederick was not satisfied with the regiment's performance, and instructed Seydlitz to "put it back into order". In 1753 Frederick appointed Seydlitz to the command of the 8th Cuirassiers. In Seydlitz's hands, this regiment soon became a model for the rest of the Prussian Army's mounted force. In 1755 Frederick promoted him to colonel.
  By the start of the Seven Years' War, Seydlitz's transformed cavalry had become Frederick's pride and joy: it had unrivaled training and an esprit de corps bolstered by Frederick's confidence in its members, and by their confidence in Seydlitz. The King had issued orders that no Prussian cavalryman would allow himself to be attacked without a commensurate response, under penalty of being cashiered; consequently, Prussian cavalrymen were active, impetuous and aggressive. For the King, Seydlitz's cavalry became the dynamic factor in the army of the state, and would be the tool by which Frederick could challenge empires. In 1756, Seydlitz's cavalry became Frederick's weapon of choice.
caption: Seydlitz smoked a pipe, and when he tossed it away, it was the sign for his troopers to proceed. Depicted here at the Battle of Rossbach, in a section of a history painting by Richard Knötel (1857–1914)
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