Joseph Friedrich Karl von Klüx
Command Ratings
Joseph Friedrich Karl von Klüx (also written as Johann Friedrich Karl von Klüx in some compiled lists) was a Prussian career officer who rose to the rank of Generalmajor and held brigade-level command during the Wars of Liberation. He was born on 13 August 1774 at Halle an der Saale and died on 11 July 1816 at Teplitz (Teplice) while taking the waters.
He entered Prussian service on 1 March 1788 in the infantry regiment commonly identified in later regimental listings as Infanterie-Regiment “Herzog von Braunschweig” (Nr. 21). He was promoted to Fähnrich on 21 January 1790, and on 8 May 1790 received a commission as Sekondeleutnant in Infanterie-Regiment “Kronprinz” (Nr. 18). During the Revolutionary War period he served with the field army in the coalition campaigns against France.
On 12 August 1799 he was promoted to Premierleutnant. On 16 December 1800 he was promoted to Stabskapitän and placed on the army staff, receiving an appointment as an inspectorate adjutant (Insp. Adj.) to Generalleutnant von Grävenitz in the Infantry Inspectorate. On 25 July 1803 he was promoted to Kapitän. On 25 October 1805 he was appointed adjutant in the Reserve Corps in the Mark Brandenburg.
In the reorganization period that followed Prussia’s defeat in 1806, von Klüx continued in staff and field appointments and remained in active service through the subsequent mobilizations. In the 1813 campaign he is recorded as a Generalmajor commanding the 9th Brigade in II Corps. In that capacity his brigade belonged to the corps-level structure used by the Prussian field army during the autumn operations of 1813, when Prussian forces were repeatedly committed in Major battles in Saxony and the surrounding theaters as the coalition closed on Napoleon’s main army.
By 1815 he held brigade command again, and later summaries describe him as a brigade chief in VI Corps, indicating continued senior employment in the post-1813 field army organization. His service thus spans the late Frederickian-era regimental system, the staff-heavy reform and recovery years after 1806, and the large-scale coalition field formations of 1813–1815.
Von Klüx died in 1816 at Teplitz, a well-known spa destination for convalescence and treatment, where he had gone for health reasons.
Sources
XX (Col.) 13 Lutzen, Bautzen; XX 13-14 Dresden, Kulm, Leipzig, Laon, Paris; XX 15 Ligny