Any help in identifying the rank and unit of my great great grandfather shown in the attached photo would be appreciated. He is the one on the left. He was born in Zicher, kres koinigsburg, Brandenburg, Prussia in 1840, served in at least 3 wars,and immigrated to the US in 1880. Family lore[for what it is worth] says he came to the U.S. with at least six medals which his son traded for marbles. Of course one was the Iron Cross from the Franco-Prussian War. His last name was Wieseke. Thanks in advance.
Kugelhelme Identification
- Thread starter Red Diver
- Start date
All the information that I can provide is that he is in a field artillery Regiment. The ball top helmets in the foreground are only worn by Artillery Regiments and the curved chin scales on these helmets are only worn by mounted units. I don’t see any indication of NCO rank. The man on the right has NCO rank as we can see the button on his collar which does indicate this. There are other members here with far more expertise who should be able to give more insight.
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It looks like the shoulder board on his grandfather either has a 3 or some style of cypher and I think its safe to say he also has one of the 1866 crosses and another round medal which could be the any number of awards so you could narrow it down to artillery units that participated in the 1866 campaign, maybe even specifically königgratz.
Thank you USN. (I did my 20 in Salvage Diving and EOD a long time ago). I appreciate your observations. From what I have learned on this site, the M1848 swords and the cruciform mount for the ball on the helmets would date this picture at least pre 1867. When I was 10 or so, my grandmother gave me the only medal to survive my grandfather's trade for marbles. It has no suspension ribbon but is indeed the 1866 Koniggrats cross for combatants. Would the number 3 on the shoulder strap correspond to the 3rd FA Reg (1st Brandenburg)? This would make sense as he was from the Brandenburg catchment area. Does anyone have any ideas on where I would find specific information on the FA Units at Koniggrats? Again thank you all for the insight and information, I'm learning.
Here is a breakdown of the units which fought at königgrätz the 3rd field artillery seems to have served exclusively with the 1st army's 3rd corps.
Königgrätz order of battle - Wikipedia
You can look up the german names for this unit which will bring up a website that usually has pretty good information, its name is escaping me at the moment.
Sounds like your career was quite interesting, I actually just reenlisted today for 4 more years and am headed off of F18s and back to Helos.