Autograph – Field Marshal Karl Friedrich von Steinmetz (1796–1877) – handwritten letter from 1876

Autograph – Field Marshal Karl Friedrich von Steinmetz (1796–1877) – handwritten letter from 1876.
Double-sided sheet of stationery (approx. 14 x 22 cm, folded multiple times, partially slightly faded); the first page contains a handwritten text in ink, dated "Görlitz, June 9, 1876." He addresses the recipient as "Euer Hochwohlgeboren" (likely a tailor), stating: "my overcoat, which I had with me in Berlin, was brand new; the one that was placed on me there as I was leaving is also new and presumably my own," though he notes that he "did not have any identifying mark placed inside my overcoat. [...] I therefore leave it to you to decide whether you might offer me a new overcoat for purchase [...], as I am traveling next week." — Field Marshal Steinmetz. Karl Friedrich von Steinmetz received the *Pour le Mérite* as early as 1848 during the Schleswig-Holstein War; he became a Major General in 1854 and a Lieutenant General in 1858. During the war of 1866, he earned the epithet "Lion of Nachod." Due to independent decisions made during the war of 1870/71, his First Army was placed under the supreme command of Prince Friedrich Karl, and he was reassigned as Governor-General of Posen. King Wilhelm I, however, rejected his request for retirement, granted him the rank of General Field Marshal in April 1871, and placed him on inactive status (*zur Disposition*) in 1875.
Provenance: The autograph collection of Gertrud Hoffmann and her daughter Else Karmann — "A German Autograph Collection, from 1850 to 1967."