There didn't seem to be anyplace else to post this, so I'll dump it here Tike was, when you said Auf Wiedersehen to the barracks square and put your uniform in mothballs they gave you one of these. At 13x16 plus inches it's bigger than an Illustrierte Zeitung. I had to "stitch" six scans together to get the whole thing.
Thanks, Rick. I guess the '66 doc didn't survive. The Urlaubs-Pa?/Fuhrungs-Attest almost didn't. Speaking of which, are the entries for March and June locations in Schleswig? I can't really make them out, but they don't appear to be German place names. I imagine von Heister was the grandson of Leutnant-General Leopold who led the Hessians in the American Revolution.
I've uploaded larger scans of three of the docs in hopes that someone can do better than just decipher the odd word here and there. Maybe it will explain the gap between 1864 and 1870, and why , while still fairly young, he served at home in 1870. Urlaubs-Pa? Fuhrungs-Attest Wehrpa?(?)
He seems to have missed the fun in 1866, but again in 1870 he answered the call, serving this time on the home front, earning a KDM von Stahl am Combattanten-Band.
It was awarded to all Hannoverian participants in the Battle of Langensalza, Hannover's only part in the Seven Weeks (Austro-Prussian) War. Hannover won the battle, but, being surrounded by the Prussians, surrendered 2 days later. Considering the total strength of Hannover's army was 19,000, we have a good indication of how many were awarded. They were all named, probably due to Hannover's close ties with Britain and British tradition.
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