Gustav Eduard von Hindersin

Hindersin was the son of a Lutheran minister and received a good education, but his early life was spent in great poverty, and the struggle for existence developed in him an iron strength of character.

From 1830 to 1837 he attended the Prussian Military Academy at Berlin, and in 1841, while still a subaltern, he was posted to the great General Staff, in which he afterwards directed the topographical section.

[1] In 1849 Hindersin served with the rank of major on the staff of General Peucker, who commanded a federal corps in the suppression of the Baden insurrection.

In the Second Schleswig War of 1864, Hindersin, now a lieutenant-general, directed the artillery operations against the lines of Düppel, and for his services was ennobled by King William I.

[1] Hindersin's experience at Düppel had convinced him that the days of the smooth-bore gun were past, and he now devoted himself with unremitting zeal to the rearmament and reorganization of the Prussian artillery.