Count von Alten
General
1764-1840
Of Hanoverian extraction, Alten served
in the army of that state from 1783 to 1803, before transferring
to the British service in the latter year. He fought in Hanover
(1805), at Copenhagen two years later, and then campaigned in
Sweden and the Peninsular War with the King's German Legion. He
served with the Walcheren expedition (1809) and then returned
to the army in Spain. Present at Waterloo, he was promoted to
major general in 1816 and ultimately
became a field marshal in the reconstituted Hanoverian army.
