1838, Mahmud sent him to Armenia to advise a Turkish
general who was preparing his troops to battle against
Mehemet Ali of Egypt; however, the frightened general
fled in panic at the first sight of the Egyptian forces.
Moltke took control of the Turkish artillery at the battle
of Nisib (1839), although, again, many of the soldiers
were frightened and ran away. Moltke made his way back
to Constantinople, and upon learning that Mahmud,
his patron, had died, he returned to Germany, where he
was allowed to rejoin the Prussian military as a member
of the staff of the 4th Prussian Army Corps. In 1841, he
published some of his letters from Turkey in Briefe über
Zustände und Begebenheiten in der Türkei (Letters on
conditions and events in Turkey during the years 1835
to 1839), and that same year he maried Mary Burt, an
Englishwoman. Other published works resulting from
his experiences in the employ of the Turkish sultan in-
clude: What Considerations Should Determine the Choice
of the Course of Railways? (1843); [The] Russo-Turkish
Campaign in Europe, 1828–1829, described in 1845
by Baron von Moltke, Major in the Prussian Staff
(1845); and Der russisch-türkische Feldzug in der eu-
ropäischen Türkei 1828–1829 (The Russians in Bulgaria
and Rumelia, 1854). This latter work is still considered
by military strategists and historians as one of the most
important of its time. Moltke also published maps of
Asia Minor and a geographical work on Turkey and its
region.
In 1845, Moltke was appointed as the personal aide
to Prince Henry of Prussia, who lived in Rome, Italy.
Henry, an invalid, died the following year, but the time
spent in Rome allowed Moltke to again broaden his
horizons, and he published a book of maps of Rome
and its vicinity in 1852. When he returned to Berlin,
he retained his position on the Prussian General Staff,
and in 1855 he was became the aide-de-camp to Prince
Frederick William, the king of Prussia and later Em-
peror Frederick III of Germany. During his time with
the prince, Moltke jotted down more travel notes, which
were published in part as Briefe aus Russland (Letters from
Russia, 1877).
During his years with the Prussian General Staff
(becoming chief of staff on 29 October 1857), Moltke
worked to build the Prussian army into an efficient mil-
itary machine that would conquer parts of Europe in
the name of Prussia. The first conflict fought following
Moltke’s doctrine of a strong army was against Denmark
in 1864, when a border dispute over Schleswig-Holstein
led to war. Moltke drew up plans for an attack on the
main Danish flank before they could shore up their
positions inside Schleswig or retreat to several Danish
islands. When the war began in February, his plan was
haphazardly conducted, allowing the Danish to retreat
to the fortresses at Düppel and Fredericia and to the
islands of Alsen and Fünun. Although a Prussian as-
sault on Düppel ended the threat there, and the Danes
abandoned Fredericia, the war dragged on. On Moltke’s
advice, the Prussians’ attack on the Danes on Alsen was
undertaken on 29 June and forced the Danish to give
up that island. When the Prussians threatened to invade
the island of Fünun, the Danes asked for peace terms,
and the war ended. Moltke’s advice and counsel, work-
ing closely with Prince Frederick William, made him a
favorite of the Prussian royal family.
Two years after the conflict with Denmark, Prussia
went to war against Austria. The Austro-Prussian War,
or Seven Weeks’ War (1866), demonstrated Moltke’s
strategic talent and military genius. Relations between
the two nations had been tense since at least 1850, when
Austria had forced Prussia to accept the Punctuation of
Olmütz, a treaty that had halted Prussia’s aims of consol-
idating the Germanic states into one nation. Moltke ad-
vised deploying a portion of the Prussian army—nearly
300,000 men—across the frontier shared by Prussia andHelmut Karl Bernhard, count von Moltkemoltke, helmuth kARl beRnARD, count von moltke