Flags and uniform of Prussian Infantry Regiment 16 Dohna (later Syburg from 1762)

Chefs: 14th July 1748 Major General Christoph, Count zu Dohna, later General of Infantry; 19th June 1762 Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Syburg to 1771

First raised 1689.

In the Seven Years War it began the war with Field Marshal Lehwaldt's 3rd Corps which was then ready at Insterburg in June 1757 to confront the Russians. At Gross Jägersdorf on August 30th it apparently fought well on the right wing, although the battle was a defeat because of the confused forest fighting. After the Russians withdrew it was sent against the Swedes in Pomerania.

At the end of March 1758 its chef Count zu Dohna was given command of the corps which was intended to take on the Russians again if they came back. In mid-August they did. The King combined his forces with those of Dohna, crossed the Oder and attacked the Russians at Zorndorf on August 25th. As part of Kanitz's Wing the regiment lost 21 officers and 611 men (Duffy Army of Frederick the Great 1st Edition (henceforth AFG1) shows the losses of IR16 as around 60%). The regiment was included in the King's general dislike of his East Prussian regiments, many of whom had panicked at Zorndorf. The King never again set foot in East Prussia. In 1782 the King said to the regiment's commander General von Buddenbrock, a man he valued highly,: "Your regiment did a bloody bad job in the last war!" Allegedly he also forbade any care for the regiment's invalids.

Stationed with the corps on the Warthe from June to July 1759, the regiment was with Lieutenant General von Wedell in the bloody defeat against the Russians at Paltzig (Kay) on July 23rd; it was part of kanitz's 2nd attack on the Paltzig Heights. Its next fight was with the King's army at Kunersdorf on August 12th, in the second line of the main army; in the vicious infantry battle between the Kuh-Berg and Grosser Spitzberg it lost 16 officers and 550 men while achieving nothing. (AFG1 shows the losses of IR16 as around 35%.) At the end of October the Russians withdrew but for the regiment there were no more replacements from East Prussia.

In 1760 the regiment fought with the Stutterheim Corps and then helped secure Berlin from October 4th to 8th. Moving south-west to meet the King's forces, the regiment formed part of the reserve at Torgau on November 3rd and led the last counterattack in the failing light, helping to decide the battle.

After winter quarters at Mecklenburg, it participated in the fighting around Kolberg in 1761 and took the fortifications at Spie on December 12th. Returning to Silesia in 1762, the regiment took six cannon at Leutmannsdorf on July 21st.

Christopher Duffy Army of Frederick the Great says this of the regiment: "Heavy losses at Zorndorf and Kunersdorf. A middling East Prussian regiment."

And this was the uniform in 1756: