HELMUTH CARL BERNHARD MOLTKE, COUNT VON (1800-1891), Prussian field marshal, for thirty years chief of the staff of the Prussian army, the greatest strategist of the latter half of the 9th century, and the creator of the modern method of directing armies in the field, was born on the 26th of October 1800, at Parchim in Mecklenburg, of a German family of ancient nobility.