a podporuchik, posted to the Quartermaster general's office commanded by Theodor von Schubert and assigned cartographical surveying duties. Family circumstances obliged Schilling to resign his commission in 1803. He then joined the foreign service as a language officer, and dispatched to the Russian legation in Munich, where his stepfather Karl von Bühler was the minister. After Bühler's retirement, Schilling served as an attaché to the legation in Munich from 1809 to 1811. He first became interested in electrical science while he was in Munich through contact with Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring who was developing an electrical telegraph. Since his duties as a diplomat were light, he spent much time with Sömmerring, and brought many Russian dignitaries to see Sömmerring's apparatus. Napoleonic wars When war threatened between France and Russia, Schilling put his mind to applying his electrical knowledge to military purposes. In July 1812 he, along with all Russian diplomats in Germany, was recalled to Saint Petersburg in anticipation of the impending French invasion of Russia. He brought with him a complete set of Sömmerring's telegraph, and demonstrated it to military engineers and tsar Alexander. He continued work on remote mine detonation. However, none of his inventions were ready for field service, and Schilling requested transfer to a military position in the fighting Army. Placing him into the military structure was not easy. Schilling did not have any combat experience. As a retired Army officer, he was merely a second lieutenant (podporuchik); as a civil servant, he has reached a rank equivalent to Army major. The situation was not uncommon for the volunteers of 1812, yet it had puzzled military authorities and Schilling's application was rejected. In May 1813 he appealed directly to Alexander I, who authorised placing Schilling to horse artillery reserves; on he was posted to Alexander Seslavin's 3rd Sumskoy dragoons with the rank of Stabs-rotmistr (equivalent to infantry staff captain) Schilling arrived at the regiment shortly after the Battle of Dresden. He was initially employed as a liaison with Saxon authorities, and had not seen real combat until December 1813, when Russian troops advanced into French territory. He received his first combat award for the Battle of Bar-sur-Aube of 27 February 1814; his actions during the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube and the Battle of Fère-Champenoise were rewarded with the Golden Weapon for Bravery. Return to foreign service After the fall of Paris Schilling requested transfer from the Army