The soldier princess: the life and legend of Agnes Salm-Salm in North America, 1861-1867

Abstract

Over a ten-year period, from 1861¿1871, Princess Agnes Salm-Salm played an often conspicuous and always colorful role in three of the nineteenth century's greatest events: the US Civil War, the fall of Maximilian's empire in Mexico, and the Franco-Prussian War. An American woman with a mysterious past, she married a German prince, who served in the Union army during the Civil War. She used her beauty and assertiveness to advance her husband's career, while she developed an interest in the care of wounded soldiers. In Mexico she made bold efforts to save Maximilian from execution, and in the Franco-Prussian War she labored in field hospitals even after her husband was killed in battle. She also attracted a great deal of innuendo and spawned fabulous legends. This study examines the first six of those years¿her time in North America¿in an effort to separate fact from fiction in the life of this remarkable woman.