Soldier Princess: The Life and Legend of Agnes Salm-Salm in North America, 1861-1867

150 Pages·2002·1.3 MB·English

by  David Coffey

Soldier Princess
(cid:1)

SOLDIER PRINCESS
The Life
& Legend of
Agnes Salm-Salm
in North America,
‒
(cid:1)
          
     
•

Copyright ©
ff
by David Co ey
Manufactured in the
United States of America
All rights reserved
First edition
The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements
of the American National Standard for Permanence
 
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, . - .
Binding materials have been chosen for durability.
Frontispiece: Princess Agnes and Prince Felix Salm-Salm,

c. . Photo courtesy Roger D. Hunt Collection,
United States Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Coffey, David, –
Soldier princess : the life and legend of Agnes Salm-Salm in North
  
America, – / David Coffey.— st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
   
– – –

. Salm-Salm, Agnes Elisabeth Winona Leclerq Joy, Prinzessin zu,
  
– —Homes and haunts—North America. . Women—North

America—Biography. . Princesses—North America Biography.
   
. United States—History—Civil War, – —Women. . United
 
States—Social life and customs— th century. . United States—Foreign

relations—Mexico. . Mexico—Foreign relations—United States.
  
. Mexico—History—European intervention, – —Women.
I. Title.
 
.
  
. ' —dc
For my siblings,
ff
Claire Co ey,
ff
Kevin Co ey,
&
ff
Elizabeth Co ey Farmer
(cid:2)
And always,
for my parents

CONTENTS
(cid:3)
Preface, ix
Acknowledgments, xv

Introduction:This Remarkably Brilliant American Woman,

 
. The Sweet Malady,
 fi 
. The End Justi es the Means,
 
. General Felix Salm,
 
. Like a Female Centaur,
 
. “Well, Colonel, Here Am I,”
 
. All the Kings and Queens of Europe,

Epilogue: More Than A Woman’s Part,
 

The Writings of Prince and Princess Salm-Salm,
 
  
New York Times Review of Ten Years of My Life, April , ,

Notes,

Bibliography,

Index,

PREFACE
(cid:3)
Remarkable is the adjective most frequently associated with Princess
fi
Agnes Salm-Salm, and ttingly so. For even if many of the exploits and
honors attributed to her never came to pass, or did so in a less spectacu-
lar fashion than she recalled, she lived a remarkable life. Of most of her
sixty-eight years (seventy-two by some accounts, sixty-six by others)
 
little is known. But during a ten-year period—from to —she
made her mark. In that time she played an often conspicuous and al-
ways colorful role in three of the nineteenth century’s major events: the
Civil War in the United States, the fall of Maximilian’s empire in Mexico,
ffi
and the Franco-Prussian War. But it remains di cult to determine just
how remarkable she might have been.
She appeared seemingly out of nowhere at Washington, D.C., in

, an American girl without a past, and she preferred to keep it that
way. The prevailing historical impression, reported in numerous refer-
ence works and obituaries, holds that she had for some years performed
in the circus as an equestrienne. In wartime Washington she married a
German soldier of fortune who served in the Union Army and who
also happened to be a minor prince. This alone made a good story. But

myth took over. By the time of her death in so many versions of her
life, her adventures, even her appearance had emerged that to develop
anything like an accurate picture would require magic.
The mythical Agnes became a new-world Florence Nightingale,
treating the wounded and campaigning with her warrior husband. She
claimed to have been awarded a captain’s commission for her Civil War
service. Later variations on this theme placed her in command of a
company of troops during General William T. Sherman’s March to the
Sea—the “Soldier Princess.” She also claimed a close friendship with

President Abraham Lincoln and his family. In an interview with