Franz Sigel was a German American military officer, revolutionary and immigrant to the United States who was a teacher, newspaperman, politician, and served as a Union major general in the American Civil War.
23 Facts About Franz Sigel
2.
Franz Sigel graduated from Karlsruhe Military Academy in 1843, and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the army of the Grand Duchy of Baden.
3.
Franz Sigel met the revolutionaries Friedrich Hecker and Gustav von Struve and became associated with the revolutionary movement.
4.
Franz Sigel's militia was defeated on April 23,1848 by the numerically inferior but better led troops of the Grand Duchy of Baden.
5.
Franz Sigel emigrated to the United States in 1852, as did many other German Forty-Eighters.
6.
Franz Sigel taught in the New York City public schools and served in the state militia.
7.
Franz Sigel married a daughter of Rudolf Dulon and taught in Dulon's school.
8.
Franz Sigel was elected director of the St Louis public schools in 1860.
9.
Franz Sigel attracted Germans to the Union and antislavery causes when he openly supported them in 1861.
10.
Shortly after the start of the war, Franz Sigel was commissioned colonel of the 3rd Missouri Infantry, a commission dating from 4 May 1861.
11.
Franz Sigel took part in the capture of Camp Jackson in St Louis by Brig.
12.
Franz Sigel, always popular with the German immigrants, was a good candidate to advance this plan.
13.
Franz Sigel then moved to Carthage, to cut off the retreat of pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard troops previously defeated by Lyon at Boonville.
14.
In early 1862, Sigel was given command of two divisions of the Army of the Southwest under Samuel R Curtis.
15.
Franz Sigel was promoted to major general on 21 March 1862.
16.
Franz Sigel served as a division commander in the Shenandoah Valley and fought unsuccessfully against Maj.
17.
Franz Sigel had developed a reputation as an inept general, but his ability to recruit and motivate German immigrants kept him employed in a politically sensitive position.
18.
Many of these soldiers could speak little English beyond "I'm going to fight mit Franz Sigel", which was their proud slogan and which became one of the favorite songs of the war.
19.
Franz Sigel spent the rest of the war without an active command.
20.
Franz Sigel worked as editor of the Baltimore Wecker for a short time, and then as a newspaper editor in New York City.
21.
Franz Sigel filled a variety of political positions there, both as a Democrat and a Republican.
22.
Franz Sigel lectured, worked in advertising and published the New York Monthly, a German-American periodical, for some years.
23.
Franz Sigel died in New York in 1902 and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.