Sigel, Franz

Life Span
to
    Full name
    Franz Sigel
    Place of Birth
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    North
    Origins
    Free State
    No. of Spouses
    1
    No. of Children
    5
    Family
    Franz Moritz Sigel (father), Maria Anna Lichtenauer (mother), Elise Dulon (wife, 1854)
    Occupation
    Politician
    Military
    Educator
    Journalist
    Relation to Slavery
    White non-slaveholder
    Political Parties
    Republican
    Government
    Local government
    Military
    Union Army
    Foreign military

    Franz Sigel (American National Biography)

    Scholarship
    Throughout the early part of his public life, Sigel's motives were sincere. Inspired by the liberal themes of the French Revolution of 1848, he genuinely supported the Baden revolution and the war against the Confederacy. However, by 1862 he began to manipulate the press and the public that had showered him with undeserved praise. By 1865 most of his supporters and all of his superior officers abandoned him because they came to realize his accomplishments did not match the promise of his publicity. Nevertheless, he was the most famous German-American general in the Union army and the most visible symbol of immigrant support for the Union cause.
    Earl J. Hess, "Sigel, Franz," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/05/05-00716.html.
    How to Cite This Page: "Sigel, Franz," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/12207.