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/node/12207.