Franz Sigel (November 18, 1824 – August 21, 1902) was a German-born American military officer and revolutionary who immigrated to the United States where he worked as a teacher, newspaperman, and politician along with serving as a major general in the Union army during the American Civil War. His ability to recruit German-speaking immigrants to the Union armies received the approval of President Abraham Lincoln, but he was strongly disliked by General-in-Chief Henry Halleck.
Early life
Sigel was born in Sinsheim, Baden (Germany), and attended the gymnasium in Bruchsal. He graduated from Karlsruhe Military Academy in 1843, and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the army of the Grand Duchy of Baden. He met the revolutionaries Friedrich Hecker and Gustav von Struve and became associated with the revolutionary movement. He was wounded in a duel in 1847. The same year, he retired from the army to begin law school studies in Heidelberg.
After organizing a revolutionary free corps in Mannheim and later in the Seekreis county, he soon became a leader of the Baden revolutionary forces (with the rank of colonel) in the 1848 revolution, being one of the few revolutionaries with military command experience. In April 1848, he led the "Sigel-Zug", recruiting a militia of more than 4,000 volunteers to lead a siege against the city of Freiburg. His militia was defeated on April 23, 1848 by the numerically inferior but better led troops of the Grand Duchy of Baden.
In 1849, he became Secretary of War and commander-in-chief of the revolutionary republican government of Baden. Wounded in a skirmish, Sigel had to resign his command but continued to support the revolutionary war effort as adjutant general to his successor Ludwik Mieroslawski. In July, after the defeat of the revolutionaries by Prussian troops and Mieroslawski's departure, Sigel led the retreat of the remaining troops in their flight to Switzerland. Sigel later went on to England. Sigel immigrated to the United States in 1852, as did many other German Forty-Eighters.
Sigel taught in the New York City public schools and served in the state militia. He married a daughter of Rudolf Dulon and taught in Dulon's school. In 1857, he became a professor at the German-American Institute in St. Louis, Missouri. He was elected director of the St. Louis public schools in 1860. He was influential in the Missouri immigrant community. He attracted Germans to the Union side and antislavery causes when he openly supported them in 1861.
American Civil War
Shortly after the start of the war, Sigel was commissioned colonel of the 3rd Missouri Infantry, a commission dating from 4 May 1861. He took part in the capture of Camp Jackson in St. Louis by Brig. Gen Nathaniel Lyon on 10 May.
In the summer of 1861, President Lincoln actively sought the support of antislavery, pro-Unionist immigrants. Sigel, always popular with the German immigrants, was a good candidate to advance this plan. He was promoted to brigadier general on 7 August, to rank from 17 May, one of a number of early politician-generals elevated by Lincoln.
In June, Sigel led a Federal column to Springfield in southwest Missouri. He then moved to Carthage, to cut off the retreat of pro-Confederate Missouri State Guard troops previously defeated by Lyon at Boonville.
In the subsequent Battle of Carthage on 5 July, Sigel's outnumbered force was driven back by the State Guard. The action was strategically insignificant, but did encourage pro-Confederate recruitment.