The Prince and the Yankee: The Tale of a Country Girl Who Became a Princess

Beautiful, vivacious and fearless, Agnes Leclerc was 21 years old when she met Prince Felix Salm, a Prussian officer in the Union Army at the outbreak of the US Civil War. Their marriage took Agnes from small-town America to the royal palaces of Europe. She accompanied Felix on his Civil War campaigns, followed him to Mexico to fight for Emperor Maximilian, then returned home to his ancestral castle in Germany and war with France. Presidents, governors and generals succumbed to her charms. She pleaded with the implacable Benito Juarez for Maximilian’s life and the German Kaiser honoured her for her heroism during the Franco-Prussian War. Although Felix’s life was cut short in 1870, Agnes lived out the rest of her life as a stately European aristocrat.