Agnes Salm-Salm (December 25, 1844 – December 21, 1912) was the American wife of Prince Felix zu Salm-Salm, a Prussian mercenary beside whom she played a role in the American Civil War, the Mexican Civil War between President Benito Juárez and the Austrian archduke Maximilian I of Mexico, and the Franco-Prussian War. Family and childhood She was born Agnes Elisabeth Winona Leclerc Joy in Franklin, Vermont, the daughter of American general William Leclerc Joy (1793–) and his second wife, Julia Willard (died 1882). Her paternal grandfather was Mica (Micah) Joy (1753–1826) who married Mercy Terrill (1764–1843). She was described as red-haired, strong willed, small, and dainty. Little is known of the early life of Agnes Salm-Salm. Many scholars believe that she worked in a circus, then as an actress in Cuba. In 1861 she returned to the United States but soon left her home in Vermont to visit her sister in Washington, D.C. who was getting married. Agnes stayed around Washington when she met Prince Felix Salm-Salm, a soldier of fortune, and a distant relation to the Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary.<ref name=Vermontencyclopedia>John J. Duffy, Samuel B. Hand, Ralph H. Orth,The Vermont Encyclopedia, UPNE, 2003, p. 185.</ref> She had been riding her horse one morning through the city when Felix first saw her and he made sure she was invited to a party that he would be attending. Soon Felix proposed to her and they were married on August 30, 1862, despite opposition from her family (he was Catholic and she was Protestant). American Civil War Prince Felix had a post as adjutant of Louis Blenker in the Army of the Potomac, and soon proceeded to the front. Agnes could not be apart from Felix for too long and eventually followed him to the battlefield. At his camp she would care for the sick and wounded soldiers although she had no previous knowledge of medicine. For four years she traveled with the troops through war-torn Virginia. As the wife of a colonel she had access to supply wagons and luggage meant for the officers and would often steal supplies in order to care for the soldiers. This sparked a controversy that President Abraham Lincoln eventually settled; the President also pinned a captain's star on her at the time. In January 1863 the troops were ordered to go to Aquia Creek, Virginia, and of course Agnes followed her husband. Here she