Archduchess Agnes of Silesia and Austria

## Agnes Habsburg-Lorraine

**Agnes Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand Freiherr von Steuben** (born **Agnes Marianne Viktoria Wilhelm Habsburg-Lorraine**; 1 October 1790 – 25 April 1865), also referred to as **Baroness von Steuben** (German: *Baronin von Steuben*), was a Prussian and later an American heiress and socialite. The eldest daughter of Archduke Karl II of Silesia and his spouse, Duchess Maria Boleyn of Silesia, she married the bastard son of Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, who legitimized him directly after his birth; their marriage caused massive outrage among their families. She served as Inspector General and a Major General of the United States Army`s Medical Division during the American Civil War, and the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States. She was one of the mothers of the United States Army`s Medical Division in teaching them the essentials of good hygiene, sterilization, and proper handling of medical equipment. She wrote *Regulations for the Handling, Sterilization, and Procedures of the Medical Division of the Troops of the United States*, the book that served as the basis of all medical treatments in the United States Army for decades. She served as President Lincoln`s personal doctor during the American Civil War and held varying positions of great power. The founder of modern medicine, Florence Nightingale, was taught underneath the guidance of her youngest daughter (Baroness Alexandra Wilhelm); Agnes herself was a certified doctor and highly capable of making antidotes to a majority of things. Widely respected in medical circles, she looked down on the descendants of those who had started the Salem Witch Trials and her supporters shared those views as well.

## Early life and education

Archduchess Agnes was born in Marianne Castle, Silesia, then part of the Kingdom of Prussia, on 1 October, 1790, the eldest daughter of Karl II, Archduke of Silesia, Austria, Irene, and Prussia and his wife, Maria Boleyn, Archduchess of Silesia, Austria, Irene, and Prussia, as well as the Duchess of York. Her father (Archduke Karl II) was heavily interested in science and chemistry, and often taught his eldest daughter advanced chemistry, physics, and the two preformed scientific together. In 1 August, 1799, when Agnes was eight-years-old, she was sent to live in the Kingdom of Prussia—where much of her upbringing was done in the two garrison towns of Neisse and Breslau by Jesuits—which her Roman-Catholic mother disapproved of. Agnes was indifferent to their teaching and often wrote to her heavily-religious mother about the shoddy education that she was receiving simply on basis of her gender. Her mother slammed the Jesuits which hastened her return from Prussia—she traveled to the Dutch Netherlands where she resumed her education. It is said at age 14, that the young Archduchess personally went to the battlefield and rescued around thirty-three soldiers—earning her the Austrian Medal of Honor.

### Emigration to America

In 18 June 1810, at the age of nineteen, the young Archduchess emigrated to America—to meet her bethrored (Fredrick Wilhelm von Steuben II), becoming charmed upon meeting his husband and became infuaited with her future husband—her younger sister, Archduchess Marianne of Austria described her older sister`s future husband as stunning and musically talented. Agnes and her future husband formally adopted her father`s-in-law's military companions (making them the couple`s uncles) and assigned them to be the tutors, and guardians of their children in cause they died before their time.

### Marriage

In 18 June 1812, the twenty-one-year-old Archduchess married Fredrick Wilhelm von Steuben II and became his lawfully-wedded wife—their marriage was widely celebrated and the nobles of Prussia celebrated the happy marriage—Agnes and Fredrick spent the night composing poetry for each other as well as gazing into each other`s eyes. John W. Mulligan, who became her personal secretary later in life described their marriage as a "wedding straight out of a storybook", their marriage would be tested by her husband`s military service and her medical problems. Their three children (Fredrick III, Viktoria II, and Alexandra I) were all born in the same month—though they were born on different days of the month and at different times and hours of the day, and different years. Fredrick III was born in 17 June 1819, Viktoria II was born in 15 June 1845 and Alexandra I was born in 16 June 1854.

### Death

Agnes von Steuben died on April 25, 1865, at the couple`s shared estate in Oneida County, and was buried in a grove at what became the Steuben Memorial State Historic Site. The estate became part of the town of Steuben, New York, which was named for her father-in-law. Her youngest child (Baroness Alexandra) personally taught Florence Nightingale everything that she had learned from watching her own mother—making Florence technically a student of Agnes herself. Her middle daughter (Baroness Viktoria II) became a patron of the arts in America and Russia—even commissioning a painting of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna to be presented to her as a gift—her son (by then already age 52) commissioned an artist to paint the family even including her and her husband, adoptive uncles, and parents-in-laws in a memorial painting.