Marie-Antoinette Lix

Marie-Antoinette Lix (31 May 1839 – 14 January 1909) was a French governess and heroine of the 1863–64 January Uprising against Russia who later fought in the Franco-Prussian War.

Antoinette Lix

Lix was born in Colmar, Haut-Rhin, Alsace, France to François-Antoine Lix and Françoise Schmitt.[1] She was given a full military education by her father, who later sent her to Sisters of Divine Providence in Ribeauvillé to be further educated. After graduating as a teacher, she became a governess with a Polish noble family in Szycz. She joined the Polish insurrection against Russia in 1863, acted as a courier on the side of the Polish rebels,[2] but was captured by the Russians and then released. She returned to France in 1866.[3]

Following the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War, Lix attempted to join the French Army under General Pierre de Failly, but women were not permitted to fight. She did, however, join the snipers in Lamarche as a lieutenant before joining General Albert Cambriels' troops. She participated in the defense of Vosges and the city of Langres, and distinguished herself during the Battle of Nompatelize on 6 October 1870.[3]

She died in 1909 in Saint-Nicolas-de-Port, Meurthe-et-Moselle. In 1910, an organisation of women of Strasbourg and Colmar donated a silver sword in her honour to the Musée de l'Armée in Paris.[3]