Exactly 113 years ago, a real heroine, Marie-Antoinette Lix, disappeared in Saint-Nicolas-de-Port in Meurthe-et-Moselle. And she is a valiant Alsatian. Born in Colmar on May 31, 1839, daughter of a horse grenadier converted into an innkeeper after twenty years of service.
Her mother died when she was 4, and her father, who nicknamed her Tony, raised her as a boy. At ten, she does not know how to read, but to ride a horse, to saber, to shoot a gun. Her father is more or less forced to send her to the Sisters of Divine Providence of Ribeauvillé, she is fortunately brilliant and obtains her teacher’s diploma at 17, she becomes a preceptor for Polish nobles, Poland which rises quickly against the Tsar of Russia.
Marie-Antoinette Lix takes over the management of the estate, secretly transforms it into a military hospital and when she has the news of an ambush against the Polish insurgents, she puts on a uniform, sneaks between enemy lines at night, turns the situation around , charge on horseback with his congeners. Passing herself off as a man, she says her name is Michel le Sombre and is even promoted to lieutenant of the Polish Uhlans, they are the famous lance horsemen. She exfiltrates the family she was looking after out of Poland, and returns to her platoon which charges the Russian dragoons one against ten: but she is wounded, taken prisoner, and discovered. She’s a woman, it’ll save her from the firing squad.
She returned to Alsace, where she became a saleswoman, then a nurse, then a post office manager. When the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 broke out, Marie-Antoinette Lix enlisted in Paris as a female soldier, officially this time. The day before the battle of Sedan, she was appointed lieutenant of the Lamarche snipers. At the head of a section, she fights in the region of Saint-Dié, La Bourgonce, then will be in charge of the defense of La Salle and Saint-Rémy. With a handful of tough guys, Chassepot in hand, she fends off an enemy attack, and only retreats once she runs out of ammo.
Well, they went elsewhere, but not there. In charge of protecting Langres, she saves French prisoners from being massacred by Bavarians. Ill, she was reformed and retired to nuns in Lorraine, where she died in 1909. But the heroine was not forgotten: the Ladies of Strasbourg and Colmar offered her a magnificent sword of honor in memory of the war of 1870, sword that you can see at the Army Museum in Paris. And a beautiful plaque sits on the house which saw the birth in Colmar of the intrepid lieutenant of Polish Uhlans and French snipers, finally today, we say Lieutenant Marie-Antoinette Lix, said Tony, said Michel le Sombre, A true Alsatian heroine of several wars, her birthplace is at 76, Grand-Rue in Colmar.
– Lal.sacienne – Wikimedia
The Wikipedia page on Marie-Antoinette Lix.
The Army Museum page that shows her in uniform and features the famous sword.