Tag: D’Orléans (Robert P. L. E. F.)

Wikipedia says: Prince Robert Philippe Louis Eugène Ferdinand of Orléans, Duke of Chartres (November 9, 1840, Paris – December 5, 1910, Saint Firmin) was the son of Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans and thus grandson of King Louis-Philippe of France. He fought for the Union in the American Civil War, and then for France in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. In 1863 he married his cousin Princess Françoise of Orléans in Kingston upon Thames – she was the daughter of François, Prince of Joinville. In 1886 he was exiled from France.

…With the outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861, Chartres and his brother, Prince Philippe, Count of Paris, travelled to the United States to support the Union cause. On September 24, 1861, Chartres was commissioned a captain in the United States Army. He served as an assistant adjutant general on the staff of the commander of the Army of the Potomac, Major General George B. McClellan. He served in the Battle of Gaines’s Mill on June 27, 1862 and resigned from the Union Army on July 15, 1862.

During their stay in the United States, the princes were accompanied by their uncle, the Prince of Joinville, who painted many watercolours of their stay. Although eligible for membership, Chartres did not join (as his brother had) the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States – an organization of Union officers who had served during the American Civil War.