Born in Switzerland, Anna was the wife of the Swiss Consul in Washington. The number of Swiss enlisted in the Union ranks was small; but the fact that she spoke the languages of Central Europe and could appreciate the feelings of the Germans, and address them in their mother tongue, made her presence in the Washington hospitals peculiarly grateful to the large number of recruits who were recent immigrants and whose English was very poor.

She writes of one occasion: "After the great battle of Antietam, when even the Capitol was crowded with the wounded, Dr. Campbell came to me one morning, and wished me to visit one of the patients in the old House of Representatives. I found there a poor fellow from Pennsylvania refusing to take either food or medicine, but begging for some one to pray for him. I knelt by his cot, and when I arose he was calm, and willing to do anything I advised him. He recovered, and always insisted that it was that prayer that saved his life."

Anna was the great grandmother of J. Edgar Hoover.