Daniel Edgar Sickles (October 20, 1819May 3, 1914) was an American politician, Civil War veteran, and diplomat. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives both before and after the war.
Sickles was involved in a number of scandals, most notably the 1859 homicide of his wife's lover, U.S. Attorney Philip Barton Key II. He was acquitted after using temporary insanity as a legal defense, the first time it was successfully used in United States history.
Early life and politics In 1819, Sickles was born in New York City to Susan Marsh Sickles and George Garrett Sickles, a patent lawyer and politician.Beckman, p. 1784. (His year of birth is sometimes given as 1825, and Sickles was known to have claimed as such. Historians speculate that Sickles chose to appear younger when he married a woman half his age.) He learned the printer's trade and studied at the University of the City of New York (now New York University). He studied law in the office of Benjamin Butler, was admitted to the bar in 1843, and was elected as a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co.) in 1847.
On September 27, 1852, Sickles married Teresa Bagioli against the wishes of both families—he was 32, she about 15 or 16.Keneally, p. 21, states 15. W.A. Swanberg, Sickles the Incredible, pp. 77–80 states 16. Relying in part on Swanberg, 77–80 and in part on other sources, Hessler, pp. 4–6 says 16. Teresa's exact birth date in 1836 is unknown. She was reported as sophisticated for her age, speaking five languages.
Political office In 1853 Sickles became corporation counsel of New York City, but resigned soon afterward when appointed by President Franklin Pierce to be secretary of the U.S. legation in London. He served under United States Minister to the United Kingdom James Buchanan.
In 1855 he returned to the United States, and in 1856 he was elected as a member of the New York State Senate in the 3rd district. He was re-elected to the seat in 1857.
In 1856 he was elected as a Democrat to the 35th U.S. Congress, and held office from March 4, 1857, to March 3, 1861, a total of two terms.
Sickles was censured by the New York State Assembly for escorting a known prostitute, Fanny White, into the Assembly's chambers. He also reportedly took her to England, while leaving his pregnant wife at home. He presented White to Queen Victoria, using as her alias the surname of a New York political opponent.
Homicide of Philip Key
On February 27, 1859, in Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House, Sickles shot and killed Philip Barton Key II, the United States Attorney for the District of ColumbiaKeneally, p. 66. and the son of Francis Scott Key. Sickles had discovered that Philip Key was having an affair with his wife, Teresa Bagioli Sickles.Tagg, p. 62.
Trial
Sickles surrendered at Attorney General Jeremiah Black's house, a few blocks away on Franklin Square, and confessed to the murder. After a visit to his home, accompanied by a constable, Sickles was taken to jail. He received numerous perquisites, including being allowed to retain his personal weapon, and receive numerous visitors. So many visitors came that he was granted the use of the head jailer's apartment to receive them.Sickles , Assumption College They included many congressmen, senators, and other leading members of Washington society. President James Buchanan sent Sickles a personal note.
Harper's Magazine reported that the visits of his wife's mother and her clergyman were painful for Sickles. Both told him that Teresa was distracted with grief, shame, and sorrow, and that the loss of her wedding ring (which Sickles had taken on visiting his home) was more than Teresa could bear.
Sickles was charged with murder. He secured several leading politicians as defense attorneys, among them Edwin Stanton, later to become Secretary of War, and Chief Counsel James T. Brady who, like Sickles, was associated with Tammany Hall. Sickles pleaded temporary insanity—the first use of this defense in the United States. Before the jury, Stanton argued that Sickles had been driven insane by his wife's infidelity, and thus was out of his mind when he shot Key. The papers soon trumpeted that Sickles was a hero for "saving all the ladies of Washington from this rogue named Key."Editorial: "No sympathy needed" , Harpers Magazine, March 12, 1859
Sickles had obtained a graphic confession from Teresa; it was ruled inadmissible in court, but was leaked by him to the press and printed in the newspapers in full. The defense strategy ensured that the trial was the main topic of conversations in Washington for weeks, and the extensive coverage of national papers was sympathetic to Sickles.Assumption.edu : "Both Harper's Weekly and Leslie's ran images of Sickles in prison. Harper's was the more pathetic. It showed a haggard sufferer, hands clasped as if in prayer, staring upwards. Light illumines his face and the wall immediately behind, but the rest of the cell is in shadows. Its title was 'Hon. Daniel E. Sickles in prison at Washington,' but it might well have been captioned 'More Sinned Against Than Sinning.' In a later issue, the magazine editorialized against what it described as a publicity campaign to create sympathy for the Congressman. ... The New York Times, the city's other major Democratic daily and the New York Herald's chief rival for the ear of the Buchanan administration, editorialized that the homicide in no way unfitted the Congressman for office." The source gives many more such cites. In the courtroom, the strategy brought drama, controversy, and, ultimately, an acquittal for Sickles.Hessler, p. 17.
Sickles publicly forgave Teresa, and "withdrew" briefly from public life, although he did not resign from Congress. The public was apparently more outraged by Sickles's forgiveness and reconciliation with his wife than by the murder and his unorthodox acquittal.Harper's editorial on the verdict, May 7, 1859, in which they reject the insanity defense as essentially a sham and note that the prosecution did not try very hard.
Civil War
In the 1850s, Sickles had received a commission in the 12th Regiment of the New York Militia, and had attained the rank of major. He insisted on wearing his militia uniform for ceremonial occasions while serving in London, and caused a minor diplomatic scandal by snubbing Queen Victoria at an Independence Day celebration.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Sickles worked to repair his public image by raising volunteer units in New York for the Union Army. Because of his previous military experience and political connections, he was appointed colonel of the 70th New York Infantry, one of the four regiments he organized.Combined Military Service Record He was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers in September 1861, where he was notorious before beginning any fighting.
According to author Garry Boulard's Daniel Sickles: A Life, Sickles not only refused to return runaway slaves who escaped to his Union camp in Northern Virginia, he put many of them on the federal payroll as servants, while also training male slaves to be soldiers. It was a policy that won for him the approval of the influential Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War.
In March 1862, he was forced to relinquish his command when the U.S. Congress refused to confirm his commission. He lobbied his Washington political contacts and reclaimed both his rank and his command on May 24, 1862, in time to rejoin the Army in the Peninsula Campaign. Because of this interruption, Sickles missed his brigade's significant actions at the Battle of Williamsburg. Despite his lack of previous combat experience, he did a competent job commanding the "Excelsior Brigade" of the Army of the Potomac in the Battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days Battles. He was absent for the Second Battle of Bull Run, having used his political influences to obtain leave to go to New York City to recruit new troops. He also missed the Battle of Antietam because the III Corps, to which he was assigned as a division commander, was stationed on the lower Potomac, protecting the capital.
Sickles was a close ally of Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, his original division commander, who eventually commanded the Army of the Potomac. Both men had notorious reputations as political climbers and as hard-drinking ladies' men.
Sickles' division was in reserve at the Battle of Fredericksburg. On January 16, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln nominated Sickles for promotion to the grade of major general to rank from November 29, 1862.Eicher, p. 705. Although the U.S. Senate did not confirm the promotion until March 9, 1863, and the President did not formally appoint Sickles until March 11, 1863, Hooker, now commanding the Army of the Potomac, gave Sickles command of the III Corps in February 1863.
This decision was controversial as Sickles became the only corps commander without a West Point military education. His energy and ability were conspicuous in the Battle of Chancellorsville. He aggressively recommended pursuing troops he saw in his sector on May 2, 1863. Sickles thought the Confederates were retreating, but these turned out to be elements of Stonewall Jackson's corps, stealthily marching around the Union flank. He also vigorously opposed Hooker's orders moving him off good defensive terrain in Hazel Grove. In both of these cases, it is conceivable that the disastrous battle might have played out very differently for the Union if Hooker had heeded his advice.
Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg was the occasion of the most famous incident and the effective end of Sickles' military career. On July 2, 1863, Army of the Potomac commander Maj. Gen. George G. Meade ordered Sickles' corps to take up defensive positions on the southern end of Cemetery Ridge, anchored in the north to the II Corps and to the south, the hill known as Little Round Top. Sickles was unhappy to see the "Peach Orchard," a slightly higher terrain feature, to his front.Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. . p. 534. Concerned over his position and uncertain of Meade's exact intentions, a little after 2 p.m. he began to march his corps out to the Peach Orchard, almost a mile in front of Cemetery Ridge.Hessler, pp. 107–30. Sickles' uncertainty may have stemmed from his orders to relieve Geary's division (of XII Corps) near Little Round Top, when Geary departed that position very early on July 2; Sickles claimed to be uncertain of Geary's exact prior position. Later in the morning, Meade gave Sickles discretion to post his men according to his judgment, "within the limits of the general instructions" Meade had given him. This may also have contributed to Sickles' decision. This had two effects: it greatly diluted the concentrated defensive posture of his corps by stretching it too thin, and it created a salient that could be bombarded and attacked from multiple sides.
Soon thereafter (3 p.m.), Meade called a meeting of his corps commanders. An aide to Brig. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren soon reported the situation. Sickles arrived just after the meeting had ended. Meade and Warren rode with Sickles back to his position, where Meade explained Sickles' error.Hessler, pp. 146–48. Meade refused Sickles' offer to withdraw because he realized it was too lateMcPherson, p. 657. and the Confederates would soon attack, putting a retreating force in even greater peril.