April 22, 2025 • 19 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Gettysburg National Park Service Ranger Matt Atkinson tells the story of Dan Sickles—the man who pioneered the “temporary insanity” plea after murdering his wife's lover, had his leg shot off by Longstreet's cannon fire in a peach orchard, and later helped establish Gettysburg National Military Park.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
And we returned to our American stories and up next
to the story of a truly unique general in American history,
Dan Sickles. Here to tell the story is Gettysburg. National
Military Ranger Matt Atkinson Take it away.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So what we're gonna talk about tonight is Dan Sickles
and Old Dan Sickles. If you don't know anything about
Dan Sickles, you're in for a heck of a rot.
He just he just defies description. It's truly, you know,
it's the side of a straight out of a movie
or something. So Uncle Dan is born on October nineteenth,
(00:49):
eighteen nineteen, in New York City. He attended New York
University and studied law under none other than the future
Union General Benjamin F.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Butler.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
His early years were marked already with graft. He was
accused of stealing money from another man, he embezzled money
meant for a political pamphlet, and he was accused of
mortgage fraud. The connections made though through Butler, opened a
new world to Dan Sickles, and that new world with politics.
(01:23):
He quickly moved up the plague Tammany Hall political machine,
which he literally had to fight in at different points
with knife and gun and so forth, and he became
the Corporation Council to the city at age twenty eight.
Despite all those things in his background, he later rode
(01:47):
that political machine to be a New York State Senator
from eighteen fifty six to eighteen fifty seven, and he
served in Congress from eighteen fifty seven to eighteen sixty one.
Just to say, what little life told you so far
ought to give you an indication of what type person
he is.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Dan Sickles is impulsive. He is a moral.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
He does not wait on the whims of society whether
he should be doing something or not, and he definitely
does not pay attention to laws. As a lawyer once
famously told me, Matt, you cannot change the law, but
you can certainly change the facts. And Dan Sickles is
going to be very good at that right there. Sickles
(02:37):
lived a fast life. He went through the equivalent of
several fortunes, and I mean fortunes by today's standards, millions
of dollars in the eighteen hundreds. He blew through all that,
and of course, on the other side of it a
lot of that money. He also had a passionate side
for the ladies. Her name was Teresa BagleA. He had
(03:00):
met her while she was a little girl and he
was studying law at the home of her parents. When
now she had grown up, they were married by the
Mayor of New York.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
But what does Sickles do.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
He was married, and I think he truly loved this lady.
I believe he did. But Sickles, it was just a
formality to him. He's going to be on the move.
He will become the American and this is really on
the move. He would become the American legation secretary to
James Buchanan at the Court of Saint James in January
of eighteen fifty three, that's the year after he got married.
(03:38):
But this is what Dan Sickles plays well. Okay, this
is what Dan Sickles plays well. On July fourth of
eighteen fifty four, sickles touchy sense of patriotism bowled over
when Native Bostonian George Peabody gave a dinner to celebrate
Anglo American relationship. Sickles did not like celebrating the Fourth
(04:04):
of July with foreigners, and when he arrived at the party,
he found one hundred and fifty guests, mostly Englishmen. There
were two life sized portraits there, one of Queen Victoria
and the King, and at the end of the room
with only a small portrait on the opposite end of
(04:27):
George Washington. And to top it all off, the toast
of Washington would be given by an Englishman. The program
for the evening had the star spangled banner and held
Columbia lyrics with all negative references to England removed. And
after the speech, with Dan Sickles sitting there, it came
(04:51):
time for the toast.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
That's the way they used to do it.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
One hundred and fifty people rose and then when they said,
they would place their right foot upon their chair, and
then somebody would say to the Queen and everybody would
echo that and drink a toast. Out of one hundred
(05:15):
and fifty people, one hundred and forty nine stood.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Up except for Daniel E. Sickles.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Sickles is going to basically get kicked out England for that,
because it's going to cause a royal mess because he's
insulted the Queen. But did he do that because he
really felt that strongly about the Knight's activities the program
or was it a political calculation, because when he made
it back to New York, what did America think of him?
(05:47):
Anybody that tweaked the nose of John Bull was a hero.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Sickles is not finished.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Sickles loved society, he loved public life, and he loved
both official and unofficial business. He had made the acquaintance
of a gentleman named Philip Barton Key. Philip Barton Key,
who's on the left right there was the District Attorney
of the District of Columbia and the son of Francis
(06:18):
Scott Key. Now with Sickles blessing Keys started. Now Sickles
knows about this. Keys started to escort Teresa to various
social functions, and Key was described as one of the
most handsomest men in Washington. And of course, with Sickles
not being around an absent tee husband, it didn't take
(06:38):
long for romance to blossom between these two, Sickles's wife
and mister Keys. Now, Key was known as a poor lawyer,
and Sickles interceded on his behalf and saved his job
as a congressman. A rumor came to Sickles about the affair,
and he confronted Key with it. Only to have it
(07:00):
denied to his face, and you know what Sickles did.
He believed him. By this time, with Sickles being gone
so much, the affair had gotten so serious. The Key
had obtained a rental house a few blocks from the
Sickles home in Lafayette Square, right across the street from
the White House. Neighbors began to see an elegant couple
(07:23):
enter and leave the dwelling.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
The two also had signals.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
One example is Key would walk in front of the
Sickles residents swinging a handkerchief as a signal for a rendezvous.
He would sometimes sit across the square with a pair
of opera glasses and stare at the house's window, looking
for a sign from Teresa. On February twenty fourth, eighteen
(07:49):
fifty nine, everything came crashing down. Sickles received an anonymous
note saying that an affair was going on. Two days later,
he extracted a written fashion out of Teresa with all
the Toldry details only a Southerner can pronounce the word Toldry.
Unaware of what had happened. The next day, February twenty seventh,
(08:14):
three days after he received the note, Key approached the
Sickles home waving a handkerchief, and Sickles was upstairs and
saw Key down below quote that Billin has.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Just passed my house.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
My god, this is horrible, and Sickles sent a friend
outside to delay Key while he went inside and concealed
a revolver and two derringers in his coat and went
after Philip Bart. Approaching Key, he exclaimed, Key, you scoundrel,
you have dishonored my house. You must die. And with that,
(08:51):
Key reached inside his coat pocket. Sickles fires the pistol
and the shot grazes Key. Key then rushed forward and
grabbed Dan and the two wrestled, and Sickles dropped the
gun before breaking free from the wrestling match. Sickles then
produced another gun from his pocket, and Key, reaching inside
(09:11):
his coat, retrieved some opera glasses and flung them at Sickles,
exclaiming murder, murder, don't shoot. Sickles pull the trigger and
the shot hit Key right below the growing.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
He fell to the pavement.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
And you've been listening to the story of Dan Sickles
being told by Matt Atkinson, who's a ranger at the
Gettysburg National Park. And when we come back, we're going
to find out what happens at Dan Sickles trial. Here
on our American story, and we returned to our American
(10:11):
stories and the story of the colorful Civil War General
Dan Sickles. When we last left off, Sickles had shot
and killed his wife's quarter Philip Barton Key, Yes, the
son of Francis Scott Key, and he was about to
be placed on trial. Here again is Gettysburg National Military
Ranger Matt Atkinson. Let's return to the story.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Sickles will be placed in the DC jail. He will
never stay in a sale. He will actually stay in
the jailor's quarters. It will be arguably, i mean, at
least for this region of the country, the most sensational
trial of the century. During the midst of this trial
(10:53):
by jury, none other than President Buchanan is going to
come in and shake Sickle's hand in front of the jury.
What does that tell the jury means he supports him.
Sickles will have the dream team defense lawyers, and for
the first time they will argue to the jury that
(11:16):
Sickles suffered from temporary insanity. And for the first time
an American jurisprudence history, Sickles will successfully use the defense
of temporary insanity. In other words, Sickles walks right out
of there, got away with murder.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Of course, society did what they condoned what Sickles had done.
That's justifiable homicide. Key should not have been doing that.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
They condemned Sickles when he took his wife back. That's
when Sickles gets booted from Congress. Probably Dan, as I
said earlier, probably did really love her. And what did
he have to say about fidelity.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Sickles's political career.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Is basically over, although he still has Tammany Hall behind him.
But Sickles once again right place, right time the war
breaks out. Dan Sickles comes from which party? Democrat? What
party does Abraham Lincoln come from?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Republican?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Every president of every war of any era is going
to want by partisan support. Because of that, Sickles is
going to be one of the first Democrats to come
out in favor of a Republican war. And you know
what else Dan does. He backs up his patriotism with
(12:48):
his own money, and he raises not a regiment of troops,
but a whole brigade. And Lincoln embraces both things, the
support for the war, war and him being a Democrat,
and more importantly, Dan Sickles when he gets his brigadier
general commission, he becomes a general very early in the war,
(13:10):
and that's going to go into his rise September third,
eighteen sixty one, after he raises what will become known
as the New York Excelsior Brigade. Now he was promoted
to fast forward a little bit here he was promoted
to major general to rank from November twenty ninth, eighteen
sixty two. Sickles was assigned to core command that winner
(13:31):
sixty two sixty three. What you need to know as
far as us going into Gettysburg, probably one of the
more famous stories from the Battle of Gettysburgh is actually
the wounding of Dan Sickles. Dan Sickles is going to
be back at the Trossal farm and he's going to
be sitting astride as horse. It's got to be a
(13:53):
one in a million shot. And you know when you're
sitting in the saddle that when you lean down you're
sitting in this, you know your knees go out one
in a million shot. Sickles is gonna feel something warm.
He's gonna take his hand, He's gonna reach down to
his leg, and he is gonna pull back something warm.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
What is that warm? Blood?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
A Confederate solid shot has come in and smashed or
piece of shrapnel has come in and smashed his leg.
You know the horse was unscathed. This is what Sickles wrote.
I never knew I was hit. I was riding the
lines and was tremendously interested in the terrific fighting I
bet he was. Suddenly I was conscious of dampness along
(14:39):
the lower part of my right leg, and I ran
my hand down the leg of my high top boots
and pulling it out. I was surprised to see it
dripping with blood. Soon I noticed the leg would not
perform its usual functions. Interesting, I lifted it carefully over
my horse's neck and slid to the ground. They found
(14:59):
that the knee he had been smashed, probably by a
piece of shell, and that the leg had been broken
above and also below the knee. But while all this
damage had been done, I had not been unhorsed.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
End of quote.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
At first, Age wrapped a handkerchief around Sickles's leg. Then
a saddle strap was brought and used as a tourniquet,
and Sickles is carried off on a stretcher, and at
some point, as all Americans generals do, when the word
went around that he was dead, Sickles had himself propped
up on his shoulders and that lit cigar stuck into
(15:36):
his mouth, and that's the way he left the battlefield
smoking a cigar. Later that evening, his leg is amputated
on a farm located near the present day shopping outlets
on Baltimore Pike. Sickles will have the leg preserved in
a cask of alcohol and brought with him. Being a
(15:59):
politician and knowing the power and symbolism of a lost limb,
he donated the leg to the Army Medical Museum, and yes, you,
my fellow American taxpayers, still own it. It is true
that Sickles did visit the leg on probably his first
(16:23):
visit to the Army Medical Museum. The curator was leading
Sickles on a tour when the General uttered, oh, yes, yes,
but let us come to my leg. When the curator
led Sickles to the exhibit, the general retorted, where's my foot?
What have you done with my foot? They should have
been shown too. When the curator tried to explain that
(16:46):
the foot was not really necessary, for the exhibit. Sickles
quote became very angry and anathematized the museum very freely.
In October of sixty three, Sickles is feeling much better,
and he met with his boss Mead at Fairfax Station,
Virginia to ask for his old command back.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Mead refused.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Now after the war, Gettisburg continued to be a passionate
thing in Sickle's life. He made an impassioned plea that
the sacred battlefield be preserved, and he vowed, in true
Sickles fashion, to do something about it. In eighteen ninety three,
he won reelection to Congress at the age of seventy
four for one term two years. While there, he pushed
(17:35):
through with irresistible energy, a bill to preserve the land
that made him famous or infamous, as the case may be. Today,
Sickles Avenue is actually the longest avenue within.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
The military park.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I don't know if that was intentional, but I'm sure
Sickles would have.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Agreed with it.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
On May third, nineteen fourteen, Sickles is going to pass
away in New York.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
He was ninety four years old. One thing was certain.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
The Gettysburg event was the defining moment in Dan Sickles's
life and alas, Dan Sickles the general, out of seven
Union Corps commanders, one of only two that does not
have a monument here. Reportedly, and this is up for debate. Reportedly,
when Dan Sickles was asked why he didn't have a
(18:28):
statue on the battlefield, he retorted, that is because the
whole damn battlefield is my monument.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
And great job is always Tamanty for finding the story,
and a special thanks to Gettysburg National Park Service for
allowing us to use this audio. And what a storyteller
Matt Atkinson is. And by the way, that's the story
you will not hear in your history class. He was
a scoundrel, but in the end, look what he did.
He raised the money for a brigade. Scoundrels and naives
(19:02):
patriots and heroes. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference,
and in this case, a scoundrel does, in some very
strange way, become a hero. The story of Dan Sickles
here on our American Stories
And we returned to our American stories and up next
to the story of a truly unique general in American history,
Dan Sickles. Here to tell the story is Gettysburg. National
Military Ranger Matt Atkinson Take it away.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So what we're gonna talk about tonight is Dan Sickles
and Old Dan Sickles. If you don't know anything about
Dan Sickles, you're in for a heck of a rot.
He just he just defies description. It's truly, you know,
it's the side of a straight out of a movie
or something. So Uncle Dan is born on October nineteenth,
(00:49):
eighteen nineteen, in New York City. He attended New York
University and studied law under none other than the future
Union General Benjamin F.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Butler.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
His early years were marked already with graft. He was
accused of stealing money from another man, he embezzled money
meant for a political pamphlet, and he was accused of
mortgage fraud. The connections made though through Butler, opened a
new world to Dan Sickles, and that new world with politics.
(01:23):
He quickly moved up the plague Tammany Hall political machine,
which he literally had to fight in at different points
with knife and gun and so forth, and he became
the Corporation Council to the city at age twenty eight.
Despite all those things in his background, he later rode
(01:47):
that political machine to be a New York State Senator
from eighteen fifty six to eighteen fifty seven, and he
served in Congress from eighteen fifty seven to eighteen sixty one.
Just to say, what little life told you so far
ought to give you an indication of what type person
he is.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Dan Sickles is impulsive. He is a moral.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
He does not wait on the whims of society whether
he should be doing something or not, and he definitely
does not pay attention to laws. As a lawyer once
famously told me, Matt, you cannot change the law, but
you can certainly change the facts. And Dan Sickles is
going to be very good at that right there. Sickles
(02:37):
lived a fast life. He went through the equivalent of
several fortunes, and I mean fortunes by today's standards, millions
of dollars in the eighteen hundreds. He blew through all that,
and of course, on the other side of it a
lot of that money. He also had a passionate side
for the ladies. Her name was Teresa BagleA. He had
(03:00):
met her while she was a little girl and he
was studying law at the home of her parents. When
now she had grown up, they were married by the
Mayor of New York.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
But what does Sickles do.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
He was married, and I think he truly loved this lady.
I believe he did. But Sickles, it was just a
formality to him. He's going to be on the move.
He will become the American and this is really on
the move. He would become the American legation secretary to
James Buchanan at the Court of Saint James in January
of eighteen fifty three, that's the year after he got married.
(03:38):
But this is what Dan Sickles plays well. Okay, this
is what Dan Sickles plays well. On July fourth of
eighteen fifty four, sickles touchy sense of patriotism bowled over
when Native Bostonian George Peabody gave a dinner to celebrate
Anglo American relationship. Sickles did not like celebrating the Fourth
(04:04):
of July with foreigners, and when he arrived at the party,
he found one hundred and fifty guests, mostly Englishmen. There
were two life sized portraits there, one of Queen Victoria
and the King, and at the end of the room
with only a small portrait on the opposite end of
(04:27):
George Washington. And to top it all off, the toast
of Washington would be given by an Englishman. The program
for the evening had the star spangled banner and held
Columbia lyrics with all negative references to England removed. And
after the speech, with Dan Sickles sitting there, it came
(04:51):
time for the toast.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
That's the way they used to do it.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
One hundred and fifty people rose and then when they said,
they would place their right foot upon their chair, and
then somebody would say to the Queen and everybody would
echo that and drink a toast. Out of one hundred
(05:15):
and fifty people, one hundred and forty nine stood.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Up except for Daniel E. Sickles.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Sickles is going to basically get kicked out England for that,
because it's going to cause a royal mess because he's
insulted the Queen. But did he do that because he
really felt that strongly about the Knight's activities the program
or was it a political calculation, because when he made
it back to New York, what did America think of him?
(05:47):
Anybody that tweaked the nose of John Bull was a hero.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Sickles is not finished.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Sickles loved society, he loved public life, and he loved
both official and unofficial business. He had made the acquaintance
of a gentleman named Philip Barton Key. Philip Barton Key,
who's on the left right there was the District Attorney
of the District of Columbia and the son of Francis
(06:18):
Scott Key. Now with Sickles blessing Keys started. Now Sickles
knows about this. Keys started to escort Teresa to various
social functions, and Key was described as one of the
most handsomest men in Washington. And of course, with Sickles
not being around an absent tee husband, it didn't take
(06:38):
long for romance to blossom between these two, Sickles's wife
and mister Keys. Now, Key was known as a poor lawyer,
and Sickles interceded on his behalf and saved his job
as a congressman. A rumor came to Sickles about the affair,
and he confronted Key with it. Only to have it
(07:00):
denied to his face, and you know what Sickles did.
He believed him. By this time, with Sickles being gone
so much, the affair had gotten so serious. The Key
had obtained a rental house a few blocks from the
Sickles home in Lafayette Square, right across the street from
the White House. Neighbors began to see an elegant couple
(07:23):
enter and leave the dwelling.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
The two also had signals.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
One example is Key would walk in front of the
Sickles residents swinging a handkerchief as a signal for a rendezvous.
He would sometimes sit across the square with a pair
of opera glasses and stare at the house's window, looking
for a sign from Teresa. On February twenty fourth, eighteen
(07:49):
fifty nine, everything came crashing down. Sickles received an anonymous
note saying that an affair was going on. Two days later,
he extracted a written fashion out of Teresa with all
the Toldry details only a Southerner can pronounce the word Toldry.
Unaware of what had happened. The next day, February twenty seventh,
(08:14):
three days after he received the note, Key approached the
Sickles home waving a handkerchief, and Sickles was upstairs and
saw Key down below quote that Billin has.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Just passed my house.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
My god, this is horrible, and Sickles sent a friend
outside to delay Key while he went inside and concealed
a revolver and two derringers in his coat and went
after Philip Bart. Approaching Key, he exclaimed, Key, you scoundrel,
you have dishonored my house. You must die. And with that,
(08:51):
Key reached inside his coat pocket. Sickles fires the pistol
and the shot grazes Key. Key then rushed forward and
grabbed Dan and the two wrestled, and Sickles dropped the
gun before breaking free from the wrestling match. Sickles then
produced another gun from his pocket, and Key, reaching inside
(09:11):
his coat, retrieved some opera glasses and flung them at Sickles,
exclaiming murder, murder, don't shoot. Sickles pull the trigger and
the shot hit Key right below the growing.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
He fell to the pavement.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
And you've been listening to the story of Dan Sickles
being told by Matt Atkinson, who's a ranger at the
Gettysburg National Park. And when we come back, we're going
to find out what happens at Dan Sickles trial. Here
on our American story, and we returned to our American
(10:11):
stories and the story of the colorful Civil War General
Dan Sickles. When we last left off, Sickles had shot
and killed his wife's quarter Philip Barton Key, Yes, the
son of Francis Scott Key, and he was about to
be placed on trial. Here again is Gettysburg National Military
Ranger Matt Atkinson. Let's return to the story.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Sickles will be placed in the DC jail. He will
never stay in a sale. He will actually stay in
the jailor's quarters. It will be arguably, i mean, at
least for this region of the country, the most sensational
trial of the century. During the midst of this trial
(10:53):
by jury, none other than President Buchanan is going to
come in and shake Sickle's hand in front of the jury.
What does that tell the jury means he supports him.
Sickles will have the dream team defense lawyers, and for
the first time they will argue to the jury that
(11:16):
Sickles suffered from temporary insanity. And for the first time
an American jurisprudence history, Sickles will successfully use the defense
of temporary insanity. In other words, Sickles walks right out
of there, got away with murder.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Of course, society did what they condoned what Sickles had done.
That's justifiable homicide. Key should not have been doing that.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
They condemned Sickles when he took his wife back. That's
when Sickles gets booted from Congress. Probably Dan, as I
said earlier, probably did really love her. And what did
he have to say about fidelity.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Sickles's political career.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Is basically over, although he still has Tammany Hall behind him.
But Sickles once again right place, right time the war
breaks out. Dan Sickles comes from which party? Democrat? What
party does Abraham Lincoln come from?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Republican?
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Every president of every war of any era is going
to want by partisan support. Because of that, Sickles is
going to be one of the first Democrats to come
out in favor of a Republican war. And you know
what else Dan does. He backs up his patriotism with
(12:48):
his own money, and he raises not a regiment of troops,
but a whole brigade. And Lincoln embraces both things, the
support for the war, war and him being a Democrat,
and more importantly, Dan Sickles when he gets his brigadier
general commission, he becomes a general very early in the war,
(13:10):
and that's going to go into his rise September third,
eighteen sixty one, after he raises what will become known
as the New York Excelsior Brigade. Now he was promoted
to fast forward a little bit here he was promoted
to major general to rank from November twenty ninth, eighteen
sixty two. Sickles was assigned to core command that winner
(13:31):
sixty two sixty three. What you need to know as
far as us going into Gettysburg, probably one of the
more famous stories from the Battle of Gettysburgh is actually
the wounding of Dan Sickles. Dan Sickles is going to
be back at the Trossal farm and he's going to
be sitting astride as horse. It's got to be a
(13:53):
one in a million shot. And you know when you're
sitting in the saddle that when you lean down you're
sitting in this, you know your knees go out one
in a million shot. Sickles is gonna feel something warm.
He's gonna take his hand, He's gonna reach down to
his leg, and he is gonna pull back something warm.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
What is that warm? Blood?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
A Confederate solid shot has come in and smashed or
piece of shrapnel has come in and smashed his leg.
You know the horse was unscathed. This is what Sickles wrote.
I never knew I was hit. I was riding the
lines and was tremendously interested in the terrific fighting I
bet he was. Suddenly I was conscious of dampness along
(14:39):
the lower part of my right leg, and I ran
my hand down the leg of my high top boots
and pulling it out. I was surprised to see it
dripping with blood. Soon I noticed the leg would not
perform its usual functions. Interesting, I lifted it carefully over
my horse's neck and slid to the ground. They found
(14:59):
that the knee he had been smashed, probably by a
piece of shell, and that the leg had been broken
above and also below the knee. But while all this
damage had been done, I had not been unhorsed.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
End of quote.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
At first, Age wrapped a handkerchief around Sickles's leg. Then
a saddle strap was brought and used as a tourniquet,
and Sickles is carried off on a stretcher, and at
some point, as all Americans generals do, when the word
went around that he was dead, Sickles had himself propped
up on his shoulders and that lit cigar stuck into
(15:36):
his mouth, and that's the way he left the battlefield
smoking a cigar. Later that evening, his leg is amputated
on a farm located near the present day shopping outlets
on Baltimore Pike. Sickles will have the leg preserved in
a cask of alcohol and brought with him. Being a
(15:59):
politician and knowing the power and symbolism of a lost limb,
he donated the leg to the Army Medical Museum, and yes, you,
my fellow American taxpayers, still own it. It is true
that Sickles did visit the leg on probably his first
(16:23):
visit to the Army Medical Museum. The curator was leading
Sickles on a tour when the General uttered, oh, yes, yes,
but let us come to my leg. When the curator
led Sickles to the exhibit, the general retorted, where's my foot?
What have you done with my foot? They should have
been shown too. When the curator tried to explain that
(16:46):
the foot was not really necessary, for the exhibit. Sickles
quote became very angry and anathematized the museum very freely.
In October of sixty three, Sickles is feeling much better,
and he met with his boss Mead at Fairfax Station,
Virginia to ask for his old command back.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Mead refused.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Now after the war, Gettisburg continued to be a passionate
thing in Sickle's life. He made an impassioned plea that
the sacred battlefield be preserved, and he vowed, in true
Sickles fashion, to do something about it. In eighteen ninety three,
he won reelection to Congress at the age of seventy
four for one term two years. While there, he pushed
(17:35):
through with irresistible energy, a bill to preserve the land
that made him famous or infamous, as the case may be. Today,
Sickles Avenue is actually the longest avenue within.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
The military park.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I don't know if that was intentional, but I'm sure
Sickles would have.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Agreed with it.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
On May third, nineteen fourteen, Sickles is going to pass
away in New York.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
He was ninety four years old. One thing was certain.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
The Gettysburg event was the defining moment in Dan Sickles's
life and alas, Dan Sickles the general, out of seven
Union Corps commanders, one of only two that does not
have a monument here. Reportedly, and this is up for debate. Reportedly,
when Dan Sickles was asked why he didn't have a
(18:28):
statue on the battlefield, he retorted, that is because the
whole damn battlefield is my monument.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
And great job is always Tamanty for finding the story,
and a special thanks to Gettysburg National Park Service for
allowing us to use this audio. And what a storyteller
Matt Atkinson is. And by the way, that's the story
you will not hear in your history class. He was
a scoundrel, but in the end, look what he did.
He raised the money for a brigade. Scoundrels and naives
(19:02):
patriots and heroes. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference,
and in this case, a scoundrel does, in some very
strange way, become a hero. The story of Dan Sickles
here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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