August 15, 2025 • 30 mins
Daniel Sickles lived one of the wildest, most controversial lives of the Civil War era. From murdering his wife’s lover on the streets of Washington D.C.—and getting away with it—to nearly destroying the Union line at Gettysburg after defying orders, Sickles was never far from scandal or history. A Tammany Hall politician, diplomat, general, and schemer, his story is a mix of ambition, recklessness, and sheer audacity.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
The bloodiest war on American soil. States versus States, Brothers
versus brothers. Join hosts Bang and Dang as they take
you battle by battle through the most divisive time in
American history. Welcome to Battles of the American Civil War.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I read more bond battles.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Looking at another Union in General coming up after covering
the first woman to received the Medal of Honor last week,
Mary Edwards Walker. This guy who'll be the third general
we cover that made it into the year nineteen hundred.
How he might be the oldest one. I think Long
Street made it Little Pats nineteen fourteen.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
This motherfucker lived to be old. They didn't live that
long back then. He did almost a hondo.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
This guy dead, he's also.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
You.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
We're talking about Daniel Sickles. He was a politician of
Civil War vetteran Obviously, he was a House of Representatives
before and after the war and during before the war
while he was a US representative.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
He murdered his wife, all right.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
He murdered his wife's lover, my bad Philip barton Key,
the second they were cheating. They was cheating with his wife,
and gunned him down in the middle of the Street,
and he's the first person to ever use temporary insanity
as legal defense.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Well back then when it comes to marriage, Oh, we'll
get to it right.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
The day is October twentieth, eighteen nineteen, New York City,
Daniel Edgar Sickles. He enters the world, enters the world. Though,
like a lot of things in his life, the story
of his birth year isn't exactly straightforward. Officially, he was
born to Susan Marsh Sickles and George Garrett Sickles. He
was a patent lawyer and a politician.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
Ooh, a patent lawyer, this piece of shit. Huh.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
But sometimes you also see his birth listed as in
eighteen twenty five, and that's no accident. Sickles himself like
to shave a few years off. Historians think he wanted
to seem younger, especially when he later married a woman
literally half his age, so everybody didn't look down on him.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
His own minds not a weirdo.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Oh wow wow.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
As a young man, Sickles he learned a printer's trade.
He didn't stop there, though, He enrolled at the University
of the City of New York.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
Was now known as NYU. Oh nice good College.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
And later he decided law was the way to go.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
He trained under Benjamin Butler, which was a well known
lawyer at that time. By eighteen forty three, Sickles had
passed the bar. Just four years later, eighteen forty seven,
he stepped into politics. He won the seat and a
New York State Assembly and he's representing New York County,
New York County.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
It's a big county.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Who Well, then came the moment that really made waves
in his personal life. September twenty second, eighteen fifty two,
Sickles he married Teresa baggy Oli. The wedding went ahead
despite the disapproval of both families. Oh well, as we
mentioned the outrage, it was because Sickles was thirty two
Teresa was only about fifteen Ooh. While that age gap
(03:19):
alone raised eyebrows, Teresa was no ordinary teenager. She was
already described as sophisticated, fluent in five languages, and able
to hold her own in high society.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
All right, she was a young adult, all.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
Right, Okay.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
By eighteen fifty three, Daniel Sickles I had landed a
high profile job. He was a Corporation Council for New
York City. But He didn't keep the position for very long,
because that same year President Franklin Pierce tapped him for
something a little more glamorous, Secretary of the United States
Legation in London.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Oh, he gets to go to London.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Huh oh, good for him.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
This meant working directly under the United States Minister to
the United Kingdom, none other than James b can All
of that. Yes, yes, that James Buchanan. His time in
London didn't last forever.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Clearly in eighteen fifty five, he came back to the
United States and his political climb continued. Next year, he
was elected to the New York State Senate, representing the
third District, and he managed to hold onto that seat
with a reelection in eighteen fifty seven. But he wasn't
stopping at state politics, because that same year, in eighteen
fifty six, he was also elected to the thirty fifth
US Congress as a Democrat.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
That term officially began March fourth, eighteen fifty seven, and
he served the two full terms, not leaving until March third,
eighteen sixty one. After the war Arch April May, oh,
well ready right before the war started and after his
h trial for murder, so he stayed on even after that.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Daring all his political success, Sickles was also making headlines
let's call them extracurricular activities. New York State Semile actually
censored him after he escorted a well known prostitute, Fanny White,
right into the Semile chambers. Oh wow, that's almost as
bad as two gay guys fucking in the Congress.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
And it didn't stop there.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Sickles reportedly took White with him all the way to England,
leaving his pregnant wife behind in the United States. Oh wow,
this was a move that was bold, even by his standards.
He introduced Fanny White to Queen Victoria herself, using an
alias that just so happened to be the surname of
one of his political enemies back in New York.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Well, let's rewind back to the spring of eighteen fifty eight.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
Damn, so he.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Introduced a p horror to Queen Victoria.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
Uh Like.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
At that eighteen fifty eight spring, Washington, DC, sickles household
buzzing with social life parties, dinners, political gatherings. I'm Daniel
and his wife Teresa. They're well known in the Capitol's
high society. It was at one of these glittering evenings
that a man named Philip barton Key.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Entered the picture.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
Uh oh key.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
He was a widower, charming and already well connected. Yea,
his daddy literally wrote the anthem right. He and Sickles
became friendly, and before long he had also grown.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Close to Teresa. Hell, it goes he don't treat you
Ryan close enough. He began escorting her around town. Oh wow, wow.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
What Daniel didn't realize at the time was that Philip
barton Key and Teresa they started an affair. The rendezvous
spot you asked, well, it was a vacant house on
Fifteenth Street. This is near Lafayette Square.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Don't even have the decency to do anything. They gotta
go bang in a rundown house.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Why Washington being Washington. Whispers of the affairs started making
the rounds, But somehow Sickles stayed in the dark.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
How they ain't gonna let him know that all changed
night of February twenty fourth, eighteen fifty nine. Oh jeez,
Daniel received an anonymous letter. It was blunt, detailed and
impossible to ignore. It spelled out the affair in no
uncertain terms. Sickles began quietly asking around about who'd been
visiting that vacant house, and he soon found the truth
was undeniable. Teresa was indeed involved with Key.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
Oh he's passed.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
They heard her moans and screams coming from the candlelight.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Oh my.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
When Sickles confronted her, Teresa initially denied everything, but when
Daniel laid out the specifics the kind only someone who know.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
The whole story could give, She's like fuck.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
She was like all right, all right.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
And he didn't stop there.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
He demanded she put that confession in a writing and
she did, and somehow the written confession found its way
into the press. Oh somehow, I wonder how, splashing their
scandal across newspapers and setting off a fresh wave of controversy.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Just three days after that, February twenty seven, the drama
turned deadly. Sickles, he spotted Key in Lafayette Square. Why
are you stay hanging all around when they know he
shit's all over the newspaper day?
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Right?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Uh, he was chatting with Samuel Butterworth. What happened next
became one of the most infamous moments in Washington history.
The accounts say Sickles approached and the conversation went a
little bit like this. Sickle says, good morning. He says,
how are you. Sickles says, you scoundrel. You have this
on my house. You must die.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Key says what for?
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Like he don't, well, come on.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Key, Wow.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
That's when Sickles drew a pistol and they fired. The
first shot missed Key. He's now realizing what has happened,
and he rushed at him, grappling for the weapon. Sickles
broke free fired again.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
This time they hit him.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Key staggered backwards, shouting murder, don't kill me, but Sickles
advanced and fired two more rounds at close range. Damn
Philip Barton. Key collapsed dead. Afterward, Sickles didn't run. Instead,
he walked straight to the home of Attorney General Jeremiah Black.
(08:41):
When the popo arrived and they were asking for him,
Daniel Sickles went without protests.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Here I am boys.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
After leaving the house, Daniel Sickles he returned briefly to
his own house and he was accompanied by a constable
and then he was taking to jail. But if you're
picturing some cold isolated itself and again Sickles his time
behind bars, looking nothing like the standard prisoners experience. Guess what,
don't nobody care that he just murdered this dude?
Speaker 5 (09:06):
Right?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
For one, he was allowed to keep his personal weapon.
The steady streaming visitors was so overwhelming that officials eventually
gave him the use of the head jailer's own apartment
just so he had enough space to receive them. Was
this this sounds familiar? That's happened before. Somebody else might
be who you're thinking of. We haven't covered anything like this.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Oh, I mean, we've covered the guy that, uh, the bootlegger,
guy that killed his wife and they got to have
like his own little jail house or whatever. He was,
like he paid for it. Was Nucky, not Nucky. George remis. Yeah,
you gotta remurdered his wife, ran her off the road
and killed her. And then uh, he had his only
glow jail house and they had visitors having like dinner
(09:49):
parties and ja.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
For one, he was allowed to keep his personal weapon.
The steady streaming visitors were so overwhelming that officials eventually
gave him the use of the head jailer's own apartment
just so he had enough space to receive them. This
wasn't just an occasional friend dropping by. His guests list
included congressman, senators, the cream of Washington society. Even President
(10:14):
James Buchanan sent him a personal note.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Look that good job, buddy.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Well, I guess I'd beg then.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
But not every visit was welcome. Harper's Magazine later reported
when Teresa's mother and her clergyman came, the meetings were
painfully emotional. They told Sickles that Teresa was consumed with grief, shame,
and sorrow, and that losing her wedding ring, which Sickles
had taken during his earlier visit home, it was more
than she could bear.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Oh, I'm sorry, I loved you.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
It was a mistake.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
When the trial finally came, Sickles faced at chadge of murder,
but he didn't face it alone. His defense team was
stacked with political heavyweights, including Edwin Stanton, which is future
Secretary of War, James T. Brady A Tammany Hall all
I like Sickles himself.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Following up on our other podcast, Outlaws and Gunslingers, You
know Tammany Hall wasn't no jail.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
And then came the legal twist that made history. Sickles
played temporary insanity, marking the first time this defense I
had ever been used in the United States of America.
He said, I just seen him, and I just didn't
I blacked out. I was I couldn't control my You know.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
That's exactly what he said.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Because before the jury argued that our Stanton argued that
Sickles had been driven out of his mind by his
wife's in fide league. Right then, in those moments in
Lafayette Square, he wasn't thinking like a rational man. Newspapers
quickly seized on the narrative Peyton Sickles as sort of
a chivalrous hero when quote unquote saved all the ladies
of Washington from this rogue named Key.
Speaker 6 (11:45):
Oh well, for Key to be like, wow, the writing
confession Sickles had rung from Teresa Well, the court.
Speaker 5 (11:55):
Ruled it in adssible.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Yeah, he can't do that.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Somehow still found his way into the press. U Between
the sensational headlines, dramatic courtroom scenes, sheer novelity of the
insanity defense, Washington had little else to talk about. For weeks,
national papers covered a trial extensively, and much of the
coverage leaned in Sickles favor the result. You guessed it, acquittal.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Acquittal no better. In a twist that stunned the public.
Sickles then publicly forgave Teresa. He withdrew, at least briefly
from the public spotlight, though he never resigned from Congress.
Like we said, ironically, this act of forgiveness seemed to
outrage the public more than the killing itself, or even
the fact that he just made a legal history with
this highly unorthodox acquittal. Right right, there were more pissed
(12:43):
at him forgiving the little horror than him killing the
other guy, which I mean back then.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
Understandable, right, Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Take a look at his time in the Civil War,
back in the fifties, long before his name became tied
to murder trials and battlefield drama, Sickles already had military connection.
He'd received a commission in the twelfth Regiment of the
New York Militia and risen to the rank of major.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Mind you, this dude had no military training prior.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Right, and Sickles he wasn't shy about showing it either,
because when he was in London he insisted on wearing
his militia uniform for ceremonial events, and in true Sickles fashion,
he managed to stir up a minor diplomatic scandal by
snubbing Queen Victoria herself during an Independence Day celebration.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Damn.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
He's like, guy, you're shaking your hand.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Were celebrating Our independent is from you. So fast forward
to sixty one, Civil war breaks out. Sickles he sees
an opportunity not just to serve the Union, but to
patch up his battered public image. He threw himself in
the into raising volunteer units in New York for the
Union Army. Obviously, thanks to his earlier militia experience and
his well oiled political network, he was appointed colonel of
(13:51):
the seventieth New York Infantry Damn, one of the four
regiments he personally organized organized that September. He was then
promoted the Brigader General of volunteer and by then he
was already well known in military circles, and not for
his battlefield record, but for his colorful reputation.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Wow. While some Union commanders.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Quietly followed the letter of the law we got in
Escape Slaves, Sickles took a different approach. According to author
Gary Bullard's Daniel Sickles a life. He not only refused
to return runaway slaves who made it to his camp
in northern Virginia, he put many of them on the
Federal Peiro as servants. He even began training mail escapees
(14:29):
as soldiers. That move earned him praise from the powerful
Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Who could you guy?
Speaker 5 (14:38):
Well?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Then came a sudden career snag March of eighteen sixty two.
Congress refused to confirm his commission, forced him to give
up his command. Oh wow, but he wasn't about to
fade quietly. He worked as political connections in Washington, and
by May twenty fourth that same year, he had both
his rank and command back. No, and that's just in
time for the Peninsula campaign. Time he missed his brigades
(14:58):
big moments at the Battle Willing. When he did see
as show the action at the Battle of Seven Pines
on the Seven Days Battles, he named his brigade the
Excelsior Brigade.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Of the Army of the Potomac.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
He named it competently despite never having commanded troops in
combat before. Even though you're trying to say my brigade's
the highest of them all.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Still, Sickles had a habit of missing major fights. He
skipped the second Battle bull Run after using his influence
to take leave for recruiting back in New York. He
wasn't at Antietam either. His corps, the third Corps, was
tied down along the Lower Potomac God in Washington, d C.
Sickles' strongest ally in the army was Major General Joseph Hooker,
(15:38):
his first division commander, and a man whose reputation as
a political schemer and hot drinking ladies man matched his own.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
The two made quite a pair of fucking debauchery twins.
All right, that Frederick Berg Sickles Division sat in reserve,
But bigger things were coming. January sixteenth, eighteen sixty three
Old Lincoln he nominated him for promotion to major general,
was retroactive back in November twenty ninth, eighteen sixty two.
Setton didn't confirm it until March ninth, and Lincoln didn't
(16:06):
formally appint him until March eleven. But before all that
paperwork was done, Hooker, who's now in charge of the
entire Army of the Potomac, he gave Sickles command of
the Third Corps in February. Anyways, He's like, you're gonna
get it anyways, buddy.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
Ooh that appointment.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
RiPP of Feathers.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Sickles was now the only Core commander without a West
Point education. Right Chancellorsville, his energy and quick instincts stood out.
Second of May eighteen sixty three, he spotted Confederate troops
moving in his sector, and he pushed hot to go
after them, convinced they were retreating, but in reality they
were Stonewall Jackson's men on a stealthy flank March. He
(16:46):
also fought against Hooker's orders to abandon strong defensive ground
at Hazel Grove. In both cases, historians still wonder if
Hooker had listened to Sickles with the Union's crushing defeat
at Chancellorsville had played out differently.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
Perhaps maybe the.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Battle of Gettysburg would be the turning point in sickles
military career, and in many ways it's abrupt. End July second,
eighteen sixty three, Union commander George Mead had given Sickles
his Third corp Its orders. He said, go take up
the defensive position along the southern edge of the cemetery
Ridge Dowett. The core line would be anchored to the
second core in the north and to the south by
(17:22):
a rocky rise known as Little Roundtop.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
You've heard of that.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
But when Sickles looked over the ground he'd been assigned,
his eyes kept drifting to a slightly higher rise in
a distance. And that's what we all call the peach orchard.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Okay, the peach orchard bothered him. He didn't like the
idea of leaving that high ground unoccupied, especially when it's
higher than your ground. And whether it was genuine tactical
concern or his usual impatience with the thoity Stickles wasn't
entirely clear on Meds exact intentions.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
Oh, that's all. I didn't quite understand you.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
So a little after two pm he made a faithful decision.
He began matching his core forward nearly a mile ahead
of where Mead had told him to be, stretching his
line thin, creating a vulnerable bulge in the union position.
It was a formation that could be attacked from multiple
science m oh Man.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
About an hour later, Mead was meeting out as Core
commanders when Brigadier General Gubernour Warren, his aid came in
with urgent news.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Sickle moved, Oh, he said what. By the time Sickles.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Arrived the meat, it was over already. Meet and Moran
rode back with him to see the situation firsthand. Mead
immediately saw the problem. When Sickles offered to pull back,
Mead refused.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
So it was too late. You made your bed, laying it.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Any retreat I would invite disaster, especially with the compederitive
forces already coming towards his buddy. Stupid fucking madeor bed.
You get all these men kills, Remember that's on your conscience.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Lookfed up, Daniel Dup. Whatever happens today, it's on you now.
The tack came almost immediately, Lieutenant General James Longstreet in
his core, especially the division led by Lafayette McLaws.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
They slammed into the third Corps. They're smashed, line.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Broken, fighting power spent, Getty spurg Historian Edwin Connington would
later say Sickles deserve much of the blame for the
near disaster in the center of the Union Line. Historian
Stephen Sears was just as blunt by disobeying Mead's orders.
Sickles had risks, not just his core, but the army's
(19:21):
entire defensive plan.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Well as usual. Not everybody saw it that way, of course.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Another historian, a military historian John Keegan, He argues that
sickles move may have been uh, may have blunted the
entire Confederate attack, preventing the collapse of the Union position.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Maybe they weren't expecting them so close.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Or something very possible.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Puliter Prize winning historian James McPherson echoed that thought. He said,
Sickles's unwise move may have accidentally foiled these hopes.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
It's very possible because.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
He wasn't expecting nobody. Maybe did we go over it
wasn't they planning to take orchard, Pete orchard?
Speaker 5 (19:57):
They needed to do a little round.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Well, yeah, but I thought they were gonna get Peach
orchard and they went to gold towards it, and they
were already occupied, and so that kind.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Of fucked him up. The confederateor kicking ass for a minute.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
First day anyways, daring the chaos of the old rebels, Salt,
Sickles was struck by a cannonball.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, that shattered his right leg. Soldiers carried him to
the shade.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Of the Trosto farmhouse, where a saddle strap was pulled
tight as can be as a tourniquet. His orders to
his aid Major Harry Tremaine was very simple. Tell General
Bernie he must take command. As he was carried down
a stretcher to the Core hospital at the tiny Town Road,
Sickles kept the sea guard clammed to his teeth, grinning
(20:37):
and waving to keep his soldier's spirits up.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
And he got to that afternoon the lake came off. Sickles.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
He insisted on being taken to Washington immediately. He arrived
on July fourth with some of the first news of
the Union's victory, and he wasted no time to get
any personal pr campaign to defend his actions on the field.
Think what I did for my country? Right July fifth,
President Lincoln and his young son Tad, they stopped.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
By to visit. Oh nice, poor Tad. All right, Sickles.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Ever, the showmen knew exactly what to do with a
shattered limb. The Army Surgeon General had recently ordered specimens
of morbid anatomy to be sent to the new Army
Medical Museum in Washington is Sickles boxed up the bones
of his leg, along with the business card reading with
the complements of Major General des and had them placed
(21:27):
on a display with a similar cannon ball to the
one that destroyed it. On his first visit, he reportedly
scolded a museum for not preserving his foot as well.
For years afterward, he returned on the anniversary of the
amputation to visit what.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Was left of his leg.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Isn't that crazy? That's my leg, all.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Right, and my leg today is still on display at
the National Museum of Health and Medicine. I want to
check it out well, Daniel Sickles.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Oh, as wounds.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
They didn't end on the battlefield, though. In the years
after Gettysburg, Sickles he waged a bitter personal campaign against
me as well. He was hurt personally. He accused Meade
anonymously in the press and openly before Congress secretly planning
to retreat from Gettysburg on the first day.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I claim that obviously wasn't true.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
He also claimed he had personally occupied a little round top
July second, which wasn't the case either.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
We already know what you did.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Dude, Sickles. Line of defense never wavered. Yeah, he had
moved without orders, but that move, he insisted, had disrupted
the old Rebo attack. It diverted their forces, shielded the
Union's real objectives, which were Cemetery Ridge and Cemetery Hill.
The debate over whether he was reckless or brilliant has
(22:40):
continued over ever since.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
Well, if.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
The Union would have lost Gettysburg, A would have done reckless.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Definitely would have taken the lame from that, right, I
would have to say. In the end, though, Sickles received
the Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg, though
it took him thirty four years to get it.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
We'll get to the.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Absent on that later. Even with one leg gone, though,
Sickles he wasn't finished with the army. He stayed on
to the war's end with He was bitter that Grant
refused to give him another combat command.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
I mean, you're hopping around one lake right.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
In eighteen sixty sevent he finally received honorary appointments. He
got the brevet brigadier general for Fredericksburg and a brevet
major general for Gettysburg.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Right right after the war, Sickles was sent on a
quiet mission to Columbia, tasks with securing compliance with an
eighteen forty six treaty that let the United States move
troops across the Isthmus.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Of a Panama.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
From eighteen sixty five to eighteen sixty seven, he commanded
several southern military districts, including South Carolina, the Carolinas, and
the South.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Hey Man the Military District of the South of Both
Carolina then just South Carolina.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
I guess right.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
His reconstruction policies were notable. He pushed for fair treatment
of blacks, protected workers' rights, halted property for closure, made
farm laborers wages, the first lean on crops, outlawed racial discrimination,
and he even banned whiskey production.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Uh you piece of shit.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
In eighteen sixty six, he became colonel the forty second
US Infantry, which is the veteran Reserve Corps, and in
sixty nine he retired from the Army as a major general.
That same year, after the Senate refused to confirm another nominee,
Sickles was appointed US Minister to Spain. There he found
himself embroiled in the Virginius affair, which is sending home
(24:32):
emotional reports that nearly puts the US toward war. Before
Secretary of State Hamilton Fish reigned him in Sickles was
as a disadvantage. Spain's leadership was chaotic. Key negotiations happened
back in Washington without him, and when he resigned, Fish,
satisfied with the service, simply told him, you are recalled
on your own request.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
True to form, Sickles kept his reputation as a ladies
man in the Spanish royal court with the rumors of
an affair with the deposed Queen Elizabeth oh Isabella, but yeah,
with rumors of an affair with a disposed Queen Isabella
the Second Aamn. His first wife, Taddisa, had died in
eighteen sixty seven. In eighteen seventy one, he married Carmina Craig,
(25:16):
which is daughter of a French born Spanish statesman, Chevalier
de Cree.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
They had two children Awesome.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
From the eighteen eighties onwards, Sickles was a familiar face
at Gettysburg reunions, where he was warmly received by many
former Third Corps veterans. Even struck up a friendship with
his own Confederate Op opponent, oh James Longstreet. Good for them,
as both men were fening off political and historical criticism
of their wartime decisions.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
Yeah, you gotta come together.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Still, not everyone welcomed him.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Sickles claimed he was the real architect of Union victor
at Gettysburg, and he repeatedly attacked George Meade's leadership. Even
after Mead's death in eighteen seventy two, he was still
spreading false claims that.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Mead had wanted to retreat. Wow, like, dude, I thought
we proved this wrong.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
Guy.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Why are you still doing this?
Speaker 5 (26:01):
It's crazy.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Eighteen eighty six, Sickles became honorary chairman of the New
York Monuments Commission. He worked for decades to secure funding
for and correctly placed New York regimental monuments on the
Gettysburg Battlefield.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
His tenure ended in.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
Disgrace in nineteen twelve when twenty seven thousand dollars went
miss out.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
What are you doing with that?
Speaker 3 (26:21):
At the ripe age of ninety two, Sickles he still
stayed active in politics and public service. He was also
chairman of the New York State Civil Service Commission from
eighty eight to eighty nine, Sheriff of New York County
in eighteen ninety, member of the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association
eighteen ninety one, and he was a Congressman once again
from eighteen ninety three to ninety five. In Congress, he
(26:44):
champion preserving Gettysburg, helping established it as a national military park,
buying private land and erected monuments. Parks, boundaries, map bicycles
remained unchanged until nineteen seventy four, and its original fencing
came from Lafayette Square and washed in DC itself.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
Oh nice.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Of all the top generals at Gettysburg, Sickles was one
of the few without a statue when asked why he
reportedly equipped the entire battlefield is memorial to Sickles.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Okay, guy wow.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
His BRIGADEX, the Excelsior Brigade monument, which he helped commission,
was supposed to include his bust, but.
Speaker 5 (27:28):
Ended up with an eagle instead.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yeah Wow, Old Daniel.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
He lived out his final years in New York City
and died of a cerebral cerebral hemorrhage cerebral cerebral hemorrhage
May third, nineteen fourteen, at the age of ninety four.
S funeral was held at Saint Patrick's Cathedral and he
was buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
That medal of honor.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Citation that he got it goes as follows, ranking organization
Major General, US Volunteers placing date at He's Burke, Pennsylvania,
July second, eighteen sixty three, entered service at.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
New York, New York. Birth New York, New York.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Date of issue October thirtieth, eighteen ninety seven, and the
citation reads displayed most conspicuous gallantry on the field, vigorously
contesting the advance of the enemy and continuing to encourage
his troops after being himself severely wounded.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
Good for him.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Wow, Daniel sick old suck about a guy being in
the right place at the right time or right situation
at the right time, or but.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Uh, well, I mean the dude literally got away with murder,
so of course he's just gonna be a pompous guy
after the rest of his life.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
And yeah, he can't do nothing. I'm not listening to nobody.
He seemed like one of those guys you made at
a party and you're just.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
Like, I don't want to punch that am Moaviger.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Yeah, always uh talking up himself and whatever you say, Well.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I did this, I did this, blah, blah blah, one
of those legs in a museum. Hit the fuck up.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
We know Daniel, We know the fucking guy. If I'm
happy to go more a shooter. He spends more time
in the sand than David has all. It was funny
the first time I heard it.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
At Daniel Sickles school.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Another guy one of the few that lived into the
nineteen hundreds and a ripe old age of the generals
we've covered so far. So that's Daniel Sickles. We're back
next week for a Confederate general of some sort. Don't
know who's gonna be, but it'll be a Confederate for sure,
and so you know the deal. Like, subscribe, comment, share
this with your friends, leave a review on podcast apps,
(29:29):
and join us next week for more.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Even if it's a comment to fucking totally dog us
will take it right.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
I gotta get the algorithm, baby, Okay, we don't get offended,
no quicker.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
You gotta get the algorithm, baby. We'll see you next
week on the Battles of the Civil War. Behind the
Battles where meth of the Michigan is waking.
Speaker 7 (30:00):
The audic apodent apinan a job. The appinion the cop
attend the Abod Amendment Comment at the Abom of Apol
The bloodiest war on American soil. States versus States, Brothers
versus brothers. Join hosts Bang and Dang as they take
you battle by battle through the most divisive time in
American history. Welcome to Battles of the American Civil War.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I read more bond battles.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Looking at another Union in General coming up after covering
the first woman to received the Medal of Honor last week,
Mary Edwards Walker. This guy who'll be the third general
we cover that made it into the year nineteen hundred.
How he might be the oldest one. I think Long
Street made it Little Pats nineteen fourteen.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
This motherfucker lived to be old. They didn't live that
long back then. He did almost a hondo.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
This guy dead, he's also.
Speaker 5 (01:10):
You.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
We're talking about Daniel Sickles. He was a politician of
Civil War vetteran Obviously, he was a House of Representatives
before and after the war and during before the war
while he was a US representative.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
He murdered his wife, all right.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
He murdered his wife's lover, my bad Philip barton Key,
the second they were cheating. They was cheating with his wife,
and gunned him down in the middle of the Street,
and he's the first person to ever use temporary insanity
as legal defense.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Well back then when it comes to marriage, Oh, we'll
get to it right.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
The day is October twentieth, eighteen nineteen, New York City,
Daniel Edgar Sickles. He enters the world, enters the world. Though,
like a lot of things in his life, the story
of his birth year isn't exactly straightforward. Officially, he was
born to Susan Marsh Sickles and George Garrett Sickles. He
was a patent lawyer and a politician.
Speaker 5 (02:04):
Ooh, a patent lawyer, this piece of shit. Huh.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
But sometimes you also see his birth listed as in
eighteen twenty five, and that's no accident. Sickles himself like
to shave a few years off. Historians think he wanted
to seem younger, especially when he later married a woman
literally half his age, so everybody didn't look down on him.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
His own minds not a weirdo.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Oh wow wow.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
As a young man, Sickles he learned a printer's trade.
He didn't stop there, though, He enrolled at the University
of the City of New York.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
Was now known as NYU. Oh nice good College.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
And later he decided law was the way to go.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
He trained under Benjamin Butler, which was a well known
lawyer at that time. By eighteen forty three, Sickles had
passed the bar. Just four years later, eighteen forty seven,
he stepped into politics. He won the seat and a
New York State Assembly and he's representing New York County,
New York County.
Speaker 5 (02:58):
It's a big county.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Who Well, then came the moment that really made waves
in his personal life. September twenty second, eighteen fifty two,
Sickles he married Teresa baggy Oli. The wedding went ahead
despite the disapproval of both families. Oh well, as we
mentioned the outrage, it was because Sickles was thirty two
Teresa was only about fifteen Ooh. While that age gap
(03:19):
alone raised eyebrows, Teresa was no ordinary teenager. She was
already described as sophisticated, fluent in five languages, and able
to hold her own in high society.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
All right, she was a young adult, all.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
Right, Okay.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
By eighteen fifty three, Daniel Sickles I had landed a
high profile job. He was a Corporation Council for New
York City. But He didn't keep the position for very long,
because that same year President Franklin Pierce tapped him for
something a little more glamorous, Secretary of the United States
Legation in London.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Oh, he gets to go to London.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Huh oh, good for him.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
This meant working directly under the United States Minister to
the United Kingdom, none other than James b can All
of that. Yes, yes, that James Buchanan. His time in
London didn't last forever.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Clearly in eighteen fifty five, he came back to the
United States and his political climb continued. Next year, he
was elected to the New York State Senate, representing the
third District, and he managed to hold onto that seat
with a reelection in eighteen fifty seven. But he wasn't
stopping at state politics, because that same year, in eighteen
fifty six, he was also elected to the thirty fifth
US Congress as a Democrat.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
That term officially began March fourth, eighteen fifty seven, and
he served the two full terms, not leaving until March third,
eighteen sixty one. After the war Arch April May, oh,
well ready right before the war started and after his
h trial for murder, so he stayed on even after that.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
Daring all his political success, Sickles was also making headlines
let's call them extracurricular activities. New York State Semile actually
censored him after he escorted a well known prostitute, Fanny White,
right into the Semile chambers. Oh wow, that's almost as
bad as two gay guys fucking in the Congress.
Speaker 5 (05:07):
And it didn't stop there.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Sickles reportedly took White with him all the way to England,
leaving his pregnant wife behind in the United States. Oh wow,
this was a move that was bold, even by his standards.
He introduced Fanny White to Queen Victoria herself, using an
alias that just so happened to be the surname of
one of his political enemies back in New York.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Well, let's rewind back to the spring of eighteen fifty eight.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
Damn, so he.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Introduced a p horror to Queen Victoria.
Speaker 5 (05:35):
Uh Like.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
At that eighteen fifty eight spring, Washington, DC, sickles household
buzzing with social life parties, dinners, political gatherings. I'm Daniel
and his wife Teresa. They're well known in the Capitol's
high society. It was at one of these glittering evenings
that a man named Philip barton Key.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Entered the picture.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
Uh oh key.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
He was a widower, charming and already well connected. Yea,
his daddy literally wrote the anthem right. He and Sickles
became friendly, and before long he had also grown.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Close to Teresa. Hell, it goes he don't treat you
Ryan close enough. He began escorting her around town. Oh wow, wow.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
What Daniel didn't realize at the time was that Philip
barton Key and Teresa they started an affair. The rendezvous
spot you asked, well, it was a vacant house on
Fifteenth Street. This is near Lafayette Square.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Don't even have the decency to do anything. They gotta
go bang in a rundown house.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Why Washington being Washington. Whispers of the affairs started making
the rounds, But somehow Sickles stayed in the dark.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
How they ain't gonna let him know that all changed
night of February twenty fourth, eighteen fifty nine. Oh jeez,
Daniel received an anonymous letter. It was blunt, detailed and
impossible to ignore. It spelled out the affair in no
uncertain terms. Sickles began quietly asking around about who'd been
visiting that vacant house, and he soon found the truth
was undeniable. Teresa was indeed involved with Key.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
Oh he's passed.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
They heard her moans and screams coming from the candlelight.
Speaker 5 (07:02):
Oh my.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
When Sickles confronted her, Teresa initially denied everything, but when
Daniel laid out the specifics the kind only someone who know.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
The whole story could give, She's like fuck.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
She was like all right, all right.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
And he didn't stop there.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
He demanded she put that confession in a writing and
she did, and somehow the written confession found its way
into the press. Oh somehow, I wonder how, splashing their
scandal across newspapers and setting off a fresh wave of controversy.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Just three days after that, February twenty seven, the drama
turned deadly. Sickles, he spotted Key in Lafayette Square. Why
are you stay hanging all around when they know he
shit's all over the newspaper day?
Speaker 5 (07:42):
Right?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Uh, he was chatting with Samuel Butterworth. What happened next
became one of the most infamous moments in Washington history.
The accounts say Sickles approached and the conversation went a
little bit like this. Sickle says, good morning. He says,
how are you. Sickles says, you scoundrel. You have this
on my house. You must die.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Key says what for?
Speaker 5 (08:03):
Like he don't, well, come on.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Key, Wow.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
That's when Sickles drew a pistol and they fired. The
first shot missed Key. He's now realizing what has happened,
and he rushed at him, grappling for the weapon. Sickles
broke free fired again.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
This time they hit him.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Key staggered backwards, shouting murder, don't kill me, but Sickles
advanced and fired two more rounds at close range. Damn
Philip Barton. Key collapsed dead. Afterward, Sickles didn't run. Instead,
he walked straight to the home of Attorney General Jeremiah Black.
(08:41):
When the popo arrived and they were asking for him,
Daniel Sickles went without protests.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Here I am boys.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
After leaving the house, Daniel Sickles he returned briefly to
his own house and he was accompanied by a constable
and then he was taking to jail. But if you're
picturing some cold isolated itself and again Sickles his time
behind bars, looking nothing like the standard prisoners experience. Guess what,
don't nobody care that he just murdered this dude?
Speaker 5 (09:06):
Right?
Speaker 4 (09:06):
For one, he was allowed to keep his personal weapon.
The steady streaming visitors was so overwhelming that officials eventually
gave him the use of the head jailer's own apartment
just so he had enough space to receive them. Was
this this sounds familiar? That's happened before. Somebody else might
be who you're thinking of. We haven't covered anything like this.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Oh, I mean, we've covered the guy that, uh, the bootlegger,
guy that killed his wife and they got to have
like his own little jail house or whatever. He was,
like he paid for it. Was Nucky, not Nucky. George remis. Yeah,
you gotta remurdered his wife, ran her off the road
and killed her. And then uh, he had his only
glow jail house and they had visitors having like dinner
(09:49):
parties and ja.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
For one, he was allowed to keep his personal weapon.
The steady streaming visitors were so overwhelming that officials eventually
gave him the use of the head jailer's own apartment
just so he had enough space to receive them. This
wasn't just an occasional friend dropping by. His guests list
included congressman, senators, the cream of Washington society. Even President
(10:14):
James Buchanan sent him a personal note.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Look that good job, buddy.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Well, I guess I'd beg then.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
But not every visit was welcome. Harper's Magazine later reported
when Teresa's mother and her clergyman came, the meetings were
painfully emotional. They told Sickles that Teresa was consumed with grief, shame,
and sorrow, and that losing her wedding ring, which Sickles
had taken during his earlier visit home, it was more
than she could bear.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
Oh, I'm sorry, I loved you.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
It was a mistake.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
When the trial finally came, Sickles faced at chadge of murder,
but he didn't face it alone. His defense team was
stacked with political heavyweights, including Edwin Stanton, which is future
Secretary of War, James T. Brady A Tammany Hall all
I like Sickles himself.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Following up on our other podcast, Outlaws and Gunslingers, You
know Tammany Hall wasn't no jail.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
And then came the legal twist that made history. Sickles
played temporary insanity, marking the first time this defense I
had ever been used in the United States of America.
He said, I just seen him, and I just didn't
I blacked out. I was I couldn't control my You know.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
That's exactly what he said.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Because before the jury argued that our Stanton argued that
Sickles had been driven out of his mind by his
wife's in fide league. Right then, in those moments in
Lafayette Square, he wasn't thinking like a rational man. Newspapers
quickly seized on the narrative Peyton Sickles as sort of
a chivalrous hero when quote unquote saved all the ladies
of Washington from this rogue named Key.
Speaker 6 (11:45):
Oh well, for Key to be like, wow, the writing
confession Sickles had rung from Teresa Well, the court.
Speaker 5 (11:55):
Ruled it in adssible.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Yeah, he can't do that.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Somehow still found his way into the press. U Between
the sensational headlines, dramatic courtroom scenes, sheer novelity of the
insanity defense, Washington had little else to talk about. For weeks,
national papers covered a trial extensively, and much of the
coverage leaned in Sickles favor the result. You guessed it, acquittal.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
Acquittal no better. In a twist that stunned the public.
Sickles then publicly forgave Teresa. He withdrew, at least briefly
from the public spotlight, though he never resigned from Congress.
Like we said, ironically, this act of forgiveness seemed to
outrage the public more than the killing itself, or even
the fact that he just made a legal history with
this highly unorthodox acquittal. Right right, there were more pissed
(12:43):
at him forgiving the little horror than him killing the
other guy, which I mean back then.
Speaker 5 (12:47):
Understandable, right, Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Take a look at his time in the Civil War,
back in the fifties, long before his name became tied
to murder trials and battlefield drama, Sickles already had military connection.
He'd received a commission in the twelfth Regiment of the
New York Militia and risen to the rank of major.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Mind you, this dude had no military training prior.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Right, and Sickles he wasn't shy about showing it either,
because when he was in London he insisted on wearing
his militia uniform for ceremonial events, and in true Sickles fashion,
he managed to stir up a minor diplomatic scandal by
snubbing Queen Victoria herself during an Independence Day celebration.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Damn.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
He's like, guy, you're shaking your hand.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Were celebrating Our independent is from you. So fast forward
to sixty one, Civil war breaks out. Sickles he sees
an opportunity not just to serve the Union, but to
patch up his battered public image. He threw himself in
the into raising volunteer units in New York for the
Union Army. Obviously, thanks to his earlier militia experience and
his well oiled political network, he was appointed colonel of
(13:51):
the seventieth New York Infantry Damn, one of the four
regiments he personally organized organized that September. He was then
promoted the Brigader General of volunteer and by then he
was already well known in military circles, and not for
his battlefield record, but for his colorful reputation.
Speaker 5 (14:07):
Wow. While some Union commanders.
Speaker 4 (14:09):
Quietly followed the letter of the law we got in
Escape Slaves, Sickles took a different approach. According to author
Gary Bullard's Daniel Sickles a life. He not only refused
to return runaway slaves who made it to his camp
in northern Virginia, he put many of them on the
Federal Peiro as servants. He even began training mail escapees
(14:29):
as soldiers. That move earned him praise from the powerful
Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Who could you guy?
Speaker 5 (14:38):
Well?
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Then came a sudden career snag March of eighteen sixty two.
Congress refused to confirm his commission, forced him to give
up his command. Oh wow, but he wasn't about to
fade quietly. He worked as political connections in Washington, and
by May twenty fourth that same year, he had both
his rank and command back. No, and that's just in
time for the Peninsula campaign. Time he missed his brigades
(14:58):
big moments at the Battle Willing. When he did see
as show the action at the Battle of Seven Pines
on the Seven Days Battles, he named his brigade the
Excelsior Brigade.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Of the Army of the Potomac.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
He named it competently despite never having commanded troops in
combat before. Even though you're trying to say my brigade's
the highest of them all.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Still, Sickles had a habit of missing major fights. He
skipped the second Battle bull Run after using his influence
to take leave for recruiting back in New York. He
wasn't at Antietam either. His corps, the third Corps, was
tied down along the Lower Potomac God in Washington, d C.
Sickles' strongest ally in the army was Major General Joseph Hooker,
(15:38):
his first division commander, and a man whose reputation as
a political schemer and hot drinking ladies man matched his own.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
The two made quite a pair of fucking debauchery twins.
All right, that Frederick Berg Sickles Division sat in reserve,
But bigger things were coming. January sixteenth, eighteen sixty three
Old Lincoln he nominated him for promotion to major general,
was retroactive back in November twenty ninth, eighteen sixty two.
Setton didn't confirm it until March ninth, and Lincoln didn't
(16:06):
formally appint him until March eleven. But before all that
paperwork was done, Hooker, who's now in charge of the
entire Army of the Potomac, he gave Sickles command of
the Third Corps in February. Anyways, He's like, you're gonna
get it anyways, buddy.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
Ooh that appointment.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
RiPP of Feathers.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
Sickles was now the only Core commander without a West
Point education. Right Chancellorsville, his energy and quick instincts stood out.
Second of May eighteen sixty three, he spotted Confederate troops
moving in his sector, and he pushed hot to go
after them, convinced they were retreating, but in reality they
were Stonewall Jackson's men on a stealthy flank March. He
(16:46):
also fought against Hooker's orders to abandon strong defensive ground
at Hazel Grove. In both cases, historians still wonder if
Hooker had listened to Sickles with the Union's crushing defeat
at Chancellorsville had played out differently.
Speaker 5 (16:59):
Perhaps maybe the.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Battle of Gettysburg would be the turning point in sickles
military career, and in many ways it's abrupt. End July second,
eighteen sixty three, Union commander George Mead had given Sickles
his Third corp Its orders. He said, go take up
the defensive position along the southern edge of the cemetery
Ridge Dowett. The core line would be anchored to the
second core in the north and to the south by
(17:22):
a rocky rise known as Little Roundtop.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
You've heard of that.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
But when Sickles looked over the ground he'd been assigned,
his eyes kept drifting to a slightly higher rise in
a distance. And that's what we all call the peach orchard.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
Okay, the peach orchard bothered him. He didn't like the
idea of leaving that high ground unoccupied, especially when it's
higher than your ground. And whether it was genuine tactical
concern or his usual impatience with the thoity Stickles wasn't
entirely clear on Meds exact intentions.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
Oh, that's all. I didn't quite understand you.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
So a little after two pm he made a faithful decision.
He began matching his core forward nearly a mile ahead
of where Mead had told him to be, stretching his
line thin, creating a vulnerable bulge in the union position.
It was a formation that could be attacked from multiple
science m oh Man.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
About an hour later, Mead was meeting out as Core
commanders when Brigadier General Gubernour Warren, his aid came in
with urgent news.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Sickle moved, Oh, he said what. By the time Sickles.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Arrived the meat, it was over already. Meet and Moran
rode back with him to see the situation firsthand. Mead
immediately saw the problem. When Sickles offered to pull back,
Mead refused.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
So it was too late. You made your bed, laying it.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Any retreat I would invite disaster, especially with the compederitive
forces already coming towards his buddy. Stupid fucking madeor bed.
You get all these men kills, Remember that's on your conscience.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Lookfed up, Daniel Dup. Whatever happens today, it's on you now.
The tack came almost immediately, Lieutenant General James Longstreet in
his core, especially the division led by Lafayette McLaws.
Speaker 5 (18:56):
They slammed into the third Corps. They're smashed, line.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Broken, fighting power spent, Getty spurg Historian Edwin Connington would
later say Sickles deserve much of the blame for the
near disaster in the center of the Union Line. Historian
Stephen Sears was just as blunt by disobeying Mead's orders.
Sickles had risks, not just his core, but the army's
(19:21):
entire defensive plan.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
Well as usual. Not everybody saw it that way, of course.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Another historian, a military historian John Keegan, He argues that
sickles move may have been uh, may have blunted the
entire Confederate attack, preventing the collapse of the Union position.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Maybe they weren't expecting them so close.
Speaker 5 (19:39):
Or something very possible.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Puliter Prize winning historian James McPherson echoed that thought. He said,
Sickles's unwise move may have accidentally foiled these hopes.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
It's very possible because.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
He wasn't expecting nobody. Maybe did we go over it
wasn't they planning to take orchard, Pete orchard?
Speaker 5 (19:57):
They needed to do a little round.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Well, yeah, but I thought they were gonna get Peach
orchard and they went to gold towards it, and they
were already occupied, and so that kind.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Of fucked him up. The confederateor kicking ass for a minute.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
First day anyways, daring the chaos of the old rebels, Salt,
Sickles was struck by a cannonball.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Yeah, that shattered his right leg. Soldiers carried him to
the shade.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Of the Trosto farmhouse, where a saddle strap was pulled
tight as can be as a tourniquet. His orders to
his aid Major Harry Tremaine was very simple. Tell General
Bernie he must take command. As he was carried down
a stretcher to the Core hospital at the tiny Town Road,
Sickles kept the sea guard clammed to his teeth, grinning
(20:37):
and waving to keep his soldier's spirits up.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
And he got to that afternoon the lake came off. Sickles.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
He insisted on being taken to Washington immediately. He arrived
on July fourth with some of the first news of
the Union's victory, and he wasted no time to get
any personal pr campaign to defend his actions on the field.
Think what I did for my country? Right July fifth,
President Lincoln and his young son Tad, they stopped.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
By to visit. Oh nice, poor Tad. All right, Sickles.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Ever, the showmen knew exactly what to do with a
shattered limb. The Army Surgeon General had recently ordered specimens
of morbid anatomy to be sent to the new Army
Medical Museum in Washington is Sickles boxed up the bones
of his leg, along with the business card reading with
the complements of Major General des and had them placed
(21:27):
on a display with a similar cannon ball to the
one that destroyed it. On his first visit, he reportedly
scolded a museum for not preserving his foot as well.
For years afterward, he returned on the anniversary of the
amputation to visit what.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
Was left of his leg.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Isn't that crazy? That's my leg, all.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Right, and my leg today is still on display at
the National Museum of Health and Medicine. I want to
check it out well, Daniel Sickles.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Oh, as wounds.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
They didn't end on the battlefield, though. In the years
after Gettysburg, Sickles he waged a bitter personal campaign against
me as well. He was hurt personally. He accused Meade
anonymously in the press and openly before Congress secretly planning
to retreat from Gettysburg on the first day.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I claim that obviously wasn't true.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
He also claimed he had personally occupied a little round top
July second, which wasn't the case either.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
We already know what you did.
Speaker 4 (22:17):
Dude, Sickles. Line of defense never wavered. Yeah, he had
moved without orders, but that move, he insisted, had disrupted
the old Rebo attack. It diverted their forces, shielded the
Union's real objectives, which were Cemetery Ridge and Cemetery Hill.
The debate over whether he was reckless or brilliant has
(22:40):
continued over ever since.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
Well, if.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
The Union would have lost Gettysburg, A would have done reckless.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Definitely would have taken the lame from that, right, I
would have to say. In the end, though, Sickles received
the Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg, though
it took him thirty four years to get it.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
We'll get to the.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Absent on that later. Even with one leg gone, though,
Sickles he wasn't finished with the army. He stayed on
to the war's end with He was bitter that Grant
refused to give him another combat command.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
I mean, you're hopping around one lake right.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
In eighteen sixty sevent he finally received honorary appointments. He
got the brevet brigadier general for Fredericksburg and a brevet
major general for Gettysburg.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Right right after the war, Sickles was sent on a
quiet mission to Columbia, tasks with securing compliance with an
eighteen forty six treaty that let the United States move
troops across the Isthmus.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Of a Panama.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
From eighteen sixty five to eighteen sixty seven, he commanded
several southern military districts, including South Carolina, the Carolinas, and
the South.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Hey Man the Military District of the South of Both
Carolina then just South Carolina.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
I guess right.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
His reconstruction policies were notable. He pushed for fair treatment
of blacks, protected workers' rights, halted property for closure, made
farm laborers wages, the first lean on crops, outlawed racial discrimination,
and he even banned whiskey production.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Uh you piece of shit.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
In eighteen sixty six, he became colonel the forty second
US Infantry, which is the veteran Reserve Corps, and in
sixty nine he retired from the Army as a major general.
That same year, after the Senate refused to confirm another nominee,
Sickles was appointed US Minister to Spain. There he found
himself embroiled in the Virginius affair, which is sending home
(24:32):
emotional reports that nearly puts the US toward war. Before
Secretary of State Hamilton Fish reigned him in Sickles was
as a disadvantage. Spain's leadership was chaotic. Key negotiations happened
back in Washington without him, and when he resigned, Fish,
satisfied with the service, simply told him, you are recalled
on your own request.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
True to form, Sickles kept his reputation as a ladies
man in the Spanish royal court with the rumors of
an affair with the deposed Queen Elizabeth oh Isabella, but yeah,
with rumors of an affair with a disposed Queen Isabella
the Second Aamn. His first wife, Taddisa, had died in
eighteen sixty seven. In eighteen seventy one, he married Carmina Craig,
(25:16):
which is daughter of a French born Spanish statesman, Chevalier
de Cree.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
They had two children Awesome.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
From the eighteen eighties onwards, Sickles was a familiar face
at Gettysburg reunions, where he was warmly received by many
former Third Corps veterans. Even struck up a friendship with
his own Confederate Op opponent, oh James Longstreet. Good for them,
as both men were fening off political and historical criticism
of their wartime decisions.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
Yeah, you gotta come together.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Still, not everyone welcomed him.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
Sickles claimed he was the real architect of Union victor
at Gettysburg, and he repeatedly attacked George Meade's leadership. Even
after Mead's death in eighteen seventy two, he was still
spreading false claims that.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Mead had wanted to retreat. Wow, like, dude, I thought
we proved this wrong.
Speaker 5 (25:59):
Guy.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Why are you still doing this?
Speaker 5 (26:01):
It's crazy.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
Eighteen eighty six, Sickles became honorary chairman of the New
York Monuments Commission. He worked for decades to secure funding
for and correctly placed New York regimental monuments on the
Gettysburg Battlefield.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
His tenure ended in.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
Disgrace in nineteen twelve when twenty seven thousand dollars went
miss out.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
What are you doing with that?
Speaker 3 (26:21):
At the ripe age of ninety two, Sickles he still
stayed active in politics and public service. He was also
chairman of the New York State Civil Service Commission from
eighty eight to eighty nine, Sheriff of New York County
in eighteen ninety, member of the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association
eighteen ninety one, and he was a Congressman once again
from eighteen ninety three to ninety five. In Congress, he
(26:44):
champion preserving Gettysburg, helping established it as a national military park,
buying private land and erected monuments. Parks, boundaries, map bicycles
remained unchanged until nineteen seventy four, and its original fencing
came from Lafayette Square and washed in DC itself.
Speaker 5 (27:01):
Oh nice.
Speaker 4 (27:03):
Of all the top generals at Gettysburg, Sickles was one
of the few without a statue when asked why he
reportedly equipped the entire battlefield is memorial to Sickles.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Okay, guy wow.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
His BRIGADEX, the Excelsior Brigade monument, which he helped commission,
was supposed to include his bust, but.
Speaker 5 (27:28):
Ended up with an eagle instead.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yeah Wow, Old Daniel.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
He lived out his final years in New York City
and died of a cerebral cerebral hemorrhage cerebral cerebral hemorrhage
May third, nineteen fourteen, at the age of ninety four.
S funeral was held at Saint Patrick's Cathedral and he
was buried with full honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
That medal of honor.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Citation that he got it goes as follows, ranking organization
Major General, US Volunteers placing date at He's Burke, Pennsylvania,
July second, eighteen sixty three, entered service at.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
New York, New York. Birth New York, New York.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Date of issue October thirtieth, eighteen ninety seven, and the
citation reads displayed most conspicuous gallantry on the field, vigorously
contesting the advance of the enemy and continuing to encourage
his troops after being himself severely wounded.
Speaker 5 (28:22):
Good for him.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Wow, Daniel sick old suck about a guy being in
the right place at the right time or right situation
at the right time, or but.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Uh, well, I mean the dude literally got away with murder,
so of course he's just gonna be a pompous guy
after the rest of his life.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
And yeah, he can't do nothing. I'm not listening to nobody.
He seemed like one of those guys you made at
a party and you're just.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
Like, I don't want to punch that am Moaviger.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Yeah, always uh talking up himself and whatever you say, Well.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I did this, I did this, blah, blah blah, one
of those legs in a museum. Hit the fuck up.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
We know Daniel, We know the fucking guy. If I'm
happy to go more a shooter. He spends more time
in the sand than David has all. It was funny
the first time I heard it.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
At Daniel Sickles school.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Another guy one of the few that lived into the
nineteen hundreds and a ripe old age of the generals
we've covered so far. So that's Daniel Sickles. We're back
next week for a Confederate general of some sort. Don't
know who's gonna be, but it'll be a Confederate for sure,
and so you know the deal. Like, subscribe, comment, share
this with your friends, leave a review on podcast apps,
(29:29):
and join us next week for more.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Even if it's a comment to fucking totally dog us
will take it right.
Speaker 3 (29:35):
I gotta get the algorithm, baby, Okay, we don't get offended,
no quicker.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
You gotta get the algorithm, baby. We'll see you next
week on the Battles of the Civil War. Behind the
Battles where meth of the Michigan is waking.
Speaker 7 (30:00):
The audic apodent apinan a job. The appinion the cop
attend the Abod Amendment Comment at the Abom of Apol
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