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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Daniel Edgar Sickles Biography SICKLES,
Daniel Edgar (1825-1914). An American soldier and politician, born in
New York City. He was educated at the New York University, studied law, and was
admitted to practice in 1846. In the following years he sat as a Tammany
Democrat in the State Assembly. In 1853 he was appointed corporation counsel of
New York City and was Secretary of Legation at London (1853-55). when he
returned to the United States and was elected to the New York State Senate
(1856-57) and became a Democratic member of Congress (1857-61). During this
period he shot and killed Philip Barton Key, United States District Attorney for
the District of Columbia, for adultery with his wife, but was acquitted after a
short sensational trial. At the outbreak of the Civil War he raised the
Excelsior (New York) Brigade, becoming colonel of the Seventieth New York
Volunteers. He served as brigadier general of volunteers (1861) and major
general (1862). He commanded a brigade in McClellan's
Peninsular campaign and at Antietam, had a division at Fredericksburg, and was
in command of the Third Army Corps later. On the second day at Gettysburg (q.v.)
his corps sustained the brunt of the Confederate attack, on the Federal left,
and Sickles himself lost a leg. He continued in the service, was commander of
the Department of the Carolinas in 1866-67, brevetted brigadier general and
major general in the regular army for services at Fredericksburg and Gettysburg,
and for a time was colonel of the Forty-second Infantry. On April 14, 1869, he
was retired with the full rank of major general. He was Minister to Spain from
1869 until 1873 and presented the demands of the United States for reparation
for the execution of the captain and crew of the Virginius.
(See VIRGINIUS MASSACRE.) Sickles was again elected to Congress as a Democrat in
1892 and for several years was President of the New York State Board of Civil
Service Commissioners. His last years were clouded by financial difficulties and
sickness. |