Daniel Sickles - Wikipedia

Thank you, my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that October 20 is the anniversary of the birth of American politician, Federal Army officer, and diplomat Daniel Edgar Sickles.
He seems to be a prime example of somebody promoted far above his talents and capabilities.
Ironically after disobeying orders as commander of 3rd Corp at Gettysburg by moving his corps to an untenantable position where the corps was decimated,

Daniel Sickles' Temporary Insanity
"The History Guy tells the forgotten story of intrigue, adultery and murder, and how Daniel Sickles, a United States Congressman, was the first to plead not guilty by reason of temporary insanity in a United States court."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVQkpTxGtwA

Images:
1. Major General Daniel E. Sickles.
2. Daniel Edgar Sickles murdered Philip Barton Key.
3. The leg of General Sickles On Display At The Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
4. Major General Daniel E. Sickles seated with his leg missing after being shattered by a cannon ball and subsequently amputated.jpg

Biographies
1. battlefields.org/learn/biographies/daniel-e-sickles
2. arlingtoncemetery.net/dsickles.

1. Background from battlefields.org/learn/biographies/daniel-e-sickles
"Daniel Edgar Sickles
Union Major General in the US Civil War
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1819
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1914
Few figures of the American Civil War are more dubious than Daniel Edgar Sickles. His self-motivated actions on and off the battlefield have been debated by historians and buffs to this day. Even his date of birth elicits controversy. Daniel Sickles was supposedly born in New York City on October 20, 1819—although it is quite possible he was born on October 20, 1825.

A product of the "Tammany Hall" political machine, Dan Sickles served as both a lawyer and politician in the Empire State. At the age of 28, his political connections gained him the position of corporation counsel of New York City, and also led him to a New York State Senate seat.

In 1856, Sickles was elected to the United States House of Representatives. Dan Sickles and his young wife, Teresa Bagioli Sickles, lived a lavish Washington D.C.. lifestyle. The two leased a mansion at Lafayette Square, just across from the White House. The couple hosted grand dinner parties for the upper crust of Washington society. It was well-known within the Washington social circles that the couple were less than faithful in the marital vows.

On February 25, 1859, Sickles shot and killed his wife's lover, Philip Barton Key—in broad daylight. The victim was the son of Francis Scott Key, (author of the Star Spangled Banner). Future Secretary of War Edwin Stanton represented Sickles in what would be the first successful use of the "temporary insanity" defense in the United States. While the murder and acquittal were both shocking, the true shock to the Washington elite came when Sickles did not divorce his wife. Few socialized with the couple. One diarist noted that Sickles was "left alone as if he had the smallpox."

Sickles began his military career serving as Colonel for the 70th New York Infantry before being appointed brigadier general of volunteers, commanding New York's Excelsior Brigade. In November 1862 he was promoted to major general. While he was extremely brave in battle, he often found himself in conflict with superior officers.

Sickles served in Joseph Hooker's Division of the Third Corps during the Peninsula Campaign and returned to New York for recruiting duties for much of the late summer and early fall of 1862. He commanded a division at Fredericksburg, and then assumed command of the Third Corps prior to the Chancellorsville campaign.

At Chancellorsville, Sickles received permission to reconnoiter the Confederate lines, as word spread of a possible Confederate movement in Federals front. Sickles corps engaged the Confederates near the Catharine Iron Furnace. Joseph Hooker, now in command of the Army of the Potomac, convinced himself that Sickles had stumbled upon a retreating Confederate column. Rather than pull Sickles back to the main Union battle line, Hooker left Sickles 18,000 man corps nearly one-and-a-half miles from the closest Federal support. Later that same afternoon, General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's men, which they had mistakenly believed to be in retreat, attacked the Federal right flank. With Sickles men in advance of the main Union lines, a gap was unwittingly created by Hooker, between his men on the right flank and the rest of the Union Army. Sickles attempted to fight his way back to friendly lines. Darkness and the close choking woods prevented him from doing so, but Sickles was able to secure a key piece of high ground—Hazel Grove.

The next morning, May 3, 1863, Sickles was ordered to give up Hazel Grove by Joseph Hooker. Sickles protested to no avail. Confederates quickly seized the high ground and pummeled the Union center. By 10 AM the Federals were withdrawing to a new position.

While Sickles had somewhat stretched his orders during Chancellorsville, he outright disobeyed direct orders from Maj. Gen. George G. Meade during the Battle of Gettysburg. Sickles orders were to cover the Round Tops on the Union left flank, instead he moved his men to the Peach Orchard. The result was that the Third Corps was overrun and driven from the field. Sickles lost his right leg in the disaster. Despite this fiasco Sickles was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg. The citation states that he, "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."

After the surgery, Sickles gained lasting fame for donating his amputated limb to the Army Medical Museum in Washington, DC. The limb was received with a small card which said, "With the Compliments of Major General D.E.S." Part of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Army Medical Museum has kept Sickles' amputated limb on display.

Abraham Lincoln sent Sickles to the South where he assessed the effects of slavery on African Americans and gave suggestions for Reconstruction in the future. After the war he held a variety of positions: diplomat to Colombia, Military Governor of South Carolina, Minister to Spain, Chairman of the New York Civil Service Commission, New York City Sheriff, New York Congressman and Chairman of the New York State Monuments Commission. He was removed from the monuments committee in 1912 for allegedly pocketing funds. Despite this, he was instrumental in establishing the Gettysburg National Battlefield Park. He visited Gettysburg many times after the war.

Sickles died of "cerebral hemorrhage" at New York City on May 3, 1914. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery."

2. Background from arlingtoncemetery.net/dsickles.htm
Always a controversial figure, Sickles was born on October 20, 1819 in New York City. After attending New York University and studying law, he appraised his chances for advancement in various fields and quickly chose politics.
As a Tammany Hall stalwart he became the Corporate Consul of the City at the age of 28 but resigned the same year to be Secretary of the U.S. Legation in London. He then served as a New York State Senator and Representative in Congress from 1857 to 1861.
He had first gained national attention when in 1859 he shot and killed, in the very shadow of the White House (on Lafayette Square), his young wife's lover, Francis Barton Key, the son of Francis Scott Key, the author of the Star Spangled Banner. During the ensuing trial, in which he was represented by Edwin M. Stanton (who would become Lincoln's Secretary of War), he for the first time in U.S. jurisprudence pleaded the "unwritten law" (self defense of one's wife as his own property) and was acquitted. He subsequently enraged both critics and fans by publicly forgiving his unfaithful spouse.
As a War Democrat in 1861, his offer of services was quickly accepted by the President and he was soon appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers, ranking from September 1, 1861. He was assigned command of New York's Excelsior Brigade, which he had been instrumental in recruiting.
His later career as a Division and Corps Commander, with his promotion to Major General to rank from November 29, 1862, found him often at odds with his superiors. However, he demonstrated many soldierly qualities and he was utterly fearless in combat. He fought on the Peninsula and at Sharpsburg in Joseph Hooker's Division of III Corps; commanded a Division at Fredericksburg; and in the campaign of Chancellorsville commanded III Corps. In the latter battle, elements of his command reported that General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's celebrated flanking march, while it was still in progress, as a retreat. The subsequent advance of 2/3 of the Corps to pursue the "retreating" Rebels left Oliver O. Howard's XI Corps on its right completely isolated and contributed largely to the ensuing debacle.
At Gettysburg, his men were supposed to cover the Federal left in the vicinity of the Round Tops. Not liking the position and in defiance of direct orders to the contrary, he advanced the Corps into the famous Peach Orchard, creating a salient which was subsequently overrun by General James Longstreet's assault. The end results were the virtual destruction and disappearance if III Corps, termination of his command in the field by virtue of a serious wound which cost him his right leg, and controversy with his superior, General George Gordon Meade. However, he was subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor for his services at Gettysburg. After his recovery, during which he donated his amputated right leg to the Army Medical Museum in Washington - where it continues on display at that facility located at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, President Lincoln dispatched him on a tour of Union-held Southern territory for an appraisal of the effect of amnesty, Negro progress, and Reconstruction.
He next performed a diplomatic mission to Colombia; served as Military Governor of South Carolina; and in 1869 retired from the Army with the rank of Major General in the Regular Army. At that time, President Grant appointed him Minister to Spain, where he was chiefly distinguished diplomatically by becoming the intimate friend of Isabella, the former Queen of Spain. He served again in Congress from New York, 1893-95; and for many years was the Chairman of the New York State Monuments Commission, a position from which he was removed in 1912 by reason of alleged misuse of funds. However, while in that position, he did much to bring about the National Battlefield Park at Gettysburg, a site he often visited during his life.
An octogenarian relic of a bygone age, he became separated not only from family but from reality and died irresponsible on May 3, 1914 at his home in New York City. He is now buried in Section 2 of Arlington National Cemetery.
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Major General Daniel E. Sickles, Union Third Army Corps commander, was struck by a cannonball during
the battle of Gettysburg. Sickles was on horseback when the 12-pound ball severely fractured his
lower right leg. Sickles quieted his horse, dismounted, and was taken to a shelter where Surgeon Thomas Sims amputated the leg just above the knee. Shortly after the operation, the Army Medical Museum received Sickles' leg in a small box bearing a visiting card with the message "With the compliments of Major General D.E.S."

The leg of General Sickles On Display At The Walter Reed Army Medical Center
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American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles by Thomas Keneally: a review by Marianne Moates
Marianne Moates
10-14-2003
American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles by Thomas Keneally.
If you think scandals at the highest levels of government and a trial of the century are topics just for today's headlines, think again. America had a genuine scoundrel in the mid 1850s, Congressman Dan Sickles, a decorated war general, who murdered his wife's lover in front of the White House.
The life of Dan Sickles is explored in the biography, American Scoundrel, by internationally acclaimed author, Thomas Keneally. Keneally is the author of numerous books, the most famous being Schindler's List.
Keneally came upon information about Dan Sickles while researching the life of Thomas Francis Meagher, charming leader of an Irish uprising who immigrated to America. He then became active in the Democratic Movement known as Tammany Hall. This is where Meagher and Dan Sickles became friends and political leaders.
Sickles was a handsome man, articulate, well known leader in Tammany Hall politics. Though he had many affairs, he did not marry until he met the lovely young Teresa Bagioli whose parents were wealthy.
The Sickles' moved to Washington where they were heavily involved in the political social swirl. The time was pre Civil-War and at every social gathering there were heard many rumblings of war.
Sickles continued his love affairs, and in the meantime seriously neglected his young wife. It did not take her long to fall into the arms of Phillip Barton Key, son of Francis Scott Key.
Key followed Teresa everywhere, to her social gatherings, and to her home. Dan Sickles eventually received a poison pen letter informing him of his wife's infidelity. Like a modern sleuth, Sickles discovered for himself the embarrassment of Teresa's indiscretions.
Sick with rage, Dan lay wait for Key and murdered him. Dan went to jail, and all of Washington turned out to comfort him. He pled insanity, and it was the first time the insanity defense had been used. It was Dan Sickles, of course, who had been driven insane by his wife's seduction, and thus was out of his mind when he shot Key. Or so said his lawyer. Sickles was a hero for saving all the other ladies of Washington from this rogue named Key.
Sickles went on to fight in the Civil War, became caught up in a controversial trial over a strategic battle, lived abroad for a time, and had an affair with the deposed Queen of Spain.
Perhaps the most touching scene in the book is Sickles' return to the battlefield at Gettysburg for the fiftieth anniversary celebration. He and some of the old Confederates embraced each other.
Sickles lived into his nineties. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with the full trappings due his rank as General.
This was a fascinating tale, well researched and documented. Anyone interested in history, especially history of the Civil War, would thoroughly enjoy reading the book.
Marianne Moates is a free lance writer who lives in Sylacauga. Her book reviews appear on Tuesdays.
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From a contemporary news report:
"May 1993: The Gettysburg National Military Park, responding to a request for re-burying General Daniel E. Sickles there, says the remains could go in the Soldiers National Cemetery Annex or his ashes could be strewn in the original cemetery which has been closed to burials since 1903. An added section for Civil War and Spanish-American War interments behind the 1863 section would have been available for Sickles at his death in 1914, but he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The added section was then closed in 1936. Gettysburg officials say that the National Park Service, Arlington National Cemetery and others would have to approve the re-burial proposed by New Yorkers Richard H. Davis and John V. Shad, Sickles' great-great-nephew and his only known survivor. Davis says that Sickles should be buried in the historic section according to his wishes. They want him buried near the New York Monument."
November 24, 1995: Sickles, who died in 1914, also was a murderer, a rogue and quite possibly a thief. Davis is a Delmar resident and Civil War aficionado who has taken on a one-man crusade on Sickles' behalf. And now the twain have met. "He was so bad he was good," Davis said, adding he has taken on cause because, well, because he felt like it.
Sickles, a Medal of Honor winner who lost a leg in the Battle of Gettysburg, gunned down Philip Barton Key, the son of the author of the Star Spangled Banner, within walking distance from the White House. Key was romancing Sickles' wife, Davis said. Sickles was acquitted of murder when he used a temporary insanity defense. Sickles also was once censured for bringing a hooker onto the floor of the state Legislature. The general also is considered the "patron saint" of the Gettysburg Battlefield National Military Park The Civil War hero was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia following his death, possibly in contravention of his own and his wife's wishes that he be interred adjacent to the New York State Monument at Gettysburg, Pa. And that has raised Davis' hackles. After go-rounds with officials at both Arlington and Gettysburg, he is now seeking the backing of Bernadette Castro, commissioner of the state Department of Park, Recreation and Historic Preservation in his cause.
Davis also has persuaded Sickles only surviving relative, John Shaud of West Hempstead, Long Island, to formally back the moving of Sickles' body . . . to no avail. "There's not a chance in hell General Sickles is going to disinterred," said John Latschar, superintendent of the Gettysburg National Cemetery. "It's pretty simple, I wouldn't even call it an issue," he added. "It would take a court order to get him out of Arlington, I'm certainly not going to support that."
Quite simply, said Latschar, "Mr. Davis has got some vague circumstantial evidence pointing to the fact that Sickles' estranged wife may have wanted him at one time to be buried here." He has a strong case, said Davis, who participated in the annual Remembrance Day Parade marking Abraham Lincoln's deliverance of the Gettysburg Address, last weekend at Gettysburg while dressed as Sickles. Davis points to a 1914 New York Time article that says Sickles' widow had asked the federal secretary of war for permission to have her husband buried at the Gettysburg monument. The secretary granted permission. "This disposed of the idea that the body might be brought to Washington for burial at Arlington," said the Times at the time. He also cites federal records noting that Mrs. Sickles asked that her husband be buried near the New York State Monument. The reply from a Colonel John P. Nicholson to Assistant War Secretary Henry Breckinridge notes: "Cannot be slightest objection to Sickles' interment as specified."
"There's no good paper trail or documentation to detail how that decision was made," responded Latschar. "General Sickles was very much involved with Gettysburg; he was instrumental getting involved with the national park. We have to make the logical assumption if he wanted to be buried here at the cemetery, it would have been a well-known fact."
Without that Davis needs either a court order or the request of a blood relative for the disinterment, he said. "Mr. Davis has found some long lost nephew, that just doesn't cut the ice," Latschar said. Shaud said he strongly supports the movement of his great grand-uncle to the Gettysburg cemetery. And if the feelings of the only surviving relative carry no weight, what does, he asked? "What does he want? The poor man's dead for 80 years. Does he want a son? His son died in 1939."
Sickles, born in 1819, attended a private school in Glens Falls for a short time as a boy, later became a lawyer opening his first law office conveniently before he had even passed the bar. By 1837, he had been indicted for obtaining money under false pretenses. Afterward, Sickles became a politician and was involved with the Line is overdrawn infamous Tammany Hall Democratic bastion in New York City. He was elected to the state Assembly in 1847. He later was censured by that body when he brought well-known New York City bordello operator, Fanny White, onto the chamber floor for a tour. In February 1859 in front of a dozen witnesses in Lafayette Square in Washington, he shot down Key in the dispute over Key's interest in Sickles' young wife. "Of course I killed him," he said at the time. "He deserved it."
At Gettysburg, he lost his leg when he was hit by a cannon ball, Shaud said. President Abraham Lincoln and his son, Tad, visited the general in a Washington Hospital. During the 1890s, as a federal congressman, he successfully lobbied for the establishment of the Gettysburg battlefield park.
Ironically, the fence along Lafayette Square where the Key killing took place was later moved to the border of the Gettysburg cemetery, said Davis. At last weekend's Remembrance Parade, Latschar was there, laughed Davis. "He was very somber, never said a word. He looked, I made sure he saw me having a good time."
So how did Davis become the world's biggest Dan Sickles backer? Davis said he became interested in Sickles during a Civil War conference several years ago. Davis didn't like the reaction that followed a discussion on Sickles and his command of the Third Corps during the crucial second day of the Gettysburg battle.
"Everybody was booing Sickles; that made it interesting, so I figured I'd defend him." Since then, Davis has impersonated Sickles at various occasions and historical reenactments. And his friendship with an elderly retired Army colonel and historian put him on the trail of Sickles' widow's telegram and the reply giving her permission to bury dear old Dan at Gettysburg. A spokesman for state Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation said the department is aware of Davis' October 25, 1995 letter seeking her to join his crusade. No immediate reply was available from the department on its position. Davis said he might seek to bring federal Attorney General Janet Reno into the fray.
"The National Park Service has shafted us," he complained. "No one in New York state even knows about it." As for Latschar, Davis has only contempt, noting that Sickles was the driving force behind the establishment of the national battlefield park and at Gettysburg. "He wouldn't have a job if it wasn't for Dan Sickles," he said.
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Courtesy of the U.S. House of Representatives:
Representative from New York; born in New York City October 20, 1819; attended New York University; apprenticed as a printer; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1846 and commenced practice in New York City; member of the State assembly in 1847; corporation attorney in 1853; secretary of the legation at London by appointment of President Franklin Pierce 1853-1855; member of the State senate in 1856 and 1857; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1857-March 3, 1861); was not a candidate for renomination in 1860; served in the Civil War as colonel of the Seventeenth Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, and brigadier general and major general of Volunteers; retired with rank of major general April 14, 1869; awarded the Medal of Honor October 30, 1897, for action at the Battle of Gettysburg; entrusted with a special mission to the South American Republics in 1865; chairman of the New York State Civil Service Commission in 1888 and 1889; sheriff of New York City in 1890; elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-third Congress (March 4, 1893-March 3, 1895); unsuccessful for reelection in 1894 to the Fifty-fourth Congress; resided in New York City until his death there May 3, 1914; interment in Arlington National Cemetery.
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Courtesy of The Washington Post: July 2000
In 1859, Capital Was a Wild, Wild Washington
Daniel E. Sickles was astonished. When he looked out the window of his mansion at Lafayette Square, the congressman saw his wife's lover signaling her in broad daylight, waving a white handkerchief toward her bedroom window. Enraged, Sickles grabbed two derringers and a revolver, left the house and strode to the other side of the park, where he found his prey, Philip Barton Key.
"Key, you scoundrel. You have dishonored my home," Sickles said, according to witnesses. "You must die."
It was about 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27, 1859, and at least 12 people would witness all or part of the bloody scene between Sickles, a Democratic U.S. representative from New York, and Key, the U.S. attorney for the District.
Sickles fired a gun, the bullet grazing Key. The two men struggled together at the southeast corner of Lafayette Square, right across from the White House, and Key retreated into the street, reached inside his coat and tossed his opera glass at his
pursuer. Sickles, who was within 10 feet of Key, fired a bullet that struck Key below the groin, passing through his thigh. Key staggered over to a tree, leaned against it, then fell. He cried, "Don't shoot me!" and "Murder!"
But Sickles pulled the trigger. The gun misfired. Sickles fired again, fatally wounding Key in the chest, according to Nat Brandt in his 1991 book "The Congressman Who Got Away With Murder."
Sickles and Key, both dapper, about 40 years old and part of Washington's social elite, had been friends before Key, the son of Francis Scott Key, started a torrid and rather public love affair with Sickles' young wife, Teresa.
The deadly rivalry that evolved between the two men took place only two years before the Civil War pitted brother against brother. But the slaying had nothing to do with the politics of North vs. South. It had a lot to do with the sometimes violent,
frontierlike quality of mid-19th-century Washington.
The capital was a city of contrasts in the decade capped by the slaying case. Elegant balls were held in beautiful houses, yet residents dumped garbage in the alleys, and pigs scavenged freely in the streets. W.W. Corcoran commissioned the design of a splendid gallery for his art collection, yet robbery, assault, thievery and prostitution thrived as the city grew rapidly.
By 1858, a year before the Key slaying, a Senate committee had issued a written report noting that " 'riot and bloodshed are of a daily occurrence. Innocent and unoffending persons are shot, stabbed and otherwise shamefully maltreated, and not infrequently, the offender is not even arrested,' " according to the 1962 book "Washington Village and Capital, 1800-1878," by Constance McLaughlin Green.
And it didn't help that the vast transient population that flooded Washington when Congress was in session "came from states or territories where the border between urbane urban living and rustic rural frontier brushed close," wrote Brandt.
Violence and other vices were not confined to the lower rungs of society. Members of Congress carried guns (many for protection), gambled heavily, visited bordellos and were frequently drunk. " 'While the Democrats and Republicans were in a
deadly struggle on the floor of the House over questions involving the destinies of the Union," complained Rep. John Kelly of New York, " . . the [drunk congressmen] were in the [congressional] bar-room drinking, or on the sofas of the lobby dozing in their cups,' " according to Brandt.
During congressional sessions, fistfights "more than once ended in duels," Green wrote. A congressman shot a waiter in a Washington hotel. On the floor of the Senate, an assailant threatened Thomas Benton of Missouri at gunpoint.
And tensions were high in Congress among some Northerners and Southerners, such as when Preston Brooks of South Carolina savagely caned Charles Sumner of Massachusetts.
To many people in the mid-19th century, a man who seduced another man's wife was asking for it. Today the killing of Key is remembered chiefly because of the 20-day trial in which Sickles was acquitted of murder to the cheers of a crowded
courtroom.
Sickles, whose attorneys argued that he went mad because of anguish over the adultery, was the first defendant to use a "temporary insanity" defense in the United States. The trial, which garnered national press attention, made for juicy copy. Sickles' formidable team of lawyers essentially put the dead man on trial.
"Whenever [Key] met her, the whole object of his acquaintance was the gratification of his lust," defense attorney John Graham told the jury, according to an account of the trial published soon after the acquittal. Graham hammered away at Key's "sin," citing passages from the Bible, and arguing that Sickles' "frenzy" was justifiable. The account, by Felix G. Fontaine, called the case "The Washington Tragedy" and sold for 25 cents a copy.
Sickles' suspicions about his wife's infidelity were confirmed by an anonymous note he received a few days before the killing. At the trial, lady's maid Bridget Duffy testified to hearing sobs from the couple the night before the slaying, when Sickles
confronted Teresa in an upstairs bedroom.
Despite his distress, Sickles--who also was a lawyer--had the presence of mind to persuade Teresa to write a detailed confession. It was ruled inadmissible in court but nevertheless was printed in the newspapers. In the extraordinarily candid
document, Teresa described her numerous rendezvous with Key at a vacant home on 15th Street, a house that Key rented.
"There was a bed in the second story. I did what is usual for a wicked woman to do. . . I undressed myself. Mr. Key undressed also." She described in detail her garments: "As a general thing, have worn a black and white woollen plaid dress,
and beaver hat trimmed with black velvet."
Teresa also confessed to first having met privately with Key in the Sickles mansion. "Mr. Key has kissed me in this house a number of times. I do not deny that we have had connection in this house--in the parlor, on the sofa." She signed it with her maiden name, "Teresa Bagioli."
Teresa was about 20 years old and the beautiful wife of the newly elected congressman when she met the tall, dashing Key at President James Buchanan's inauguration about two years before the slaying. The two subsequently grew friendlier at parties, which her husband often did not attend.
Key had rented the vacant house for their adulterous meetings in a racially mixed area, possibly as a weak attempt at privacy away from their social milieu. The house was only a few minutes' walk from the Sickles home, and it was clear to nearby residents what was going on. Nancy Brown, who lived near the vacant house, testified that Key would enter the home and hang a string attached to an upstairs shutter. The string was a signal to Teresa that he was there.
Key was a scion of a prominent Maryland family. His late father, Francis Scott, was a lawyer who was famous for writing "The Star-Spangled Banner." A widower with four children, Philip Barton Key was a well-known ladies' man, with sad eyes and a languid charm, according to Edgcumb Pinchon in his 1945 book "Dan Sickles: Hero of Gettysburg and 'Yankee King of Spain.'
" When Teresa met Key, she was enduring her husband's own infidelities and his frequent absences on political business. Because of the double standard of the era, the well-known fact of Daniel Sickles' affairs made no difference to much of the
public.
Key and Teresa soon became passionate about each other. Servants testified at the trial about their liaisons in the parlor of the Sickles home. And Teresa Sickles' coachman, John Thompson, testified that Key (riding his iron-gray horse, Lucifer), would encounter Teresa between almost daily in the afternoon on the street and would frequently enter her carriage.
On several occasions they would visit the Congressional Cemetery on the city's east side or the burying ground at Georgetown. "They would walk down the grounds out of my sight, and be away an hour or an hour-and-a-half," Thompson said, according to the trial report.
The affair must have been particularly galling to Daniel Sickles because of his own friendship with Key, which was launched at a stag whist party in 1857, not long after the Sickles couple moved to Washington. Sickles even interceded with the newly elected Buchanan, who was a friend, to ensure that Key would be reappointed as U.S. attorney.
Ironically, Key's brother, Naval Academy midshipman Daniel Key, had been killed in a duel about 1836 in the village of Bladensburg, just outside Washington. By the time of Barton Key's slaying a quarter-century later, dueling had long been
outlawed in the District, but the Bladensburg dueling grounds were still being used by "gentlemen" to settle their differences.
Daniel Sickles' emotional nature was evident throughout the case. Two days before the slaying, he showed the anonymous note about the affair to a friend, congressional clerk George B. Wooldridge, then "put his hands to his head and sobbed in the lobby of the House of Representatives," Wooldridge testified.
After the slaying, Sickles turned himself in at Attorney General Jeremiah Black's house a few blocks away on Franklin Square. Sickles initially was placed in a dark, filthy, vermin-infested cell at the Washington jail at Fourth and G streets, but soon was transferred to the jailer's own office. There Sickles slept on a cot and received meals from home and visits from his 6-year-old daughter, Laura, famous political figures and even his greyhound Dandy, according to Brandt.
Sickles eventually reconciled with his wife, who asked for forgiveness. "God bless you for the mercy and prayers you offer up for me," she wrote in a letter to her husband after the slaying. The press, which had championed his acquittal, criticized him for forgiving her.
Teresa was about 16 (and probably pregnant with their daughter) when she married Sickles in New York 6 1/2 years before the slaying, according to Brandt. Sickles, a New York assemblyman, was twice her age. He had been a longtime friend of her
parents, the well-known singing teacher Antonio Bagioli and his wife, Maria.
Sickles was a charismatic man who courted controversy throughout his life and held a succession of significant posts.
After the trial, he served as a controversial Union general during the Civil War (he clashed with another general about troop deployment), as a military governor of the Carolinas after the war and later as U.S. minister to Spain. Teresa took ill and died in 1867 at about the age of 31, and Sickles married a Spanish woman, converted to Catholicism and fathered two more children. (He was rumored to have had a romantic involvement with deposed Queen Isabella II.)
He later became sheriff of New York County, then served in Congress again from 1893 to 1895. He was chairman of the New York Monuments Commission from 1886 to 1912, when he was removed after accusations of embezzlement. He died at 94 in 1914 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The most telling story about Sickles' gritty character stems from the time his leg was struck by a 12-pound cannonball at Gettysburg during the Civil War. He sent his freshly amputated limb to the new Army Medical Museum in Washington with a visiting card reading "with the compliments of Major General D.E.S."
Two months after the injury, Sickles was back on his horse, and for many years he visited the leg bone on the anniversary of the amputation. It is still on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Northwest Washington.
Perhaps only a larger-than-life character such as Daniel Sickles could have gotten away with killing his wife's lover in broad daylight. And perhaps it only could have happened when and where it did, in mid-19th-century Washington, a city distracted
by its own growing pains and impending hostilities between North and South.
At the time, though, the public regarded the story as a Victorian morality tale of a wronged husband avenging his wife's seduction. Brandt's book cites verses from a song written by an unidentified lyricist:
In the first place this Key he was a false friend, Sickles he thought that on him he'd depend, But the false-hearted villain, his honor betrayed, He took his wife away, and Sickles him he slayed.
SICKLES, DANL E
MAJOR GENERAL USA
VETERAN SERVICE DATES: Unknown
DATE OF DEATH: 05/03/1914
DATE OF INTERMENT: Unknown
BURIED AT: SECTION WEST SITE 1906
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
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SICKLES, DANIEL E.
Rank and organization: Major General, U.S. Volunteers. Place and date: At Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 2 July 1863. Entered service at: New York, N.Y. Birth: New York, N.Y. Date of issue: 30 October 1897.
Citation:
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.
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An interesting man!

Currently reading “Sickles at Gettysburg” by James Hessler. While this man was no military tactician, he did listen, watch and learn from his superiors; and understood the importance of legal verses tactical high ground. With little military experience, he was able to grasp strategic significance of the situation he found himself. He undoubtedly observed and listened to all advice and made some timely decisions. His legal experiences helped him recognize the value of ensuring he had the proper support, both politically and tactically.