Politician, General and…Murderer? (Article 112)
Politician, General, and ….Murderer? (Article 112)
Daniel E. Sickles was a New York politician and Civil War Union General, but he left us a life story that was so much more interesting.
Although born in 1819 to a very wealthy New York family, in about 1845, he began reporting his birth year as 1825, perhaps to seem younger to the several teenage women (and their families) he courted at the time. He left college to apprentice under an experienced lawyer and was admitted to the New York bar in 1846 (but as a twenty-one-year- old, not his real age of twenty six.), and entered politics the next year when he won a seat in the New York State Assembly.
On September 27, 1852, Sickles, now stating his age as twenty-seven, not thirty-two, married Teresa Bagioli who was 16, which was not an unusual age for a young woman to marry at that time. Teresa, by all accounts was beautiful, mature for her age, educated as best possible, socially sophisticated, and fluently spoke several languages. However, both his family and hers objected to the marriage, but that did not in any way stop the two from their plans. They were a popular couple in New York, sharing at least the trappings of wealth from their parents, and Sickle’s legal practice and political career were advancing, if modestly. But Dan sickles was a ladies’ man in the classic sense, unsuited for marriage, and scandal soon followed. He was censured by the New York State Assembly for bringing a “lady of the evening” by the name of Fanny White into his Capitol office; although he was already known to many for escorting Miss White to dinner and the theater. However, the censure did not affect his political career as he was appointed by President Franklin Pierce to an embassy post in London. He left his wife Teresa at home in New York as she was pregnant, but he did not travel alone. He had Miss White by his side and even presented her to Queen Victoria, not as his wife or consort, however, but said that she was the visiting wife of another New York politician.
After about eighteen months in London, he returned to New York (and to his wife and child) and resumed his legal and political careers; including election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1857, where he served until the Civil War broke out. We are not sure, however, what became of Miss White.
But there was a diversion in 1859, when Dan Sickles was tried for murder!
Dan Sickles, though a serial adulterer himself, had accused his much-younger wife of adultery several times during their marriage, but she had repeatedly denied it to his satisfaction. Then came Phillip Barton Key!
Washington was the home of the debonaire forty year old widower (with four children) who was the son of Francis Scott Key (who wrote the poem that became the National Anthem). Phillip Key was the U.S. Attorney for the District, a position his father had once held. Mr. Key became acquainted with Teresa Sickle through several social events, and the two began an affair. Like Dan Sickles had been with his special friends, they were fairly open about their attraction to each other and were seen going and coming from his office, his home, and even a local hotel. Sickles received an anonymous letter describing the affair and confronted his wife; and then forced her to write out her confession. While Dan Sickles himself had been an adulterer many times over, apparently in this case, what was good for the Goose, was not good for the Gander. On February 27, 1859, in Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House and bordering the street of the Sickles house, Mr. Key was seen trying to signal Mrs. Sickles. Dan Sickles grabbed a pistol and ran into Layfette Square yelling, “Key, you scoundrel, you have dishonored my home; you must die” Sickles then shot and killed Philip Barton Key. (Note: The quotation is from Harper’s Weekly magazine)
Sickles confessed to the murder and was taken to jail, but not under the conditions of most inmates; he was given a large private room. He needed the space for he was granted unlimited visitor access and they came in droves. They included many congressmen, senators, and other leading members of Washington society, and even President James Buchanan sent Sickles a personal note.
For his trial, Sickles selected several leading politicians as defense attorneys, but also participated in his own defense, and he pleaded temporary insanity; the first use of this defense in the United States. In Europe a “Crime of Passion” was an acceptable defense, but Sickles added this new wrinkle. He and his attorneys argued that Sickles had become so incensed by his wife's infidelity as to become temporarily insane, and thus was out of his mind when he shot Key. In summation, one of his lawyers said to the jury, “You are here to fix the price of the marriage bed!” His lawyers tried to admit as evidence Teresa’s written confession, but when that failed, they simply leaked her note to newspapers. One editor wrote that Sickles was a hero for “saving all the ladies of Washington from this rogue named Key.”
The unique defense worked as Sickles was acquitted and released! And, he publicly forgave Teresa, announcing that she was obviously a victim of Key’s deviousness; as was he. During his trial, he had not resigned from Congress and simply resumed his political career.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, although he only had limited military experience in a militia, Sickles offered to raise volunteer units in New York for the Union Army. For his successful efforts, he was first appointed as a Colonel and then became a Brigadier General in September 1861. In fact, he proved to be a competent leader, unlike many of the politically appointed Generals in the Union Army. By 1863, he was promoted to Major general, at the time, the only person to hold that rank who had not attended West Point. But his service was not without controversy. He was a friend of General Joseph Hooker and one newspaper wrote that their army headquarters could be compared to a rowdy bar and bordello.
Then came the battles at Gettysburg in July, 1863.
In a misunderstanding (really a dispute) with commanding General George Meade and his staff, General Sickles either failed to obey a direct order (Meade’s version), or by taking independent action boldly halted a Confederate advance (Sickles version). Immediately, a controversy began which continues among historians to this day. One writer put it this way, “Sickles' unwise move may have unwittingly foiled Lee's hopes and advanced the Union cause."
During the Confederate attack, which he either inadvertently or purposely halted, Sickles was struck in the right leg by a cannonball which required amputation. Ever on stage, as he was carried by stretcher off the battlefield, he attempted to raise his soldiers' spirits by grinning and puffing on a cigar as he waved to them. (He also had the severed limb saved for posterity!)
After the battle, Meade’s reports faulted Sickles actions and he angrily retaliated. He had ready access to newspaper reporters and editors and began a public campaign against General Meade's military decisions (and Meade’s personal character) and in support of his own version of events. Even after the war ended, Sickles kept up his campaign to discredit Meade and to claim himself a true hero of Gettysburg. Over the next years, the public began to tire of Sickles relentless attacks against General Meade, which he continued even after Meade’s death in 1872. Further, it is noteworthy that General (and later President) Ulysses Grant continued to support Meade against Sickles’ assaults.
Thirty years after the war, Sickles was still petitioning Presidents, congressmen, and senior military officials, by that time none of whom served in that devastating war, to recognize his own heroism at Gettysburg. To his great satisfaction, in 1897, he was awarded the Medal of Honor, likely as much to end the process as to recognize actual heroism. It is interesting for historians to note that, of the other senior Generals who led troops at Gettysburg, many have been memorialized with statues on or near the battlefield; but there is none for General Sickles. When asked in 1912, two years before his death, why there was no memorial to him, Sickles supposedly said, “The entire battlefield is a memorial to Dan Sickles.”
Enough said!