Major General Daniel Edgar Sickle
Commanding, Third Army Corps

The monument to Major General Daniel Sickles is south of Gettysburg off United States Avenue northwest of the Trostle Farm. see map

From the monument:

Major General
Daniel E. Sickles
wounded
July 2, 1863

Daniel Sickles, one of the great controversial figures of U.S. history, was born on October 20, 1819 in New York City. After attending New York University and studying law he went into politics, becoming a part of the powerful Democratic Tammany Hall machine. He served in a variety of posts, including City Corporate Counsel, Secretary of Legation in London, New York State Senator and U.S. Congressman from 1857 to 1861.

It was during this last position that he became a national figure for shooting and killing his wife's lover. That it was the son of Star Spangled Banner author Francis Scott Key and done in the street in front of the White House only added to the notoriety. Sickles was acquitted in the first use of the "temporary Insanity" defense but enraged the public and society by forgiving his young wife.

The coming of the war gave Sickles the opportunity to rejuvenate his reputation, and he quickly raised an entire brigade of men for the Union, which became known as the Excelsior Brigade. He soon became its commander, and although he was often often in conflict with his commanders he proved himself a good soldier who was totally fearless in combat. He was given a division in time for Fredericksburg and became 3rd Corps commander before Chancellorsville.

At Gettysburg he famously advanced his command on July 2nd from its assigned position on the flank of the Union army just before Longstreet's Assault. The controversy over this move would be bitterly debated in the halls of Congress and continues to this day. The wild melee that resulted saw him struck by an artillery shell that nearly severed his leg. Even his worst detractors must admit that his exit from the field, propped up on a stretcher and industriously puffing a cigar to show the men that he was still alive, had style.

Sickles never returned to field command, being sent on a variety of administrative and diplomatic missions. After the war he served as military governor of South Carolina, minister to Spain, a term in Congress which saw him work single-mindedly for the establishment of a memorial park at Gettysburg, and as Chairman of the New York State Monuments Commission, from which he was removed in 1912 for financial improprieties that were probably due more to poor management than anything else.

He is one of two Union Corps commanders not represented at Gettysburg by a statue; a story is that there was one planned for him but Sickles himself reappropriated the funds. When asked once where his monument was, he replied, "the whole park is my monument!"

Daniel Sickles died in 1914 in New York and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

< Previous • Monuments to a person • Next >