19th Century Bad Boy was Civil War Commander of New York Troops

New York Politico Dan Sickles shot and killed his wife's lover, got off, and went on to lead troops at Gettysburg

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Major General Dan Sickles

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY (08/06/2011)(readMedia)-- Dan Sickles' life was already crossed with controversy when he started his march into military history on July 23, 1861.

On that day, Sickles, then a colonel, led the 70th, 71st and 72nd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiments - known as the Sickles Brigade - to the Civil War. His name marred by scandal and homicide, Sickles had raised the troops to redeem his reputation - but was later blamed for the slaughter of Union Soldiers at Gettysburg.

Sickles' political career began in 1853, when he became counsel for his native New York City. The previous year, he'd married 15-year old Teresa Bagioli, who was more than half his age. He later served in congress and the New York State assembly, and was censured for escorting notorious prostitute Fanny White into the assembly chambers.

Contriving an alias for White from the last name of a political rival, Sickles presented her to Queen Victoria in London. Teresa was at home pregnant at the time. When Sickles discovered Teresa's affair with Francis Barton Key II - the son of Star Spangled Banner composer Francis Scott Key - Sickles shot the younger key dead.

Sickles' murder trial was marked extensive and press coverage, including the verbatim publication of a graphic confession Sickles had obtained from Teresa. Sickles slipped through the hangman's noose by pleading temporary insanity - the first use of that defense in the United States.

Sickles raised the brigade to lift his own image, marched them to war and was promoted to brigadier general in September 1861. Though he was forced to give up his command when congress refused to confirm his commission in March 1862, Sickles lobbied his political contacts, regained his rank and command that May and rejoined the Union Army of the Potomac for the latter half of the Peninsular Campaign.

Though he had no military experience, Sickles acquitted himself well in the battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days Battles. Sickles later pulled strings and took leave to recruit more troops in New York City, thus missing the Battle of Bull Run. He and his unit guarded Washington during the Battle of Antietam, and were held in reserve during the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Sickles found a kindred spirit in Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker - also a hard-drinking, political, status-seeking lothario - and their stars rose together. When Hooker took command of the Army of the Potomac, he gave Sickles command of III Corps Commander - a position held by nothing but West Point graduates up to that point.

Ordered by Hooker to harass Confederate troops that were actually flanking the Army of the Potomac at Chancellorsville, Sickles sent troops forward with orders to split the rebel column in two and take hold of the road they were marching on. Though unsuccessful, Sickles' initiative - or insubordination - foreshadowed his fatal actions at the Battle of Gettysburg.

That battle became Sickles' Waterloo, as he abandoned the position on Cemetery Ridge he'd been ordered to hold for the peach orchard to his front, thus thinning his defense and exposing III Corps to rebel fire from three sides. Confederate attacks rendered the corps ineffective for the remainder of the battle, and rebel cannon fire took Sickles' leg, removing him from the fighting as well.

Though Sickles' wound prevented him from being court-martialed, it also kept him out of combat. He retired with the rank of major general, and about three decades later, he received the medal of honor for displaying the "most conspicuous gallantry on the field, vigorously contesting the advance of the enemy and continuing to encourage his troops after being himself severely wounded," at Gettysburg.

Following the war Sickles served as American ambassador to Spain, was president of the New York State Board of Civil Service Commissioners, a Congressman for a second time, chairman of the New York Monuments Commission-- a group which build memorials at Civil War battlefields and which he was forced to resign from for embezzlement--and also sponsored the federal legislation that created Gettysburg as a National Park.

Historians have disputed the ramifications of Sickles' insubordinate maneuver at Gettysburg, the bones of his amputated leg - contributed by Sickles - remain on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C.

More than 500,000 New Yorkers enlisted in the Army and Navy during the four years of the Civil War and 53,114 New Yorkers died.

Throughout the period of the Civil War Sesquicentennial observance, the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs will produce short articles about New York's Civil War experience researched by the New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs.

For more information, go the NewYork State Military Museum Civil War Timeline Website at http://dmna.state.ny.us/civilwar