Congressman. Killer. Hero. The Story of Dan Sickles

It was a massive story in the year before the Civil War. A sitting US congressman killed the son of an American legend. Why had he done it? And who was really the victim? It wasn't an easy question to answer then - or now. And what happened after the trial is also up for debate.  


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Team & Contributors

Executive Producer- Clare O'Donohue 
https://clareodonohue.com

Executive Producer - Margaret Smith

Editor – Ruben Woolcott
https://www.rubenwoolcott.com

Social Media Manager & Design - Mikayla Bogus
https://mikayladesign.cargo.site

IT Manager - Conor Sweeney

The History of Murder Logo - Bernadette Carr
https://www.bcarrdesign.com

Theme Song “My Carnal Life I Will Lay Down” - Rob Brereton
https://robertbrereton.com
 
Voice of Daniel Sickles - Jon Crowley

Voice of Teresa Sickles - Esther Oh

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Washington, D.C., 1859. A U.S. Congressman walked into Lafayette Park across the street from the White House and killed the son of one of America's most famous men. There were witnesses. The victim was unarmed. But the congressman went into court assuming he'd be a free man. And what he did after the trial is still celebrated to this day. It's the history of murder, and I'm your host, Claire O'Donohue. On February 27, 1859, Daniel Sickles, a representative of the 3rd District of New York, shot and killed the son of Francis Scott Key, the writer of the poem that became America's national anthem. And then he walked a few blocks to the home of the Attorney General and told him he committed murder. James Hessler, the author of Sickles at Gettysburg, said it was immediately news for everyone, including President James Buchanan.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

The whole town is talking about this. You know, people are bursting in on Buchanan in the president's house saying, Buchanan, did you see Sickles just shot key? There's one account that Buchanan says to one of the men, Did you see this? Did you witness it? And the man says he did. And there's one account that says Buchanan gave the guys some money and said, Okay, get out of town. So, I mean, already are we sorta trying to trying to get witnesses out of it?

SPEAKER_03 1:39

Sickles was only in his first term in office, and yet the president and many others rallied to his side. Would they continue to when all the facts came out?

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Before we continue, please remember to leave a comment, like the video, and subscribe to our channel. It will help us continue to make new content. Now, back to the story.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

Daniel Sickles was born in New York sometime between 1819 and 1825.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

His birth date does seem to vary depending on what source you're reading. Most of us accept 1819, which would have put him just shy of his 40th birthday at the time of this particular murder.

SPEAKER_03 2:25

The difference in birth dates may have been the work of Sickles himself. There's a rumor that his parents weren't married when he was born, so he might have changed the year to hide that fact. Or he could have tried to lessen the age difference between himself and his much younger wife. Or maybe it was just vanity. Like so many things in Dan Sickles' life, there isn't one clear answer.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

He was an only child, which I think is telling on his personality. His father was sort of what I characterize as kind of one of those boomer bust type of people, some investments, some land development, if I recall correctly, dad might have been involved in banking. So I wouldn't say that the Sickles family was at the upper end of the strata, but they for the most part were not hurting for money either.

SPEAKER_03 3:15

Sickles' father would later do extremely well. Daniel Sickles inherited several million dollars when his father died in 1887. But as a young man, he only saw his father as domineering and his mother as smothering. To escape, he dropped out of school as a teenager and took various jobs as a printer's apprentice in Glen Falls, New York, and later as a printer at Burton's Gentleman's, a literary magazine that would, in 1839, have Edgar Allan Poe as an editor.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Eventually, he decided to sit with some lawyers in New York City and decided that law would be the profession he would pursue, which again is ironic knowing what happens to him later.

SPEAKER_03 4:03

He had been indicted in 1837 for taking money under false pretenses, one of several accusations of inappropriate practices. But it didn't stop his ambitions, nor did it stop others from seeing his potential.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

Descriptions of him vary, which are not surprising, I guess, when you talk about polarizing historical figures. He was certainly viewed as a young up-and-comer, an ambitious person, politically ambitious, professionally ambitious. He was certainly well known as a ladies' man. I often show people pictures of sickles, and I will often try to elicit a reaction from the women to see if they sort of reciprocate. And for the most part, looking at him, they do not find him to be terribly attractive, at least by modern standards. But when you read accounts, he seemed to have sort of what are described as a suave, courteous, charming personality.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

Starting in about 1838, he stayed at the home of the rather colorful De Ponte family in New York. Lorenzo DePonte, a poet and composer, was a former Catholic priest, kicked out of the priesthood because he kept fathering children. Living with him was his daughter Maria, who was married to Antonio Bajoli, a composer and music teacher from Bologna, Italy. The couple had a two-year-old daughter named Teresa. Sickles opened his law practice in 1843 and soon became known for his fine legal mind. Lawyer George Templeton Strong dismissed the praise given Sickles. He said, quote, one might as well spoil a rotten egg as to damage Dan's character. Both sides of Sickles, a smart man and a questionable character, helped him rise in New York politics and get involved in the infamous Tammany Hall.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Tammany Hall was a New York City-based political machine. Democrats, well established, well known for corruption, kickbacks, anything you think of when you think of political underhandedness. It was a violent culture. Sickles was once thrown down a flight of stairs at a campaign rally. But Tammany Hall controlled New York politics for decades in the 19th century. And Sickles became introduced to Tammany Hall in the 1840s, early 1850s, and they really helped enable his rise through his political career.

SPEAKER_03 6:37

When he wasn't forging a path toward a legal and later political career, he was spending time in the home of a woman named Fanny White.

SPEAKER_02 6:46

Her real name was Jane Augusta Blankman. She went by the working name of Fanny White. Depending again on the descriptions, uh you've seen her describe as flat out a prostitute, but I think she was really more of a businesswoman who ran her own house in New York City. Madam, a rather fashionable high-end one, and I think a number of the movers and shakers of New York City would have uh would have frequented Fanny's house of ill repute.

SPEAKER_03 7:17

Siggles was not there as a customer, but as a suitor.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

So now you have this high-flying young politician romantically involved with a well-known madam, but a madam nonetheless.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

Sickles was elected to the New York Assembly in 1846, still in his 20s. He celebrated at some point by bringing Fanny into the state capitol and onto the House floor. He was criticized by his colleagues for bringing a woman of ill repute into the building. Sickles didn't care. He pointed out that the only way these men knew who Fanny White was was because they had been to her house. Still, he understood that she wasn't the right companion for a man with political ambitions.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

I know all the consequences and have many a long year since resolved to enjoy it, even at the price which must be inevitably paid.

SPEAKER_03 8:16

Ultimately, he was not willing to put romance ahead of his goals. So he set his sights on another woman, perhaps no less scandalous, the now teenage daughter of his friend Antonio Bajolik.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Sickles, when he was younger, I think about 19 years or so old, he had spent some time living with the Baggiolis while he was going to school. And at that time, he would have met his future wife, who was 17 or 18 years younger than he was. So he would have been under the same roof with her when he was like 19, and she was like two, which uh, you know, again, could be a little bit of a creepiness factor there. Yeah, more than a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 8:55

She would later be described as having delicate beauty and a quote, Italian luster, unquote. Sickles asked for her hand, but her parents and his objected to the match because of the age difference. He was 34 and she was 16.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

She came from what would be considered kind of a bohemian household. There was art, there was music, there was culture, and she was exposed to all of this, probably fluent in multiple languages. But from a personality point of view, yes, most people seem to consider almost a shy, reserved, uh very much like a schoolgirl, which age-wise she was.

SPEAKER_03 9:35

Despite the family's objections, the two married in a civil ceremony on September 27, 1852.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

The general consensus now in looking at it is that they probably got married because she was pregnant.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

When Fanny found out about the wedding, she went to the hotel where the couple were honeymooning, met Sickles in the lobby, and repeatedly hit him with a riding crop.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Fanny, to put it mildly, was not happy. We will say though, Fanny did eventually get married. I would like to say she'd go on to live a long, happy life, but she didn't, and she died only a uh um a few years thereafter.

SPEAKER_03 10:13

Teresa gave birth to a daughter, Laura, sometime in 1853. But like her father, the exact date is unclear, and also like her father, it was likely to cover up for the date of conception. Within a year, the young family was in London, where Sickles served as an aide to the U.S. minister to the United Kingdom, James Buchanan. It is possible that Sickles brought more than his wife and daughter with him.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

When Sickles was stationed in England, uh serving under future President James Buchanan, who was the minister at that time, there's some indication, could be an apocryphal story, but there's some indication that Sickles might have introduced Fanny to the Queen at one point. So they probably at least stayed in touch, and I'll put it that way, euphemistically.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

In 1854, Buchanan wrote a friend about Sickles, calling him, quote, a man of time, talents, of excellent manners, and a brave and loyal temper. Though Buchanan also noted that Sickles spent a lot of money and seemed to enjoy a high life. That is perhaps best explained by Dan Sickles himself, who wrote home that he had lost his earlier enthusiasm for diplomacy. By 1857, both men were back in Washington. Buchanan had been elected president, and Sickles had used his friendships at Tamney Hall to get a congressional spot.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

So he reports to Washington in March of 1857 with Teresa, with their young daughter Laura, with a household staff, and even a dog. All probably living well above the congressional salary. So again, we can kind of wonder whether Tammany Hull or other political favors were involved where Sickles was getting his money from.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Sickles insisted that he could not survive without his wife and daughter, so he brought them with him to Washington. But there may have been another reason why he wanted Teresa by his side.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

James Buchanan reportedly took quite a shining to Teresa. So you've got that going for you. Your mentor is in the White House or the President's House, as they called it back then. So that's good news. They moved into a house across from Lafayette Park near the White House. They lived in a house on what is today Jackson Place and Lafayette Square. Now, Jackson Place today is a series of historic-looking townhouses, but at the time, from images and maps of the time, Sickles, the Sickles has had kind of a standalone house on the square, because Lafayette Square at the time was not as built up as it as it is today.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

Almost immediately upon settling into the new city and new job, he seemed to leave Teresa to her own devices.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

This is where things get dicey, particularly for Teresa. Teresa is the young wife of a new congressman, had a lot of social obligations. These people were expected to host parties, these people were expected to attend parties, sometimes all in the same night. There's a great quote from Virginia Clay, who was a socialite at the time, saying that the social obligations were so overwhelming that in between social events, she would actually hook herself up to like an electric shock box and like and like give herself a jolt to sort of fire her up for the uh for the next party. So men and women, alcohol, floating freely, you feel like you're in the city of power. I'm sure it went to a lot of people's heads.

SPEAKER_03 14:01

Sickles understood that Teresa might need an escort to help her make friends in the Capitol. And what better companion than a wealthy, well-connected lawyer named Philip Barton Key?

SPEAKER_02 14:14

As the last name Key implies, Philip Barton Key was the son of Francis Scott Key of Star Spangled Banner fame. Unfortunately, in the case of Philip Barton Key, I think the apple fell a little bit far from the tree. Whereas Francis Scott Key was considered to be religious and pious and relatively studious. Philip Arton, maybe not so much.

SPEAKER_03 14:38

Key was a U.S. district attorney who had grown up in Washington, D.C. His family was woven into the fabric of the city. His great uncle, also named Philip Barton Key, was a judge and representative from Maryland. His uncle, Roger Tawney, was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. And his father, aside from the national anthem, was a well-respected lawyer. So while there were so many reasons why Key was popular at social events around town, it was something else that got him on so many invite lists.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

And being a widower, he was considered eligible as well.

SPEAKER_03 15:32

Key was apparently aware of his effect on women. He bragged about it to a friend.

SPEAKER_05 15:39

I only need 36 hours with a woman to make her do what I please.

SPEAKER_03 15:43

An apparently confident Dan Sickles asked the handsome widower to bring Teresa to the many social events she needed to attend.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

There seems to have been an accepted practice that if the husband was unavailable, a friend could escort the husband's wife to these functions. You know, it allows her to attend with somebody while at the same time, probably you're hoping keep the wolves at bay a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 16:12

The idea was that Sickles was away on political business, but he had other things on his to-do list.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Teresa and Key are having an affair. And there are multiple sightings of them in the historical record, attending parties together, but then leaving parties together, being seen riding in carriages and coaches together, uh, being seen at some discreet out-of-the-way locations. At one point, somebody sees them coming in and out of a hotel together. Congressman Sickles does start to get wind of this as the rumors are spreading around town. He tells some other friends of his, hey, next time I'm out of town, can you just sort of look in on Teresa when I'm away? So the friends show up at the Sickles house unexpectedly, and lo and behold, who is in the parlor behind a locked door? Philip Arten Key. And Teresa and Philip are on a couch. They have a big salad bowl, they're mixing the salad together, they've got some champagne bottles open, and it was pretty clear to the friend and the friend's wife that uh those two were uh were up to no good. Sickles confronted Key about the rumors. Key kind of responded to the effect of, oh no, I look at her as a girl, a child, you know, I'm I'm a fatherly figure, kind of helping her, helping her navigate through all of this.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

Key was well connected, and it's logical that an ambitious man like Dan Sickles would want to stay friends. So he'd want to believe him. Key, known as a man who liked to take risks, told his friends he wasn't concerned about Sickles.

SPEAKER_05 18:21

I am prepared for any emergency. Sickles is a damn Yankee and would do nothing if he did find out.

SPEAKER_03 18:27

But eventually Sickles was confronted with something he couldn't ignore.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

One evening, Dan Sickles is opening the evening mail, and there is an anonymous letter in there. The letter basically says, Sir, I am writing to you because you are greatly imposed upon by your friend, who I may say is no friend or gentleman, Philip Barton Key. And it goes into fairly decent detail about what's going on between Key and Teresa and includes the memorable line, Sir, he has more use of your wife than you have. With these few words, I leave the rest of your imagination. Signed, your friend, RPG. One of the things we think about Dan Sickles is he's an emotional guy. Really takes this to heart, but he does then have some friends do some investigating over the next couple of days. And sure enough, the friends come back and say, Yeah, Dan, the rumors are true. Two nights later, Sickles confronted Teresa. February 26th, it's a Saturday night. It is a stormy night in Washington, D.C. The Sickles household staff would report later that Dan and Teresa were arguing and they could hear her crying. And during the course of the evening, Sickles extracts a written confession from Teresa.

SPEAKER_04 19:45

I did what is usual for a wicked woman to do. The intimacy commenced this winter when I came from New York. An intimacy of an improper kind. I've met a dozen times or more at different hours of the day. Mr. Sickles was sometimes out of town and sometimes in the Capitol.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

So the next day is Sunday, February 27, 1859. It's a it's a beautiful spring-like day in Washington, D.C. One of his friends from New York City is in town, one of his Tammany Hall buddies, uh, a guy by the name of Sam Butterworth. And Sickles and Butterworth are in the Sickles house and kind of talking about what are we going to do with this? What should we do with this? When as the morning progresses, Sickles looks out the window, and sure enough, walking through Lafayette Square, apparently waving this white handkerchief as some sort of signal for Teresa to come out and play, is Philip Barton Key. Now remember, Sickles knows about the affair at this point. Teresa knows that Sickles knows, but nobody has gotten word to Key. So he's ready for some love this Sunday afternoon, and he is apparently oblivious to what's going on. So Sickles and Butterworth look out the window, they see Key in the square. Sickles kind of explodes.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

Philip Barton Key approach the Sickles home.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Well, he he approaches the house, and ironically, Sickles' dog dandy comes running out of the out of the yard and kind of like leaps into Key's lap. So man, you've even won the dog over. I mean, this just gets this just gets worse.

SPEAKER_03 21:31

From inside the house, Sickles and Butterworth watched. Apparently, Sickles was inconsolable.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

I have seen the scoundrel making signals. My God, this is horrible.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

As they leave the house, Sickles throws on an overcoat and yes, stuffs a couple of guns in the pockets. So they come out of the house, Butterworth is in the lead, they're kind of walking across Lafayette Square. By that time, Key has sort of reverted. Back to the other end of the square, kind of near this boarding house. But as they get to the east end of the square, Butterworth greets Key first, and they exchange some pleasantries. Good day, Butterworth. Good day, Key. You know what a fine day we're having. When here comes Congressman Sickles, the guns are out of the pocket.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Key, you scoundrel! You've dishonored my house and you must die.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

And with that point, it's on, folks. Congressman Sickles in this corner, District Attorney Philip Barton Key in this corner. We got the White House right over here, and the uh the fight is on. And it was a fight. Philip Barton Key is an active physical specimen here. He is not gonna go down without a fight. Um, so there is a little bit of a wrestling match here. At one point, Key has uh Sickles in a bear hug. One of the guns seems to drop to the ground, Key backs off. Now, remember, Sickles has no way of knowing if Key is armed or not. Key had often bragged that he carried guns and of his prowess with the pistol. So at one point, Key reaches into his pockets. Is he going for a gun? No, he has a pair of opera glasses in the pocket. So he flings the opera glasses at Sickles and they sort of just go harmlessly fluttering to the ground. But at that point, Key is open, he is defenseless. Sickles brings up his remaining gun and he fires a couple of shots at Key, more or less point blank. Now the first shot grazes Key, doesn't really do any damage, but now Key starts shouting, Murder, murder! Folks, you gotta remember this is Sunday afternoon in Lafayette Square. There are a dozen or more people just out strolling the park this afternoon. So this is broad daylight. First shot grazes Key. Second shot seems to hit Key in and around the groin. And at that point, he goes down. He's kind of struggling against a tree. He's shouting murders. Don't murder me. Nobody comes in to help him. And at that point, Sickles fires the fatal shot, which is more or less point blank into Key's chest. So that's three shots. Sickles will try to cock his gun again and get a headshot off to finish Key off, but the gun misfires. Finally, at that point, Butterworth and a number of bystanders come in and separate the two, but but the damage is done. Philip Arten Key is mortally wounded.

SPEAKER_03 24:36

Sickles then turned to the witnesses with an explanation for his actions.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

He has defiled my bed.

SPEAKER_03 24:43

The dying key was carried to a nearby house.

SPEAKER_02 24:57

And that is the inglorious ending to the once promising Philip Artenkey. He he doesn't regain consciousness. He has no last words for his friends, his family, his children, and he dies on the floor of this boarding house a short time later.

SPEAKER_03 25:15

Daniel Sickles walked a few blocks to the Attorney General's home and turned himself in.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Him and the boys, because again, folks, you know, this is the old boys' club. Him and the boys mix a couple of cocktails first and sort of toast the uh the end of the adulterer before Congressman Sickles is finally led away to jail. He had barely made it to jail before everyone knew the story. Newspapers are covering all of this, and public opinion is very much, very much on Sickles' side. He has protected his home, his wife, his property from this scandalous adulterer. So there's sort of a question now, you know, are we gonna be able to get a murder rap? Or maybe it just will be a manslaughter wrap? Something something along those lines. Sickles hires this legal dream team, which is filled with his Tammany Hall cronies and some other sharp legal minds.

SPEAKER_03 26:16

Among those sharp legal minds was Edwin Stanton, who would go on to become Secretary of War under Abraham Lincoln. The prosecution, Robert Old, was Key's assistant, who had been promoted because his boss had been murdered. Old's challenge was not just the dream team or that he was prosecuting his boss's killer. It was the circumstances of the case.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

Sickles is viewed as the good guy. Key, yes, is portrayed as the scoundrel, but often a lot of people turn their venom against Teresa, and it's the standards of the 1850s, you know, this scandalous fallen woman.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

Sickles' extramarital activities were not brought into evidence, while Teresa's confession was published many times, including on the cover of Harper's Weekly Magazine, which had a circulation of about 200,000. Sickles could hardly plead not guilty. There were witnesses. And a straight self-defense plea was tough because Key wasn't armed. And he didn't want to plead insanity because that would mean going into an institution when he wanted to go back to Congress. Because of all that, there's a belief that this was the first time in U.S. history that a plea of temporary insanity was given. But that's not quite accurate.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

I always warn people there's a lot of caveats with that. They had no time, at no time did they enter a plea of not guilty by temporary insanity. In fact, at no time is the term temporary insanity used, and temporary insanity was not an established defense in the United States court system really until really until you get into the 20th century. What it really, though, it's it's an early precursor of this.

SPEAKER_03 28:02

It was complicated to assemble a jury of impartial men because everyone had heard of the case and had an opinion. But by April of 1859, the trial had begun.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

So the prosecution kind of comes at this from this being a premeditated case on Sickles' part. He knew what he was doing. He wanted to kill Key. It was premeditated revenge, i.e., murder. Now the dream team is best remembered for future Secretary of War Edwin Stanton being included on the Dream Team. But the reality is the leader of the Dream Team was a Tammany Hall, New York attorney by the name of James Brady. And Stanton was a member of the team, but Brady really sort of sort of crafted the whole defense, I think. But what the Dream Team comes up with is basically, again, this idea that Sickles was so enraged, he was so impaired by the idea of his friend and his wife being together, that again he acted in self-defense, but at the same time, he was so impaired by this that he could not possibly be responsible for the highest crime of murder. So when Edwin Stanton gives one of the closing arguments, you know, he includes Key to gratify his lust is dragging Teresa through the streets day by day in this immoral relationship. You know, folks, the Bible says we put adulterers to death. I mean, they go they go all out. But yeah, the simplest way of putting it is uh they basically tell the jury he deserved it.

SPEAKER_03 29:48

Teresa did not testify. She was sent to New York, away from the trial and the Washington gossip.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

There is a great engraving of her being sent away. And in the engraving, what I always point out to people who've seen it is passerbys on the street. It's sort of her being let out of the house into a carriage, you know, and off she's gonna go to New York and never to return to Washington, D.C. But a lot of passerbys on the street are shielding their eyes from her. And again, it's that 1850s notion of the fallen woman, don't look at her.

SPEAKER_03 30:24

But interestingly, the one person who seemed to have forgiven Teresa was Daniel Sickles.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

What was not well known at the time was they were actually corresponding on friendly terms while he was in jail. He's saying, Dan, can you ever forgive me for the pain and the trouble I have caused you? Look, I have I have knitted these slippers for you. Will you wear these my slippers in jail and all that sort of thing? And and they go back and forth. So they were clearly corresponding.

SPEAKER_03 30:56

On the 20th day of trial, the jury began deliberations. They didn't take long.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

The jury comes back uh after about 90 minutes or so with the unanimous verdict of not guilty. The courtroom bursts out into applause, pandemonium. You know, you can imagine the judge pounding his gavel order in the court and all of that stuff. But as the jury was pulled afterwards, it was pretty clear that the jury had ruled uh in favor of sickles because of the idea that he got what he deserved.

SPEAKER_03 31:30

For Daniel Sickles, the future was clear for a while.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

He goes back to Congress at the time. Public opinion is still on his side, but within a few months, by the summer of 18 uh 59, we're talking by July or so, reports start appearing in newspapers that the two have reconciled. Dan and Teresa have reconciled. The news was not received well, which was confusing for Sickles.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

I am not aware of any statute or code of morals which makes it infamous to forgive a woman.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

This is where public opinion turns against him because people now start to say, Whoa, whoa, time out, time out. We went to all this trouble to get you off. Not only, not only feeling like, okay, Sickles has kind of pulled the wool over on us, you know, we defended this guy for nothing, but even it's in some corners it starts to become a uh almost a morality play on the rich and the famous. Oh, look at these sleazy, rich and famous. They'll kill and sleep with whoever, whoever they want to, and they get away with it because they're rich and famous.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

Sickles was still serving in Congress.

SPEAKER_02 32:39

Mary Chestnut, who was a diarist in that era, has a famous quote. She was in Congress one day and she saw this well-dressed man sitting off by himself, and she says to a friend, Who is that? And the friend says, Oh, that's Dan Sickles. Unsavory subject. Let's not talk about it. And Mary Chestnut famously writes in her diary that he had been left alone as if he had smallpox. And that's sort of the way Sickles was viewed. For now, it looks like his uh his once promising political career, which who knows, maybe would have ended at the White House. His once promising political career has has been flushed down the drain.

SPEAKER_03 33:19

But that changed when the country erupted in a civil war.

SPEAKER_02 33:23

The war starts. He's back home in New York, practicing law again as a private citizen, and he does what a lawyer and a politician would do best. Gives speeches, starts talking to people, starts recruiting, and will eventually raise regiments of troops in New York. Now, Lincoln, the Republican, needs to reach across the aisle to support what is a very unpopular war effort. Lincoln needs Lincoln needs immigrants, he needs Democrats, he needs any group that he can get. And so I think at some point, Sickles raising troops catches Lincoln's attention. Lincoln likes the idea of this New York Democrat kind of being being pro-union, and uh, you know, Lincoln really helps now enable Sickles' rise into the army, which will be the next act of Dan Sickles' life and career.

SPEAKER_03 34:19

Sickles was commissioned as a colonel, but eventually promoted to brigadier general, all without any formal military training.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

He is what's called in the Civil War a political general, appointed by the government authorities, in this case, by President Lincoln, approved and promoted to rise in the ranks for political rather than military reasons.

SPEAKER_03 34:43

Teresa, living in New York, was still trying to mend their family.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

I want to do something. And, you know, he would kind of write her back and say, you know, not now, the time's not right. You know, just sort of stay at home and and take care of our daughter Laura.

SPEAKER_03 35:16

Sickles had bigger problems than the state of his marriage or his future political ambitions. He was now in the middle of a war.

SPEAKER_02 35:23

Most Civil War students would just flat out say he's a terrible general. History in real life is more, usually more nuanced than these snap assessments. I think with his mental makeup and his defects in temperament, I think he had the capability to be a decent lower-level officer. I think in Sickles' case, though, the problem is I think he's a classic case of during the course of the early years of the war, he will get promoted over and above his abilities and his level of competence. You know, you could command a couple regiments, but commanding a division or a corps in battle is a whole different ballgame. And so I think he gets promoted above his level of competence.

SPEAKER_03 36:06

That level of competence became tested at Gettysburg in 1863.

SPEAKER_02 36:11

July 2nd, second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Union Army Commanding General George Meade is in the process of establishing a defensive position on Cemetery Ridge. Meade orders General Sickles to occupy the left end or the left flank of that line, which would include the prominent landmark we know today as Little Roundtop. However, and again, this is the nuanced part of the story that I often tell that Sickles' critics often just bypass completely. Sickles and Meade had had a previous history together where they didn't like each other and they didn't get along well with each other. Meade was a professional military man, Sickles was not. And so when Sickles received Meade's orders on the morning of July 2nd, whether Sickles didn't understand the orders or flat out just didn't like the orders, rather than going into the position that Meade assigned him to, Sickles moved the 10,000 men under his command forward into an advanced position, which almost every military historian agrees was a weaker position than the one General Meade had wanted him to be in. When the Confederate Army attacked Sickles' line that afternoon, after heavy fighting, Sickles' troops were forced out of the position they were in with heavy losses. And frankly, this was always one of my favorite Sickles badass stories. He has a cigar lit up, puffs it in his mouth, and is carried off the field smoking it. Now, like a lot of things you see in history and a lot of popular stories, I think the story is a little overblown, but it is an integral part of the Dan Sickles story, the Dan Sickles legend. And in fact, when he was awarded, when he received a medal of honor for his Gettysburg actions in the 1890s, the inscription on his medal of honor is for rallying troops while grievously wounded. So it's not just battlefield trivia. He used this moment to basically later get himself a medal of honor.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

Sickles lost his right leg above the knee. It was displayed at the Army Medical Museum, now the National Museum of Health and Medicine, and Sickles would visit the bones on the anniversary of the battle. It remains one of the most popular exhibits at that museum. His actions at Gettysburg are viewed to this day as a mistake. But for the men fighting under him, his time on the battlefield is exactly why they liked him.

SPEAKER_02 39:11

You know, again, a lot of these officers have a tendency to disappear into the back when the shooting starts. Not sickles. He was viewed by his men as a fighting general, and not West Point. Sometimes not being West Point played in his favor with the rank and file, with the common man. You know, he knew how to play up sort of I'm a man of the people, I'm one of you. And so a lot of the rank and file were proud to have served under him, and they cheered him to his dying day.

SPEAKER_03 39:42

After his injury, Sickles returned to New York, but there was little to celebrate. In 1867, Teresa, who had been sick for some time, died of consumption at the age of 31. Sickles became minister to Spain, taking his now 16-year-old daughter Laura with him.

SPEAKER_02 40:05

He married a young attendant in the court of the deposed Queen Isabella II. He actually had two more children with the second wife. When Sickles came back to the United States in the late 1870s, early 1880s, he left his new family back in Europe. And so him and the second wife were estranged.

SPEAKER_03 40:27

One stateside, he set his sights on a return to politics, egged on by his old friends at Tammany Hall.

SPEAKER_02 40:34

By the early mid-1890s, obviously he's an advancing age and he really is past his prime at this point. He doesn't do anything significant of note during this last term in Congress, except he will help kickstart and introduce the legislation that creates what we know today as Gettysburg National Military Park. I want to address his modern critics who, oh well, that was really an ego trip. Oh, other people did more work there. And I've I've heard I've heard everything trying to take credit away from him for this. I will say that I do think, if you want to say something positive about him, battlefield preservation, veterans' affairs were very much something that he remained interested in throughout his life. And really, the one thing his term in Congress is known is for the legislation. Gettysburg National Military Park. You can call it the house that Dan Sickles built.

SPEAKER_03 41:34

But there are no statues to Sickles at Gettysburg, and apparently Sickles didn't care.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

The whole damn battlefield is my monument.

SPEAKER_03 41:45

The man who saved the Gettysburg Battlefield site was only able to do so because he got away with murdering the son of the man who wrote the national anthem. He died in 1914 at the age of 94. His funeral was one of the largest public events of its time, rivaling the funeral processions of presidents.

SPEAKER_02 42:07

A lot of Civil War historians today have the misperception that Dan Sickles was hated because he was such a scoundrel and a villain, and during his lifetime, he had a lot of critics, but the idea that he was some sort of hated Bariah is far, far from the truth.

SPEAKER_03 42:27

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