biography
| name: |
Sickles, Daniel (Edgar)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1825–1914)
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| biography:
| US soldier and US representative, born in New York City, New York, USA. A lawyer and active Democrat, he twice served New York City in the US House of Representatives (1857–61, 1893–5) but his colourful and controversial career lay elsewhere. During his first term in Washington, he killed Barton Key, the son of Francis Scott Key, in a duel (1859), but was acquitted in a trial in which he was the first American defendant to plead temporary insanity. (Young Key had been having an affair with Mrs Sickles, whom her husband took back after being acquitted.) When the Civil War broke out, he raised a brigade, and was assigned the rank of brigadier-general, leading it through several campaigns and battles, culminating at Gettysburg (2 Jul 1863), where he put his corps in an advanced and vulnerable position. He paid for it with the loss of a leg, and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was appointed military governor of the Carolinas after the war, and stayed in the army until 1869, then served as ambassador to Spain (1869–73). Back practising law in New York City, he was chairman of the New York State Monuments Commission (1886–1912). He was relieved of this post for mishandling funds, but he is credited with preserving Gettysburg battlefield as a national park. |
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