SICKLES, DANIEL EDGAR (1S25—).
An American soldier and politician, born in New York City. He was educated at the New York University, studied law, and was admitted to practice in 1846. In the following years he sat as a Tammany Democrat in the State Assembly. In 1853 he was appointed corporation counsel of New York City, and was Secretary of Legation at London under United States Minister Buchanan from 1853 to 1855. when he returned to the United States and was elected to the New York State Senate. From 1857 to 1861 he was a Democratic member of Congres4:. During this period he shot and killed Philip Barton Key, United States District At torney for the District of Columbia, for adultery with his wife, but was acquitted after a sensa tional trial lasting twenty days. At the out break of the Civil War he raised the Excelsior (New York) Brigade, colonel of one of its regiments, the Seventieth New York Volun teers. Ile was appointed brigadier-general of volunteers in September, 1861, and major-gen eral in November, 1862. He commanded a bri in McClellan's Peninsular campaign and at Antietam. commanded a division at Fredericks burg, and was in emninand of the Third Corps at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. On
the second day of the battle of Gettysburg his corps sustained the brunt of the Confederate at tack upon the Peach Orchard, on the Federal left, and Sickles himself lost a leg. (See GET TYSBURG. BATTLE OF.) He continued in the service, however; was commander of the Depart ment of the Carolinas in 1866-67, was brevetted and major-general in the Regu lar Army for services at Fredericksburg and Get tysburg respectively, served for a time as colonel of the Forty-second Infantry, and on April 14, 1869, was retired with the full rank of major general. In 1867 he was sent on a secret diplo matic mission to South America. He was Minis ter to Spain from 1869 until 1873, and presented the demands of the United States for reparation for the execution of the captain and crew of the Virginias (see Vitunxit's MASSACRE). He was sheriff of New York County in 1890, was again elected to Congress as a Democrat in 1892. and for several years was president of the New York State Board of Civil Service Commissioners.