The sun., 1910-02-18
war DAYS GEN. SICKLES KNEW
MOVED 10 TALK By THE RILL
10 PROMOTE MN.
Lincoln called ON HIM as a New York
Democrat to Help and He Organized
Fhe Federal RegImeutS-At STAFF
fOrd's Court House and Gettysburg.

N ls7 he might not now be the man
whom Congress IL preparing to honor
with the rank of Lieutenant General
retired. Gen. Sickles says himself that
beng a Democrat meant being n fighting
Democrat in this State two decades
before the great war and cites President
Lincoln 10 prove it.
You have been 4 leader in New Yo rk
Democratic politics." Lincoln told Sickles
in the first dark days after Sumter. IF
Won kept your end up at that game
surely youll do to take the command Of
men in the field. Go on and raise your
fifth regiment and you shall be Brigadier-
General in command"
Gen. Dan Sickles told this anecdote
and many others in the dark reception
room of his house at % Fifth avenue,
yesterday afternoon. Indeed the front
doors shut against the world of 1910
coursIng up and down the avenue outside
and the shadows of the reception room,
crowded with art treasures like a minia-
ture Uffizi Gallery, were the shadows
yelling fifty years gone. The senior
surviving corps commander Of the armies
that are neatly passed recalled incidents
and men of half century back. and he
told only a small part Of the record of
sixty years OF public life.
He is in his eighty-fifth year. this
veteran fighter who bayed at the Wings
at Albany in Al and held back Long
streets gray columns in the charge on
Peach Orchard and the Bloody Angle
d on the second day at Gettysburg. One
wouldn't place the age so high by looking
at the man. for he is ruddy and stout
and smooth Of visage. His voice is still
powerful and his thou ghts come with
triphammer rapidity. Leonard. the old
negro butler. doesn't even have to open
doors for the General: he's been doing
that very deStly for himself since a shell
took of one Of his legs that second day at
Gettysburg. He swings a door shut with
his Crutch in a way that seems to give
intelligence to the crutch
Most men at ~ have something half
triumphant to say about their age. Gen
SiCkles is SO Young or so different that he
doesn't think it necessary to emphasize
his endowment OF years. He speaks Of
things that happened in the SOS and eos
and says he was young man then;
people who listen may look up his a ge in
ihs books if they wish 20.
Il was in Congress from this st ate
when the war begen,- was the wsy thf
Gen Sickles began his reminiscenceA |
y ives Democrat. but Flong with |
Douglass. tNe Little Giant and Dix and !
others of the Northern Democrats who |
believedin the preservation of the Union, |
! went to President LinCo n and offered |
my services in the army. | hadn't voted |
for Lincoln when he was first elected To !
the Presidency. but | believed in him as p |
strong man who was the ono man able !
10 keep the nation straight in those srd !
days.
when | saw the President end told |
him that | wanted to help, Lincoln said !
10 me; Sickles. l'mhglsd you've come 10 /
me. and l want to have every Democrat
of prominence who wants to help save
this count y from destruction right up |
in the front line of the fighting I don't !
want you to serve as private. I believe |
m pushing the Democrats who want to /
right right up to the head, where every ,
body ca IN take lesson from their example. !
want you TO go out and raise some troops |
for service
Il told the President that though had |
enlisted in the Seventy-first N. Y. n. G. |
and had served for many years in the |
Twelfth New York. resigning with the
rank of Major at the time | went 10 |
England as Secretary Of Legation under |
Buchanan. the Minister, I had not had |
military experience outside of National |
Guard affairs.
You go ahead and raise a regiment |
in New York. Lincoln said to me. IF the /
men you get have confidence in you I
guess | will '"
zen. SlChleS tOlO now ne mao gone BACK /
70 New York after that interview in |
Washin gton and had raised a regiment,
mostly Of Democrats, from among his l
constituents in New York. He had enough |
men left over after this initial muster to |
make another regiment. He called il the
SlCkles Regiment. u. 8. Volunteers
The General said that he thought il wisest |
IN make his regiment and the other
regiments that he raised subsequently
national organizations instead OF State.
60. -, a
heads of the nation. He told Lincoln
that such method of enlistment was in his
mind the best and the President agreed
with him
Hearing from sickles that he had
enough men for a second regiment Lincoln
told him TO go ahead and organize it
Not only a second hut third, a fourth
and fifth regiment sprung up under
Slckles hand at Camp Scott. which he
nnd esta blished over on Staten Island
me expenses OF recruiting and of drilling
he naId himself
These were distinctly national reRi-
ments, said the General in calling up an
9id pride. They were all organized as
troops and some Of my men came from as
lar West as Michigan rem ember one
fellow came from Paw-Paw. When I
reported to the President that had the
nye he said that was to be in command
~ the brigade. / insisted that I was not
htted TO such a command and that be
made Colonel Of tho first regiment / had
,laised until such time AS the report of
ny senior officers might justify the
elevation To a higher rank. Lincoln com
promised by making me senior Colonel
y the brigade. but in September of 'eI
he had me elevated 70 a Brigadier- General
hhlp As such / served under Mcclellan
IN 81 2" -
The veteran halted, his fingers drum
inlng on the crutch handle II
! remember the surprise got when
las first under fire. he said, and his words
zane slowly. clogged by the uncovering
# Old memories
>, That was early in 81, before the
'enlnsular campaign began. Mcclellan
Sas N Washington land somehow OF other
he had lost track of the position OF a
portion Of the enemy. Gen. Hooker.
NY commander. chose me 10 make a
ieconnolssance in force and try to un-
cover the position OF Longstreet !
iooh thousand men from my brigade