Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-05-04

Corporation counsel. A few months
later he accepted an appointment as
first secretary of the American lega-
ton in London, which position necessi-
tated his absence from the United
States for two years. On his return
he was for a time a state senator,
and from 1857 TO 1861 he was in Wash
ington as a Democratic member of the
House of Representatives.
Mr.. SickleS was prominent as
Democrat at the outbreak of the war
and had not voted for President Lin
coin. but he was a supporter of the
Union and offered his services to Lin
coin. AT the request of the President,
Sickles went to New York. where he
raised the "Sickles Brigade" of five
regiments at his own expense. He even
paid the maintenance bill of these reg
iments for several weeks before they
mustered into the service of the Unit
ed States Siekles was made colonel
of the regiment, later designated as
the Seventeen New York.
Sickles showed considerable military
ability and bravery and rapidly ad-
vanced. He became hrigadier gem
eraI of volunteers in 1861 and a ma
jor general of volunteers a year later
and was retired a few years after the
war with the full rank of major gem
eral of the regular army, with which
he had remained after the conclusion
of peace. During the war, he was
connected with every important cam
paign. He was in the peninsular OPP
erations, he was at the head of a corps
n IN 4 nf hA lot ,,I
achieved distinction by his bravery in
action on the fields of Antietam, Chan
cellorville and Fair Oaks. He also was
in the thick of the fight at Gettysburg
and on the second day of the battle
lost his leg by rebel shell.
In 1866 Gen. Siekles was appointed min
lister to Holland, but declined the posi-
tion. Three years later he was appoint
ed minister to Mexico, but again declin-
ed. He accepted, however, the appoint
ment as minister to Spain offered to him
in 1869, and until 1873 represented the
United States al the court in Madrid It
was he who presented the claims for the
killing of the crew of the Virginius. On
his return to the United States Gen.
Sickles again became interested in local
politics and in 1890 he was chosen sheriff
of New York county. He was returned
to Congress by his constituents in 1892
and again mingled in the political activi-
ties of the capital which he had known
in one of the most stirring periods of the
history of the nation.
The private life of Gen. Sickles was
darkened by a domestic tragedy which
was one of the greatest if not the great
est social sensations of Washington in
the ante-bellum days and for many
weeks and months supplied the newspa-
pers and periodicals with materials for
sensational articles. In 1852 Mr. Sickles
ter of an Italian musician with whom he
had boarded during his student days in
New York. Sickles had been a gay
young man and when he lived in Wash
ington as member of Congress his house
was the center of much sociability His
young and handsome wife became in
volved into a scandal with Philip Bar
ton Ney, prominent and highly con-
nected society man of Washington and
after Sickles had obtained proofs of his
wife's faithlessness he Shot and killed
Ney on Lafayette square in Washington.
He was tried for this act but acquitted.
After the tragedy Mrs. Sickles went to
Europe whence she returned to New
in 1908. She survives the general. upon