On June 27, Hooker resigned as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Among the corps commanders suggested to replace him, the New York Herald actually suggested Sickles as the best commander for the job. On June 28, three days before the battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln appointed general George G. Meade to replace Hooker. On July 1, the first day ended in Confederate victory. Meade worked to quickly put his forces in place for the next day's battle. Early on the morning of July 2, Meade sent a message to Sickles with instructions to place his 12,000-man corps on Cemetery Ridge. He was specifically ordered to connect to general Winfield Scott Hancock's II Corps on his right, and extend his line to Little Round Top on his left.
Sickles, not impressed with his new commander or his orders. He rode to Meade's headquarters about 11:00 a.m. and waited to see Meade. But the commander was busy at the time. Feeling ignored Sickles returned to his troops. He decided he did not like his orders. A mile to his front was Emmitsburg Road, which was higher ground than he was assigned to occupy. He also did not like the fact there were rocks and trees among his line. Sickles, without orders or without informing the other corps commanders moved his corps forward about one mile. This left Hancock's left flank completely open and a large break in the line where his corps was supposed to be. The new position he chose was wider than the one he abandoned and he did not have enough men to cover it completely. The middle of his line formed a salient (a right angle in the line that could be attacked from two directions). Brigadier general Henry Hunt, the artillery chief, inspected the new position with Sickles and pointed out the problems. He said he had to check back with Meade to see if the orders he gave Sickles could be changed. Sickles made the move anyway. Within an hour, his entire III Corps was nearly wiped out by Confederate general James Longstreet's corps. Sickles himself was nicked by a cannonball which shattered his leg. He was carried off the field and his right leg was amputated a few hours later. His injury may have saved him from a court-martial for disobeying orders, but his days as a field commander were at an end.
After Sickles lost his right leg, he gained fame for donating it to the Army Medical Museum in Washington, DC. He sent it with a card which read, "With the Compliments of Major General D.E.S.". The leg is on display today at the Army Medical Research and Materiel Command headquarters building at Fort Detrick, Maryland. After his recovery, Lincoln sent Sickles to the South where he was to look into the effect of slavery on African Americans. He was also to give suggestions for the future Reconstruction of the South.
After the Civil War he held a number of different positions. He was military governor of North and South Carolina but was removed by President Andrew Johnson in 1867. He retired from the army in 1869. From his retirement to 1872 he was appointed a U.S. minister to Spain by President Ulysses S. Grant. While there Sickles managed to engage in "undiplomatic relations" with the Spanish queen. He served one more term in Congress from 1893–1895 but was defeated for reelection in 1986. In 1897, after 34 years of lobbying, Sickles was able to get himself awarded the Medal of Honor.
In New York he was a New York City sheriff and chairman of the New York State Monuments Commission. In 1912, he was removed from the commission for allegedly misusing funds. He also was an important part of establishing the Gettysburg National Battlefield Park. On May 3, 1914, Sickles died in New York City of a cerebral hemorrhage. Sickles was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Thouet
The Thouet is a river in western France, flowing through the Deux-Sèvres and Maine-et-Loire departments, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Pays de la Loire regions.
It is one of the last left tributary of the Loire river.
The Thouet river has a length of and a drainage basin with an area of approximately .
The Thouet starts in the "Gâtine" plateau, west of the Deux-Sèvres department, in the "commune" of Le Beugnon, near Secondigny and close to the source of the Sèvre Nantaise river, at an elevation of about . From the source to Parthenay the river flows in a generally southwest-northwest direction. To the east of Parthenay, the river turns north and flows on a generally northward direction for the rest of its course.
Finally, the river flows into the Loire river in the city of Saumur.
The Thouet flows through 2 regions, 2 departments and 34 "communes"; some of them are:
The main tributaries of the Thouet river are:
Left tributaries:
Right tributaries:
Amambay
The Amambay department () is a department of Paraguay. The capital is the city of Pedro Juan Caballero. Its code is PY-13.
The name comes from the name of a part of the Caaguazú Cordillera, the "Amambay Cordillera" (). "Amambay" (or "amambái") means "fern" in Guaraní language; ferns are common in the forests of the region.
The town of Pedro Juan Caballero was found in 1893, and Bella Vista, in 1902. The department of Amambay was created in 1945 as the No. 10 department of the country. After some reorganization it was declared as the No. 13 department.,
Pedro Juan Caballero, the capital of the department, is still known by its old name, "Punta Porá", because is near the "Punta Porá" Hill; that name was used by the people that transported yerba mate from Mato Grosso to Concepción. The BrazilIan municipality across the border, Ponta Porã (Mato Grosso do Sul), keeps the name.
The Amambay department is in the north part of the "Oriental" region. It has an area of , with a population of 125,611 for a Population density of .
Amambay is the highest of the Paraguayan departments, high, and the "Punta Porá" Hill, high, is one the highest point in the country.
The main rivers in the department are the Apa in the north, and the Ypané and the Aquidabán rivers in the central part of the department.
, the total amount of precipitation for the year 2012 in the city of Pedro Juan Caballero was . The month with the most precipitation was February with of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation was May with .
The average temperature for the year 2012 in Pedro Juan Caballero was . The warmest month, on average, was December with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is July, with an average temperature of .
The department is divided in 5 districts:
Darwin–Wallace Medal
The Darwin–Wallace Medal is awarded by the Linnean Society of London for "major advances in evolutionary biology".
The medals have been awarded every 50 years, beginning in 1908. That year marked 50 years after the joint presentation of papers by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. These were "On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties"; and "On the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection". The papers were both about natural selection as the main cause of evolution. The papers were presented to the Linnean Society of London on 1 July 1858.
Wallace was one of the first to get of the medal. In his case it was made of gold, rather than the silver versions given to the six other medallists. However, in 2008 the Linnean Society announced that due to the continuing importance of evolutionary research, the medal will be awarded on an annual basis beginning in 2010.
The first award was of a gold medal to Alfred Russel Wallace, and silver medals to six other distinguished scientists:
20 silver medals were awarded:
13 silver medals were awarded, including 2 posthumously:
Khan Academy