James A. Hessler
Page 5
During the Civil War, the president commissioned generals, whose appointment was then subject to Senate confirmation. Political considerations, such as the general’s party, state, and ethnicity, were facts of life in the appointment process. Because Lincoln needed to retain and develop the support of Northern war Democrats, he appointed a number of prominent Democrats as generals. Examples include Benjamin Butler, John McClernand, John Logan, and eventually Dan Sickles. Ethnic appointments, which were believed needed to win support among distinct immigrant groups, included the Eleventh Corps’ Franz Sigel and Carl Schurz, along with “Irish Brigade” founder Thomas Meagher. Some of these men, like Logan, made excellent corps commanders. Many professional soldiers like Henry Halleck, however, despised the concept of raising a man from civilian life to a prominent position within the army. “It seems but little better than murder to give important commands to such men,” grumbled Halleck.13
It was often the performance of these men off the battlefield, rather than on it, that earned the disdain of their counterparts. Regis de Trobriand, a French immigrant and non-West Pointer himself, “knew a retired merchant of New York, filled with the vanity of wearing the uniform” who raised a regiment of cavalry and was commissioned a colonel. “His camp was near us; he was never there. On the other hand, he displayed his uniform continually on the sidewalks of Pennsylvania Avenue and in the bar-rooms of the great hotels. He was present at all the receptions at the White House … sustained by the double power of money and political influence, he was nominated brigadier-general … without ever having drawn his saber from the scabbard, he returned home, to enjoy in peace the delight of being able to write the title of ‘General’ upon his visiting-cards.”14
Sickles exhibited some of these characteristics. The Excelsiors spent late 1861 posted in lower Maryland locales, such as Budds Ferry, Piscataway, and Charlotte Hall, where future nemesis General George Sykes accused “a command [First Excelsior] under a Colonel [William] Dwight of Sickles’ brigade” of inflaming local anti-Union sentiments by “carrying away of slaves and horses and the destruction of private property.… Complaints of this command were universal.” Sickles used his proximity to Washington to frequently call upon the Lincolns. Through these visits and a mutual friend, Henry Wikoff, he became friends with another “outcast,” Mary Todd Lincoln. In December 1861, excerpts from Lincoln’s forthcoming speech to Congress were published in the New York Herald. The leak was considered so serious that a House Judiciary Committee opened an investigation. Wikoff eventually admitted to telegraphing portions of the speech to the Herald. How he received access to the speech remained unclear. It was widely believed that Mary Todd was somehow responsible. Sickles worked actively as Wikoff’s counsel and ultimately pinned the leak on long-time White House gardener John Watt. Watt testified that he had read the speech one day while strolling through the Executive Mansion and then repeated it verbatim to Wikoff. The House Committee was satisfied, Watt was later fired, and Wikoff and Mary Todd were officially cleared. Still, many considered the resolution suspicious and wondered what influence Sickles had exerted on Watt. If Mrs. Lincoln was actually the source of the leak, then Sickles had saved the Lincolns from an embarrassing scandal, and he probably expected that he would be repaid at some point in return. He frequently socialized with Mrs. Lincoln throughout 1862, and although the Lincolns and Stanton appeared to be in his corner, Sickles still needed a benefactor within the army, where there remained a divide between the old-time regular officers and the new political appointments.15
The “professional” general who would eventually have a profound effect on Sickles’ career was Joseph Hooker. Hooker was slightly older than Sickles, born in 1814, and was an 1837 West Point graduate. When George B. McClellan became General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States in the fall of 1861, he began re-organizing his command. In the spring of 1862, the army’s Third Corps was organized and given to Major General Samuel P. Heintzelman. Hooker became one of Heintzelman’s three division commanders, and Sickles’ Excelsior Brigade was assigned to Hooker’s division. Although Sickles would later relate that he and Hooker became friends at first sight, Hooker was initially suspicious of his new subordinate who flaunted his relationship with Lincoln. In truth, the two large egos butted heads early on. In one instance during March 1862, when runaway slaves were seeking shelter in the army’s camps, Hooker issued orders permitting slave hunters to enter and search for their property. When Sickles was shown Hooker’s order, he ordered the slave hunters “out of the lines at once!” In 1879, after Hooker and Sickles had been friends for more than sixteen years, Hooker admitted, “When McClellan put him [Sickles] under me I objected, but McClellan said he knew of no one else that could manage him.”16
In March 1862, Sickles received what appeared to be a fatal blow to his military aspirations when the Senate declined his appointment as brigadier general. Lincoln had no choice but to revoke the submission. Sickles reverted to the rank of colonel. Sickles and his supporters were outraged, especially after Hooker elevated Colonel Nelson Taylor to command the brigade. Calling the order “illegal, unauthorized and unjust,” Sickles reminded Hooker that he was still the brigade’s senior colonel and should remain in command until replaced by a brigadier general. Hooker disagreed.17
Ironically, just as Sickles’ military career was floundering, the spring of 1862 offered promise for the Excelsiors’ first major combat action. During March, General McClellan transported his Army of the Potomac to the tip of the Virginia peninsula between the York and the James rivers. His plan was to drive northwest up the narrow strip of land and capture Richmond. Before departing the army to plead his case in Washington, however, Sickles experienced his first taste of enemy fire. Leading one of the campaign’s numerous reconnaissances, Sickles and a hand-picked detachment of the “huskiest and most reliable [men] that I could find” moved from Liverpool Point, Maryland, toward Stafford Court House, Virginia. Sickles later claimed he collided with two of General James Longstreet’s infantry regiments, though a contemporary news account stated the opposition was comprised of 600 enemy cavalrymen. “There was a hot fight,” wrote the former Congressman. “This was the first time that I or any of my men had been under fire. I was surprised when it was over and the Confederates had retired, evidently thinking we were the advance of a whole army. I was surprised that I had taken it so coolly. Mind you, I do not say this boastingly; simply as a man reviewing his sensations under certain conditions.”18
Immediately thereafter on April 6, Sickles pulled away toward Washington on a gunboat and issued his farewell to the Excelsior Brigade. “Protesting that this [Hooker’s] order is unlawful and unjust, I obey it because obedience to superior authority is the first duty of a soldier.…Whether we are separated for a day or forever, the fervent wishes of my heart will follow you forever on every field.” Chaplain Twichell hoped Sickles would be back. The officer, he wrote, “has gone to plead his case with the authorities. I hope sincerely that he will succeed, although the opposition is bitter and powerful.” The Excelsiors moved forward without him and on May 5, approximately one year after they first began to organize, Colonel Nelson Taylor led them into their first major combat at Williamsburg. Much of the battle was fought by the Third Corps, with the Excelsiors reporting a staggering 772 casualties in killed, wounded, captured, and missing. The baptismal bloodletting at Williamsburg was why May 5 was selected as the date for the annual Third Army Corps reunions that would be held for more than fifty years.19
While his men were fighting and dying on the Virginia peninsula, Sickles was busy in Washington trying to restart his brigadier nomination. He knew he could count on Lincoln and Stanton, and the New York newspapers. The former congressman worked allies in both Houses to build support, openly wondering if Maryland senators opposed him because he refused to allow hunting of runaway slaves in camp. On April 25, Lincoln re-nominated him for brigadier general. On May 13, eight days after Williamsburg, the Senate confirmed
his nomination by the razor thin margin of 19-18. (The Excelsior Brigade historian believed the brigade’s gallantry at Williamsburg helped influence the vote, and was the “death blow” to Sickles’ political enemies.) Orders were officially issued on May 24 for “Brig. Gen. D. E. Sickles” to report to Hooker and once again take command of the Second Brigade of Hooker’s division, Third Corps. Dan was enthusiastically greeted by the men and expressed the “deepest sorrow” that he had missed the most recent battle. He somehow saved himself again. Sickles, finally, was a brigadier general.20
Within days of returning, General Sickles saw his first major combat at Fair Oaks (or Seven Pines). In Sickles’ absence, McClellan had moved the army up the Virginia Peninsula to the outskirts of Richmond. On May 31, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston attacked Samuel Heintzelman’s Third Corps and General Erasmus Keyes’ Fourth Corps, both of which appeared isolated from the rest of McClellan’s army south of the rain-swollen Chickahominy River. Hooker’s division remained unengaged during the heavy fighting of the 31st, but Heintzelman moved it forward as a ready reinforcement when the Confederate attack was renewed on the morning of June 1. While Hooker was moving the division toward Heintzelman’s right, Heintzelman detached Sickles’ brigade and shifted it to the left (without Hooker’s knowledge) and issued orders directly to Dan during the ensuing fight. Sickles deployed the Excelsiors under fire, recalling that Rebel minie balls seemed specifically directed at mounted officers. By all accounts, including his own, Sickles acquitted himself well both offensively and defensively. “Gen. Sickles was enthusiastically cheered as the regiments passed him,” wrote Twichell. George McClellan specifically praised two bayonet charges by the Second Excelsiors in a message to Edwin Stanton. “The dashing charge of the Second and Fourth Regiments,” reported Sickles, “the cool and steady advance of the Third, occurred under my immediate observation, and could not have been surpassed.” But most importantly for the newly minted brigadier general, Hooker finally seemed to be warming up to him. Although he griped that Sickles’ detachment was “without my knowledge,” Hooker referred to Sickles as the brigade’s “gallant leader,” and “their intrepid chief.” Dan was still prone to go over Hooker’s head, however, and demonstrated as much when he presented a captured Confederate “omnibus” to corps commander Heintzelman as a gift. The Excelsiors reported seventy-four casualties in what was (with combined casualties exceeding 11,000) the largest Eastern Theater battle up to that point in the war. But the most significant impact of the battle at Fair Oaks took place on the Confederate side, when General Johnston was severely wounded and eventually replaced in command by Robert E. Lee.21
Brigadier General Sickles
Author’s Collection
General Joseph Hooker
National Archivesa
While General Lee spent the next several weeks reorganizing his new army, McClellan accommodated his opponent by remaining in place. The Excelsiors spent much of the time on picket duty. On June 19, while riding at the front, Lieutenant Joseph L. Palmer, Sickles’ aide-de-camp, took a minie ball through the brain. Although Sickles was now ignoring his wife and daughter in New York, Sickles “mourned as for a son” over Palmer’s death, recalled Twichell. On June 25, the Seven Days Battles began when McClellan ordered Hooker and Philip Kearny’s Third Corps divisions to move aggressively along the Williamsburg Road in preparation for moving the Federal siege artillery closer to Richmond. Hooker’s morning attack faltered in large part because Sickles’ brigade, on the right of Hooker’s line, encountered difficulties moving through portions of White Oak Swamp, and then met heavy Confederate resistance on the right flank. Sickles and Colonel George Hall of the Second Excelsiors were reconnoitering the right when a heavy volley hit Hall’s line and caused part of the regiment (in Sickles’ words) to break “to the rear in disgraceful confusion.” Sickles called for the remaining men to hold their ground and “used my best exertions,” along with the help of nearby officers, to “rally the fugitives.” This was all “mortifying” to Sickles because it occurred in Hooker’s presence, but Hooker’s report noted Sickles’ “great gallantry in rallying a part of the Seventy-first New York Regiment and returning it to action after it had given way.” Darkness ended the fighting. After Oak Grove, the Excelsiors remained active throughout the Seven Days, reporting 308 casualties from June 25 to July 1 as General Lee took the offensive in an effort to destroy the Army of the Potomac or drive it away from Richmond. Sickles was earning his battlefield experience.22
But even while in the field, Dan lost none of his taste for the lavish lifestyle that he had enjoyed in New York and Washington. When a steamboat arrived in camp loaded with supplies intended for the sick and wounded, Sickles was asked to transport the supplies to the hospitals. Ever the negotiator, he dickered, “I gave it on condition that my headquarters should be included in the sick list, entitled to one wagon load.” Thus Sickles was able to surprise Hooker, the Comte de Paris, Phil Kearny, and several others with a lavish banquet of chicken, ham, beef, fruits, vegetables, and “purple and… amber liquid.”23
Sickles did not stay long with his brigade. On July 16, orders arrived to “proceed to New York for the purpose of pushing forward recruiting for the regiments of his brigade.… The general commanding relies upon General Sickles to use his utmost exertions to hasten the filling up of his regiments and to rejoin his command at the earliest possible moment.” Because he spent the late summer of 1862 giving recruiting speeches, Sickles missed both Second Bull Run and Antietam. Perhaps the most amazing example of the rehabilitation of Sickles’ reputation occurred when some old backers in Tammany wanted him to run again for Congress. A relieved Twichell notified his family that Sickles “will decline nomination for Congress.… He is getting fixed in his new place most successfully and will probably serve himself, as well as the country, better here than in the warfare of words.” Hooker’s star was also on the ascendant. A press wire that read “Fighting—Joe Hooker” had been erroneously translated and appeared throughout the country as “Fighting Joe Hooker.” Hooker earned fully his nickname as a combat warrior, and was promoted to command the First Corps, which he led capably at Antietam.24
The enlisted men were not so kindly disposed to Sickles’ prolonged absence. “We began to think it is time Daniel was coming to his Brigade,” wrote the previously supportive Private Alfred Oates of the 5th Excelsior Regiment. “Colonel Graham and Daniel Sickles has only been with us in one fight and that was at Fair Oaks. The boys think more of Colonel Taylor than they do of Dan.” Sickles did not rejoin his brigade until early November. When McClellan did not organize a strong pursuit of Lee’s severely wounded Army of Northern Virginia following the heavy fighting at Antietam, Lincoln replaced him with General Ambrose Burnside. Burnside consolidated his army into three “Grand Divisions” of two infantry corps and attached cavalry. Hooker’s growing reputation as an aggressive fighter carried him into command of the Center Grand Division, which included the Third Corps and Fifth Corps. Several notable changes occurred in the resulting shakeup. Among them, New Yorker Dan Butterfield was given command of the Fifth Corps in Hooker’s “Grand Division,” and George Stoneman replaced Heintzelman as Third Corps commander.25
Sickles was given command of Joe Hooker’s old Second Division of the Third Corps. The advancement was astonishing given that only a few months ago his brigadier generalship was in serious doubt and he had done little fighting in the interim (although he had performed well when called upon). Ironically, his minimal battle experience did not hurt him. Although he missed Second Bull Run and Antietam, neither campaign showered much credit on the army’s participating officers. He had support in high places and his recruiting speeches made good copy in the newspapers, all of which furthered his reputation as a fighting War Democrat. While West Pointers such as McClellan and John Pope were proving disappointments on the battlefield, Sickles was working Washington insiders and the New York papers to create an image as a successful and battle-ha
rdened general. Despite his lack of extensive experience, Excelsiors like Joe Twichell thought “Sickles is brave as a lion and is much admired for his judgment. He has the making of a first class soldier in him.…”26
This phase of his career, in which he transformed himself from a disgraced ex-Congressman, again highlighted Sickles’ ability to rise above adversity. Just as he had maneuvered his way out of a murder indictment, he sidestepped through a potential minefield of opposition to obtain his military aspiration. Regis de Trobriand, who would rise to the rank of brigadier general in the Union army, considered Sickles “in many ways a typical American”:
He has a quick perception, an energetic will, prompt and supple intelligence, an active temperament. Naturally ambitious, he brings to the service of his ambition a clear view, a practical judgment, and a deep knowledge of political tactics. When he has determined on anything, he prepares the way, assembles his forces, and marches directly to the assault. Obstacles do not discourage him, but he never attempts the impossible, and as he has many strings to his bow, if one breaks, he will replace it by another.
In him, ability does not exclude frankness. He likes, on the contrary, to play with the cards on the table with his friends and against his enemies… But let a friend deceive him, or an enemy cease to oppose him, then both become equally indifferent to him, and he goes on his way, troubling himself no further about them.… he rarely fails to make a good impression, even upon those who may be the least prepossessed in his favor.27
Although he did sometimes benefit from his father’s deep pockets, Sickles was still in many ways a self-made success. He made himself a leader, but not everyone believed the role fit him well. “I noticed when I first saw Sickles, I felt he was unnatural,” General Oliver Howard later commented. Many contemporaries commented upon, and sometimes ridiculed, his speech patterns. “I can always remember Sickles’ voice as he piped up,” recalled General Howard. W. H. Bullard remembered, “[an] old Clarion voice the boys knew so well.” Mark Twain described Sickles’ voice as monotonous, and in “perfectly constructed English… and as there is no animation in it, it soon becomes oppressive by its monotony and it makes the listener drowsy.”28