James A. Hessler
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Dan had also realigned himself with the Democrats in time for the 1892 presidential election. Democrat Grover Cleveland had spent his time during the war practicing law and politics in Buffalo, New York. Cleveland had already occupied the White House from 1885 to 1889 when, during his first term, he had vetoed several veteran pension bills. Cleveland lost his 1888 re-election bid to Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison. After a four-year hiatus, Cleveland took the unusual step of running again in 1892. Never able to remove himself from a presidential campaign, Sickles received nationwide press coverage when candidate Cleveland’s war and veteran records drew his wrath.58
Sickles served as a New York delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and announced that 20, 000 state Democratic veterans would never vote for Cleveland, whom he ridiculed for furnishing a substitute rather than serving in the army. When Dan received additional coverage for strongly criticizing Cleveland at a Third Corps reunion speech, Democrat leaders quickly began to distance themselves from Sickles. Newspapers asked Sickles if perhaps his criticism had simply been misquoted, but he assured them, “The men heard it, and I meant it, and let us be content. General Sickles can’t vote for the coward who hired a substitute; who sneered at the services and sufferings of veterans, and who, often with a scoff, vetoed more than four times as many pension bills as all his predecessors in the Presidential office.” Such talk led to rumors that the powerful GAR would support the Republican ticket, and Sickles himself later claimed that the episode caused the Republicans to “seductively beckon” him to their side. But Sickles was outraged at the Republicans when cartoons of himself appeared on the elevated railroads with Sickles reminding riders that “No, no veteran will vote for Cleveland!” The Republican tactics backfired when they convinced Sickles to fall in with the Democrats and soften his rhetoric. The malleable Sickles wore a Cleveland button during a GAR parade, and although he admitted he had opposed Cleveland’s initial nomination, he assured the public that he held the “highest regard” for Cleveland. When the voting was tallied, the “coward who hired a substitute” was successfully returned to office.59
Like a true politician, Dan had obviously back-peddled to prove his party “loyalty,” a fact that did not pass unnoticed. One Democrat paper complained that “1892 will be known as the great Flop campaign. Considering the agile manner in which General Daniel E. Sickles and others of his class have flopped out of the Democratic ranks and then back again, a word of one syllable fails to fully characterize it. Nothing less than the flip-flop campaign will do.”60
An even more unexpected announcement came on October 17 when Tammany Hall’s nomination convention selected their Congressional candidates. After the convention was called to order, Sickles’ name was proposed and seconded. The convention announced that he was the Democrats’ choice to run in the city’s Tenth District. Sickles was not even in the hall when nominated, so it took about ten minutes to retrieve the candidate. The conventioneers arose to cheer him as he entered the hall, where he gave a “short but pointed” acceptance speech, after which he remained to greet well-wishers, including several GAR veterans. Other candidates were announced at the same time, but it was Sickles’ return to politics that the Times called “the most interesting and significant” choice. The Gettysburg literature frequently portrays Sickles’ return to Congress as part of a veritable one-man crusade to create the Gettysburg National Military Park. In fact, Sickles’ nomination appears to have been more the result of typical Tammany political maneuvering.61
Sickles gave the papers a lengthy explanation for his acceptance, which seems to have been primarily motivated by the Grover Cleveland episode. “I have several times in the past been urged to return to Congress, but I have always refused. This time, however, I felt constrained by the circumstances to accept, because I saw in my nomination the opportunity to quiet once and for all the misrepresentations of the Republicans regarding my alleged opposition to Mr. Cleveland.” He accused the Republicans of twisting his words in order to portray him as being opposed to the Democratic National Ticket. “I realized that only the strongest possible action could refute their continued assertions, and I think that I have taken this action in accepting the nomination…I am like a soldier. I have enlisted and now go to the front…I never do anything by halves, and I will conduct my canvass on such lines as will convince the most skeptical that I am for Cleveland…I will give proof of my loyalty.” Sickles promptly had Dan Butterfield warn the Republican National Committee “that they refrain hereafter from libeling me.”62
Everyone in the party seemed happy with the nomination except for General Martin T. McMahon, a former Brevet Major General with the Army of the Potomac, Medal of Honor winner, and Senator. Ironically, McMahon was also a Gettysburg veteran, having served as chief of staff to Sixth Corps commander John Sedgwick during the battle. McMahon had long assumed that the nomination was his, and so was dumbfounded when it fell into Sickles’ lap. “I can’t understand it. It is the biggest mistake the party could have made. Gen. Sickles has no constituency, no followers at all. He has hurt the national ticket already, and his running for Congress won’t help it any.” McMahon smelled an opportunity when a candidate in another district, a retired army officer still drawing pay, voluntarily withdrew under the grounds that his army income rendered him ineligible. Sickles was still receiving $5, 625 in army pension annually, and McMahon promptly demanded that Sickles withdraw on the constitutional grounds that since he was being paid, he was still in the army, and therefore ineligible to hold public office. Sickles was, McMahon insisted, “a man of vacillating character, and should he at the last moment decide, as I am sure he will, not to go into Congress, he would practically turn over the district to the Republican candidate.”63
Sickles ridiculed the suggestion that he step aside, noting that he had become well versed with the relevant law when he went to Spain. “You see, in such cases, one should be half a soldier, half a lawyer.” He did not think the law applied to him, but if he was proven wrong he would not accept any of his army pension while in Congress (although he would not volunteer to remove himself from the army’s retired list). “I am not a poor man. I have my own private fortune, and what is a paltry $5, 000 with a few odd hundreds to me? And, anyhow, I get $5, 000 as a salary for being in Congress. No, sir, that does not apply to me…I hope I shall be elected, and shall certainly not withdraw.” It wasn’t quite the ardent campaigning of his youth, but he still knew how to play the game.64
With little less than a month before the election (there was no lengthy campaign as there is today) there seemed little doubt that Sickles would win. His district was solidly Democrat, and only McMahon had seriously challenged the nomination. Dubbed the “millionaire candidate” by the Times, Sickles’ return was hailed with delight by Tammany’s “boys” of the Tenth District. Some politicians in the district had feared that the campaign would have been a “dry one” if McMahon had run. “Sickles clubs, Sickles guards, and Sickles barbeques are being organized from one end of the district to the other,” reported the paper. A canvas suggested that many were willing to vote for Sickles but were simply waiting “for the right sort of substantial persuasiveness to be gathered into the Sickles fold.” His residence was being overrun with visitors, and since he was unaccustomed to his renewed popularity, he reportedly took “to his bed for refuge” on more than one occasion. It was also presumed that the “millionaire candidate” would contribute a substantial portion of his own cash to the cause. Veteran affairs were at the top of his agenda. During a speech in Harlem, Sickles announced he was going to Congress “for the very purpose” of “keeping up the pensions system or establishing it on a wider basis.” On the eve of election, the Times listed Sickles among those candidates “certain of election,” and on November 8, more than three decades after his first term had ended, Dan Sickles was once again elected to Congress. The New York Times would later marvel that Sickles was returning at “an age when most men are ready to re
tire.”65
Congressional duties didn’t prevent Dan’s attendance at army reunions. In May 1893, the newly elected legislator joined a large group (including Longstreet, Henry Tremain, and Porter Alexander) that again toured Gettysburg. The trip helped further cement the friendship between Sickles and Longstreet. As Sickles later told the story, he assisted Longstreet in climbing Little Round Top. “Sickles, you can well afford to help me up here now,” Longstreet joked, “for if you had not kept me away so long from Round Top on the 2d of July, 1863, the war would have lasted longer than it did, and might have had a different ending.”66
A number of journalists accompanied the party. As reported in the New York Times, when Longstreet was asked whether Sickles had advanced too far forward on July 2, Longstreet “sustained Gen. Sickles handsomely.” “Old Pete” explained, “Had not Sickles been so far out, we would have taken the Round Tops without firing a shot, and shelled the Union Army out of its position along Cemetery Hill [sic]. Even had Sickles prolonged the line of the Second Corps, his left flank would not have been heavy enough to resist an attack.” Longstreet believed that his attack would have rolled up Sickles’ corps “as easily as a cigarette paper. The only thing left for Sickles was to do as he did.” Longstreet argued that if the fight began with Sickles covering the Round Tops, “we would have had no problem whatever in working in his rear and outflanking him.” Longstreet remained one of Sickles’ most valuable allies. Whether he actually believed it to be true or not—and perhaps he really did—Longstreet was always willing to publicly state that he thought Sickles’ move had been best for the Union cause.67
Sickles’ return to Congress came during the era when, as one Pennsylvania congressman put it, Gettysburg “has become a pilgrimage ground for a larger number of citizens and ex-soldiers than any other field of the late strife. A national interest has been awakened in its decoration by monuments contributed by the various states whose soldiers fought and fell on this historic site.” His election allowed Sickles, as he had done many times throughout his long career, to take advantage of being in the right place at the right time.68
Although veterans were increasing their efforts to memorialize Gettysburg, during the mid 1880s through 1890s large portions of the battlefield were threatened by commercial development. In 1884, the Gettysburg and Harrisburg Railroad ran a line across the fields of Pickett’s Charge to a station on the east side of Little Round Top. Thirteen acres were purchased at the end of the track and developed into “Round Top Park.” Taking advantage of the increasing commercial potential near Little Round Top and Devil’s Den, the local Rosensteel family purchased two acres and eventually established “Rosensteel’s Pavilion.” That summer, local entrepreneur William H. Tipton also established a photo gallery at Round Top Park. By bits and pieces, the natural landscape of core portions of the battlefield park were being significantly altered.69
William “Boss” Tipton was a prominent local photographer, businessman, and politician. He bragged that he had graduated “from the school of Hard Knocks” and was probably similar in temperament to Dan Sickles. In 1892, Tipton incorporated the Gettysburg Electric Railway Company, a commercial venture that threatened to run electric trolley tracks all over the field, including through much of Sickles’ advanced battle line. Unable to pry land away from the GBMA’s limited holdings, Tipton and principal investor Edward Hoffer negotiated instead with private landowners to gain rights of way across their properties. They successfully obtained a right of way across the Plum Run “Valley of Death” from an elderly General Samuel Crawford for $1.00. Tipton now owned thirteen acres near Devil’s Den to commercially rival “Round Top Park.” Tipton’s workers began heavy blasting and digging that threatened to desecrate what had been Sickles’ July 2 left flank. Not surprisingly, public and veteran outcry was immediate and loud. Sickles complained of Tipton’s “blasting and leveling rocks and cutting the trees through the Devil’s Den region, robbing it of its mystery and jungle wildness. These made the place interesting, independent of its association, and gave a peculiar character to the battle which was fought at and from this point.”70
With commercialization as the backdrop, the battle’s thirtieth anniversary in 1893 probably represented the high water mark of Sickles’ involvement in erecting monuments at Gettysburg. The first three days of July were designated “New York Day,” capped off by the dedication of Sickles’ long hoped-for New York State Monument in the National Cemetery. The New York Monuments Commission was busy throughout the spring, with Sickles and Butterfield issuing a number of circulars as testimony to their active involvement. Sickles was angered when the commission applied for conveyances from the locals and was told the charge would be $25 per day. He successfully threatened local officials that the commissioners would tour the field on foot unless the price was dropped. Rumors also circulated that veteran anger would be directed at Tipton’s growing commercial developments.71 Chairman Sickles issued an appeal to his men:
Rumors have reached the Commission, apparently well authenticated, indicating the purpose of certain veterans who will visit Gettysburg on ‘New York Day’ to destroy the trolley railroad now being constructed over the battlefield. The Board, therefore feel constrained by a proper sense of the decorum due to that occasion, to appeal most earnestly to all New York veterans to abstain from any act of violence against property of any description during their visit to Gettysburg, and to refrain from anything like discourtesy toward the persons identified with that undertaking, however obnoxious such persons may have made themselves.
In making this appeal, the Commissioners are by no means insensible to the outrage committed by the vandals, who, for the mere sake of gain are desecrating and destroying the characteristic features of a battlefield which Lincoln said was consecrated ground.…
Sickles appealed to his men to punish the commercial ventures financially, not physically. “Veterans! You owe it to your own self-respect to leave the property of the railroad company under the protection of the law, until the proper authorities shall put a stop to the acts which have justly provoked your indignation.…Don’t ride in the cars! Advise your friends to keep away from them! Refuse free passes if they are offered to you![Emphasis in original]” Did Sickles see any irony in his message? The congressman who had committed murder, and the general who had advanced without orders on this very field, was issuing an appeal for law, order, and non-violence.72
New York’s National Cemetery monument was dedicated on July 2. The monument consists of a large column topped with a female statue, representing the figure on the state’s seal, crying over the battle’s dead. As Dan had wanted, not only is the monument visually prominent in the cemetery, but he even managed to incorporate himself on it. The base contains engravings of four key battle scenes, including “The Wounding of General Sickles.” As “President of the Day,” he gave the address and assimilated many of his favorite Gettysburg themes, including (once again) the accusation that Meade wanted to fight on Pipe Creek.73
On a more constructive note, remembering fallen soldiers was also a theme he felt strongly about. “There is no better way, my comrades as you know, to prepare for the next war, than for the people to show their appreciation of their defenders in the last war. [Applause] No nation can long survive the decline of its martial character. When it ceases to honor its soldiers it will have none. [Applause] When it ceases to honor its soldiers, it will deserve none.”74 Sickles called upon the government to stop the destruction of the field:
The time has come when this battlefield should belong to the government of the United States. [Applause] It should be made a national park, and placed in charge of the War Department. Its topographical features not yet destroyed by the vandals…The monuments erected here must be always guarded and preserved, and an act of Congress for this purpose, which I shall make it my personal duty to frame and advocate [Applause] will contain a clause establishing a military post at Gettysburg, including the battlefield amon
g its dependencies, to be garrisoned by artillery, to the end that the morning and evening sun may forever salute the flag and the Union which were so heroically defended on this historic ground. [Great Applause]75
“New York Day” also witnessed the dedication of the completed Excelsior Brigade Monument. (The corner stone had been laid in 1888.) Sickles’ old brigade was finally receiving its own battlefield recognition, with the monument’s base consisting of plaques devoted to each regiment. Five columns support a dome, atop which sits a bronze eagle in a warlike pose. Between the five columns is an empty pedestal. Battlefield lore has long held that this empty pedestal was intended to house a Sickles statue, and the New York Times coverage of the ceremonies noted, “Within the inclosure [sic] formed by the five columns it is understood that a bronze bust of Gen. Sickles will be placed when he passes away.” A statue was never completed, and today the pedestal remains empty. Although it appears that there was no intention to place a monument there during Sickles’ lifetime, probably due to a general restriction prohibiting the honoring of living individuals, one of Gettysburg’s oldest battlefield traditions has it that Sickles’ expulsion from the monuments commission in 1913 prevented this statue from ever being placed.76