MAJOR GENERAL DANIEL E. SICKLES - MANUSCRIPT LETTER SIGNED 02/17/1863 - HFSID 253395

MAJOR GENERAL DANIEL E. SICKLES
1863 letter signed by the Major General, regarding problems with commissioning officers from New York State
Manuscript letter signed "D. Sickles/Brig Genl/Comd", 4 pages (1 sheet folded, front and verso), 7¾x9½. Near Falmouth, Virginia, February 17, 1863. Addressed to Brigadier General J.T. Sprague (John Titcomb Sprague), State of New York. In part: "Some time since the enclosed recommendation (sic) for promotions and appoint-ments in the 71st Regt. N.Y. Vol. (Excelsior Brigade) were submitted to me for approval… I am informed that upon direct application, commissions have been issued to the nominees… These latter appointments I would not have recommended (sic), and I am sure the Governor would not have sanctioned them if he had not been correctly advised of the best interests of the Regiment. In the last year of Gov.r. Morgan's term, it was stipulated that all recommendations for Commissions in the General Regiments of the Excelsior Brigade…should originate with the Colonels of the respective Regiments and when approved by me, should be forwarded to the Adjutant General for commissions. I hope it may be agreeable to Gov. Seymour to adhere to this arrangement, which I am satisfied is for the good of the service. At Albany you cannot be correctly and reliably informed of the claims and qualifications of Officers recommended (sic) for promotion except upon the report of commanding Officers in the field…Believing that the appointments to which I have alluded, have been im-providently made, these officers will not, be mustered or assigned to duty according to their new Commissions until the further pleasure of the Governor is known…."  Just five months before he lost his right leg as a Major General at Gettysburg, Sickles, who raised troops in New York for the War, writes to Sprague about the mustering and disbursing of officers at Albany and about the Adjutant-General of the State. Daniel E. Sickles (1819-1914), born in New York City, had gained notoriety before the Civil War when he shot Philip Barton Key, the son of Francis Scott Key, because he believed Key and his wife were lovers. (Sickles was tried for murder but acquitted, the first successful "temporary insanity" defense in U.S. history.) During the American Civil War, he rose from colonel to major general in command of a brigade at Gettysburg, Sickles, thinking that his position was vulnerable, moved his 3rd Corps from Cemetery Ridge to the battlefield's Peach Orchard without orders. His action drew criticism, but he was later credited with staving off disaster by blocking a surprise attack led by General James Longstreet against the Union Army's left flank at Little Round Top. Sickles lost a leg in the fighting, but won the respect of General Winfield Scott Hancock, in command at Little Round Top. Sickles' brigade, however, had the fifth most killed and wounded of all brigades in the war. He represented New York in the U.S. Congress (1857-1861, 1893-1895) and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1897. Lightly toned. Small crease in lower right corner. Page has been folded in six; arrives folded in half. Slight separation at edges at horizontal folds. Light fold touches Sickles' signature. Lightly shaded at fold. Otherwise, fine condition.