MAJOR GENERAL DANIEL E. SICKLES - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 11/08/1910 - HFSID 22198

MAJOR GENERAL DANIEL E. SICKLES
1910 typed letter, signed by the Medal of Honor recipient, regarding an upcoming speech on the Battle of Chancellorsville
Typed letter signed: "D.E.Sickles". 1 page, 7¾x10, typed in purple ink. New York, New York, Nov. 8, 1910. Addressed to General T. R. Matthews, 88 Broad Street, Boston, Massachusetts. In full: "Dear General Matthews:- I am in receipt of your favor of yesterday. Replying to your inquiry about my address, to be made at the banquet of the Hooker Association on the evening of the 29th instant, I very seldom prepare a written speech for such occasions. All, or nearly all, of my public addresses have been made extemporaneously. I will endeavor, however, in the preparation of my address for the evening of the 29th instant, to write out the principal propositions which I shall maintain in regard to Hooker, and especially about the Battle of Chancellorsville, so that you may give the substance of my argument to the Associated Press. I will endeavor to have this portion of my address finished on the morning of the 29th, so that it may be put in type during the day, and therefore in good season for the papers of the following day. I wish very much that we could have your pleas-ant company on our trip to Chattanooga. The occasion will be a very interesting one. The monument to be dedicated is one of the most im-posing and attractive in this country; it cost about $100,000.00. When we have a photograph made of it, I shall have much pleasure in send-ing you a copy. Sincerely yours, Major-Gen'l U.S. Army, Retired". General Joseph Hooker was a Union general who was outmaneuvered and defeated by General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville. The loss cost the Union army 17,000 men. Hooker promoted Sickles to command the Union's III Corps, even though he wasn't a professional soldier or West Point graduate, and commanded troops at Chancellorsville. Sickles' aggression during that battle left him isolated, and at least one historian, XI Corps historian Augustus Choate Hamlin, blamed Sickles for the loss at Chancellorsville.Daniel E. Sickles (1825-1914) 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 and creased. Page has been folded in quarters and unfolded. Type touches signature. Otherwise, fine condition.