With Compliments of Major General Daniel Sickles,Daniel Sickles was one of the most colorful persona

With Compliments of Major General Daniel Sickles,Daniel Sickles was one of the most colorful personalities of mid 19th century America. A congressman and lawyer, he was a Tammany Hall politician known for graft and corruption. He was also notorious for heavy drinking, gambling, and consorting with ladies of ill repute. In 1856, he shot and killed a man who had been discovered having an affair with his wife. He would become the first person in history to use the temporary insanity defense, and was acquitted.At the start of the American Civil War he was granted an officers commission with the rank of Colonel, later rising up the chain of command to the rank of Major General. Despite his quick promotions, Sickles was not the sort of man competent to lead men into combat. On the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the Union Army was fortifying the steep hill known as Little Round Top. Disobeying direct orders, Gen. Sickles foolishly decided that it would be better for his corps to fortify the ridges of “the Peach Orchard” instead. Alone and separated from the rest of the Union Army, Sickles corps was quickly surrounded and obliterated by the Confederate Army.In the midst of the fighting a large piece of grapeshot struck him in the leg, shattering his tibia and fibula. His leg was amputated and he was sent to Washington D.C. for recovery (also because he wanted to spread his exaggerated story of the battle to the public). Sickles had known beforehand that the newly created Army Medical Museum was looking to acquire specimens. He had the bones of his amputated leg preserved and shipped to the museum in a coffin shaped box labeled, “With the compliments of Major Gen. D.E.S.” Sickles was very fond of his missing appendage, often visiting the leg over the years, and occasionally removing it from the museum to show to friends, family, and colleagues. Indeed it was his most prized possession, once remarking that he would rather lose his other good leg than lose his macabre war relic.After the war Sickles would resume his career as a corrupt politician, only being ousted from public service after having been caught embezzling $27,000 from the NYC Monuments Commission. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg, and died in 1914 at the age of 94. He currently resides at Arlington National Cemetery.The rest of his body is currently on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine at Silver Spring, Maryland. -- source link

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