Gen. Daniel Sickles’ 3rd Corps Headquarters Marker

Description

Sculpted by Gary Casteel
Size:  5” x 5” x 11”
Weight:  1.95lbs
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
No individual who fought at Gettysburg was more controversial, both personally and professionally, than Major General Daniel E. Sickles.  By 1863, Sickles was notorious as a disgraced former Congressman who murdered his wife’s lover on the streets of Washington and used America’s first temporary insanity defense to escape justice.  With his political career in ruins, Sickles used his connections with President Lincoln to obtain a prominent command in the Army of the Potomac’s Third Corps, despite having no military experience.  At Gettysburg, he openly disobeyed orders in one of the most controversial decisions in military history.
On July 2, 1863, Major General George G. Meade ordered Sickles’ corps to take up defensive positions on the southern end of Cemetery Ridge and to cover the Round Tops on the Union left flank, instead he moved his men to the Peach Orchard.  The result was that the Third Corps was overrun and driven from the field.  During the height of the Confederate attack, Sickles was hit in the right leg be a cannonball and his leg was amputated later that afternoon.  Despite this fiasco Sickles was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg.  The citation states that he, "displayed most conspicuous gallantry on the field vigorously contesting the advance of the enemy and continuing to encourage his troops after being himself severely wounded."
After the surgery, Sickles gained lasting fame for donating his amputated limb to the Army Medical Museum in Washington, DC.  The limb was received with a small card which said, "With the Compliments of Major General D.E.S."  The Army Medical Museum, now part of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, has kept Sickles' amputated limb on display.
His career was seemingly over once again, yet the loss of his leg was arguably one of his greatest career moves.  He would survive for another fifty years portraying himself as the one-legged hero of Gettysburg, attending battlefield reunions and veteran gatherings with a crutch and missing leg as a permanent reminder of his sacrifice.  Mark Twain met Sickles in later years and drew the astute observation that Sickles “valued the leg he lost more than the one he’s got” and “I’m sure if he had to part with one, he would prefer to lose the one he still has.”
Although he nearly lost the battle, Sickles was one of the earliest guardians of the Battlefield when he returned to Congress, creating the Gettysburg National Military Park and helping to preserve the field for future generations.
This monument was dedicated in June of 1913 and is located across from the Trostle farm on United States Avenue.
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