SICKLES, Daniel Edgar, soldier, born in New York city, 20 October, 1823. He was educated at the University of the city of New York, but left to learn the printer's trade, which he followed for several years. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1844, and began practice in New York city. In 1847 he was elected to the legislature, in which body he took rank as a leader of the Democrats. In 1853 he was appointed corporation counsel of New York city, and on 30 July of the same year he was commissioned as secretary of legation at London, and accompanied James Buchanan to England. He returned in 1855, was elected, after an energetic canvass, to the state senate in the autumn, and a year later was chosen a member of congress, taking his seat on 7 December, 1857. Discovering a guilty intimacy between his wife, who was the daughter of Antonio Bagioli, and Philip Barton Key, United States attorney for the District of Columbia, he shot the latter in the street on 27 February, 1859. He was in-dieted for murder, and after a trial of twenty days was acquitted. He had been elected for a second term in 1858, and served till 3 March, 1861. At the beginning of the civil war he raised the Excelsior brigade of United States volunteers in New York city, and was commissioned by the president as colonel of one of the five regiments. On 3 September, 1861, the president nominated him brigadier-general of volunteers. The senate rejected his name in March, 1862, but confirmed a second nomination. He commanded a brigade under General Joseph Hooker, and gained distinction at Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, and Malvern Hill. His brigade saw severe service in the seven days' fight before Richmond and in the Maryland campaign, and bore a conspicuous part at Antietam. He succeeded General Hooker in the command of the division, and was engaged at Fredericksburg. On the reorganization of the Army of the Potomac he was assigned to the command of the 3d army corps, and was appointed major-general on 7 March, 1863, his commission dating from 29 November, 1862. At Chancellorsville he displayed gallantry and energy, gaining the first success of the day by cutting off an ammunition-train of the enemy, arresting a general panic by rallying the retreating artillery, and withstanding the force of Stonewall Jackson's attack with determination after the line was formed. At Gettysburg his corps was posted between Cemetery hill and Little Round Top. He advanced to an elevation which he thought desirable to hold, and in this position was assailed by General James Longstreet's column, while General John B. Hood endeavored to gain the unoccupied slope of Little Round Top. In the desperate struggle that followed, the 3d corps effectively aided in preserving that important position from the enemy, but was shattered by the onset of overwhelming numbers. After the line was broken, General Ambrose P. Hill followed the Confederate advantage with an attack on Sickles's right, during which General Sickles lost a leg. He continued in active service till in the beginning of 1865, and was then sent on a confidential mission to Colombia, and other South American countries. On 28 July, 1866, he joined the regular army as colonel of the 42d infantry. On 2 March, 1867, he was brevetted brigadier-general for bravery at Fredericksburg, and major-general for gallant and meritorious service at Gettysburg. He commanded the military district of the Carolinas in 1865-'7, and carried out the work of reconstruction so energetically that President Johnson relieved him from his command, after first offering him the mission to the Netherlands, which he declined. He was mustered out of the volunteer service on 1 January, 1868, and on 14 April, 1869, was placed on the retired list of the United States army with the full rank of major-general. He was active in promoting the candidacy of General Ulysses S. Grant for the presidency, and on 15 May, 1869, was appointed minister to Spain. He relinquished this post on 20 March, 1873, and resumed his residence in New York city. He is president of the New York state board of civil service commissioners, and likewise of the board of commissioners for the erection of New York monuments at Gettysburg.