Gettysburg Union general’s revolver, cane, brigade sword up for auction this weekend
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To call Gen. Daniel Sickles a colorful character might be selling his story a little short.
From his political education in New York’s massively corrupt Tammany Hall to his affair with Queen Isabella of Spain to his attempted murder of his wife’s lover — who also happened to be the son of “Star Spangled Banner” composer Francis Scott Keys — mere yards away from the White House, Sickles’ life is chronicled in author Thomas Keneally’s early-2000s biography, “American Scoundrel.”
Several items owned by Sickles will be up for auction Friday through Sunday at the Rock Island Auction Co..
It is his time as a general during the Civil War’s Battle of Gettysburg that typically gets the most attention.
Sickles is best known for his controversial actions as commander of the III Corps at Gettysburg. On July 2, 1863, Keneally writes that Sickles openly defied orders and moved his men ahead of the rest of the Union army lines, where they were decimated by a Confederate attack.
Sickles was awarded the Medal of Honor, and for the rest of his life insisted that his decision was not only right, but also helped the Union win the battle, a position forcefully disputed by the Union commander, Gen. George Meade.
Three pieces of his personal collection — an 1855 Colt Model pocket revolver, a Civil War presentation cane and Sickles’ Tiffany & Co. Excelsior brigade sword — will be part of Rock Island’s final “Premier Firearms Auction” event of the year.
The revolver was manufactured in 1867, the same year Sickles’s wife died, and features scroll engraving without punched backgrounds as became common on the late percussion era Colts. The back strap is inscribed “To David E. Sickles/From Colt’s Pt F A Mfg Co.” The checkered grip features a “DES” monogram on the left. The barrel has a brass post front sight and the two-line New York address. The cylinder has the stagecoach roll-scene and the arbor pin retaining screw. Matching serial numbers are on the barrel, cylinder, and butt.
One of the most interesting items in the revolver lot is a piece of wood labeled “Bark From the Tree Where Gen. Sickles Shot Keyes (sic) in Washington By W.H. Womans.”
It is certainly not as interesting as the random, wild details of his life, which also include an affair with notorious prostitute Fanny White, whom Sickles brought to a British royal reception at Buckingham Palace, purportedly introducing her to Queen Victoria as “Miss Julia Bennett.” During the Battle of Gettysburg, he also lost a leg to cannonball fire.
For more, or to place a bid, see RockIslandAuction.com.