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Edgar Allen Poe was a brilliant, troubled writer who called Baltimore, Maryland, home. He is credited with introducing the modern detective story genre to American readers. His forte was mystery and the macabre.
Baltimore is one of this country’s original harbor cities. It’s where in 1814 Francis Scott Key was a U.S. Emissary, meeting under a white flag with the enemy, but later held captive on his own ship and witnessed an incredible 25-hour bombardment of Ft. McHenry by the British Navy. Seeing the stars and stripes still flying the next morning over the Fort gave Key the inspiration to write the poem that later became our nation's national anthem.
The span bridge over the entrance to Baltimore harbor that was rammed last March by a container ship and brought down was named after Francis Scott Key.
History is full of bizarre connections and here’s one of my favorites; OK follow this!
Union Major General Daniel L. Sickles is one of my least favorite Civil War Generals or for that matter person in U.S. history. I’m almost sorry to say we share a birthday.
Born into a wealthy, politically connected family he had influential “friends” throughout his life.
During the war, having received a political commission, General Sickles found himself commanding 3rd Corps at the Battle of Gettysburg. He and his 10,400 men were at the southern end of the famous Union fish hook defensive line.
Seeing a little higher ground, the Peach Orchard, a couple hundred yards out, he decides, without orders, to move his troops. Big mistake, Sickles stuck out like a sore thumb. After hours of ground assaults and artillery fire, 3rd Corps was decimated with a 40% casualty rate.
The General lost his leg in the fight and exited the field on a stretcher smoking a cigar. He had his crushed, amputated appendage eerily preserved where it’s still on display at the National Museum of Health and Education. Sickles was known for routinely visiting his leg, often bringing famous guests including Mark Twain.
The man was an egotistical womanizer. Wherever this scoundrel traveled, he left unpaid bills, broken romances and political scandals. He was reprimanded early in his political career for bringing a prostitute onto the floor of the New York State Senate.
He received his military commission from fellow womanizer Major General Joseph Hooker. Now you know where “ladies of the evening,” got their nickname.
Before the war, at 32 years old, Sickles got Teressa Bagioli, a friend's 15-year-old daughter pregnant. Despite having neither family's support, they married. Sickles didn’t miss a beat though. While she stayed at home in Washington, D.C. where they threw occasional lavish galas, he continued on his carousing ways. This was the mid-1850s.
Years later Teressa, tired of Sickle's antics, had a very public affair with a man more her own age, who happened to be the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. At some point, then Congressman Sickles found out and was mortified. Sickles stalked the U.S. attorney, finding him in Lafayette Park just across the street from the White House. Without hesitation in broad daylight, he shoots his wife’s lover in the groin. The unarmed attorney, now in agony, begged for his life but without conscience Sickles walked up and unloaded a fatal blast in his chest killing him. The dead man’s name was...wait for it…Phillip Key, Francis Scott Key’s oldest son.
Sickles turns himself in and confesses to the murder. In what turned out to be a stroke of genius with future Secretary of War Edward Stanton as his lawyer, he used for the first time in U.S. legal history the defense of temporary insanity, and it worked; he was acquitted!
Then he shocks the Washington D.C. Victorian establishment by forgiving his wife. People weren’t so upset with that first-degree murder thing, as they were with Sickles forgiving his wife, a “fallen woman.”
Dan Sickles wasn’t through after the calamity on the battlefield. Years later somehow, he received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg. It's nice to have friends.
He then accepted an appointment to serve as the U.S. Minister to Spain only to turn on his charm again and have an affair with the deposed Queen Isebella II, all while on crutches.
Sickles would go back to Gettysburg for reunions frequently to defend his move and raise money for his 3rd Corps monument. He chaired the committee and raised $115,000, but when time came to commission the work, $28,000 was missing; gee, where do you think that went? He was fired from the committee. Sickles is the only Union Corps Commander at Gettysburg that does not have a statue. Of course, our man Dan would say, that’s all right, “this whole battlefield is my memorial.”
When Art Modell got permission from the NFL to move his Cleveland Football team to Baltimore, they needed a new nickname. The old Baltimore Colts team left in 1984, tearfully in the middle of the night heading to Indianapolis. The team would not relinquish the Colts name back to Baltimore because I guess there are too many horses running around Indiana. Whereas, of course, the Preakness is run annually in Baltimore.
The team conducted a fan call-in contest where 33,000 votes were cast for honoring their favorite son Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “The Raven.” It's now one of my favorite odd mascot names. The Baltimore Ravens is right behind the Burlington Sock Puppets, Carolina Disco Turkeys and the Lansing Lug Nuts.
Baltimore is full of important stories and connections about our country and history is full of characters like Dan Sickles who was one of the most egomaniacs I’ve ever found, but people like Dan is why studying history is so fascinating. You never know what you will come across. Facts are truly greater than fiction.
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You can find more of Bob’s work including Bob Ford’s History, Mystery and Lore podcast on the website bobfordshistory.com and on YouTube. You can reach him at robertmford@aol.com .
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