Customer Reviews

American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Keneally has offered us a roller coaster of a biography of one of the most controversial American figures of the 19th Century. Dan Sickles rose from Tammany Hall politics in New York through a London posting to Congress. While a representative his lovely, but often abandoned, wife Teresa became involved with the widower son of the composer of the Star Spangled Banner, America's national anthem. Ignoring this heritage, Sickles slew Barton Keys on a Washington Sunday in view of several witnesses. After a bizarre trial, in which the then novel plea of "temporary insanity" was invoked, Sickles left the courtroom free of guilt. Almost fortuitously, the onset of the War Between the States allowed Sickles to redeem whatever reputation he lost. As one of the Union's "political generals" Sickles proved to be a popular and capable leader. Gettysburg, that icon of American military history, proved his salvation or disgrace according to which account you follow. Did he risk another Union defeat by ignoring his superior's orders?

Keneally uses Teresa's lonely existence as the focal point of this biography. Although Sickles was hardly a paragon of virtue, Keneally is perplexed at his long-standing avoidance of Teresa. He muses over why Sickles kept separate habitation after the killing when Teresa clearly would have welcomed his return. Later, he mourns the lack of her presence at Sickles' various Army encampments when other generals had their wives visit, if for no other reason than troop morale. Meagher, a favourite of Keneally's, is held up in contrast. This Irish ex-convict's wife "Libby" graced the camp frequently. Libby, however, hadn't taken any lovers to arouse her husband's ire. Even after a thorough analysis of the mores of the times, Keneally can't forgive Dan Sickles failure to forgive.

This book is strangely structured. Keneally provides a long build-up to the murder, then dwells over the details of the trial. No particular is overlooked, from the courtroom temperature to the malodorous spectators. Forced to limit his description of one lawyer's two day long presentation to eight pages, Keneally manages to convey the role of oratory in the United States at mid-19th Century. Sickles' role as a general is well-presented, but is over-focussed. Sickles' ability to deal with Mary Lincoln is given more space than military engagements or the war environment. As a biography, there is some rationale for this, but the reader best consult some other works for a fuller picture. The post-war years, with Sickles postings to the Reconstruction South and his escapades in Europe slide past rapidly. His bizarre second marriage and later life could use some analysis, no matter how far-fetched, but Keneally simply rambles through the known information and leaves the reader to work out the motivations. At the end, he frankly states the book was written in honour of Teresa's memory. An unusual approach, but one likely to find favour with today's audience.

Keneally writes about Daniel Sickles in an engaging style that certainly captures the reader's attention. This reader must confess that he was, at times, guiltily amused by some of Sickle's exploits both amorous and political.
But the most successful biographies of controversial or notorious figures in history are those that provide the most perceptive insights into the motivations and emotions of the subject and in this task Keneally falls short. Without question Daniel Sickles was one of those occasional personalities who manage to glide through life under a lucky star and, according to Keneally, without an iota of shame. Keneally also makes it abundantly clear that that the morality of the era and the political situation in New York and the young United States facilitated Sickles' rise to prominence and notoriety. After reading passage after passage describing Sickles' exploits,however, one comes away with little real understanding of the man or his motivations. Given some of Sickles'seemingly contradictory actions, it is difficult to simply accept corruption or misplaced loyalty to Tammany Hall politics as the principle motivators of this man.
Several examples of the contradictory nature of the man appear throughout the book. Sickles' introduction of his prostitute-mistress to Queen Victoria of England is described as one of Sickles'early yet typical controversies. After reading of this gross breach of diplomatic protocol and good manners, the reader is almost forced to stop and ask "What on earth could have caused Sickles to do such a thing?" Even in this rambunctious period of US diplomacy, there might well have been serious ramifications to such an escapade. Yet, Keneally suggests that such was the charm of Daniel Sickles that Ambassador James Buchanan, the State Department, the President, and Her Majesty's Government more or less shrugged off the event as little more than a prank. Surely there was more to it than that and surely someone of Sickles' intelligence must have been aware of the great risk he was running, yet the book contains no real explanation as to why Sickles did what he did or why the US Government let him get away with it.
Keneally spends a great deal of ink describing Sickles' support for the construction of Central Park in New York City. Again, a controversial action because most of the people that Keneally would have the reader believe Sickles cultivated were actually opposed to the creation of a park. Yet, Keneally writes that Sickles persisted. Again, the reader is forced to ask why Sickles would confront a number of his own patrons. Again, no satisfying explanation from Keneally.
At Gettysburg,Sickles is numbingly heroic. This is not the usual behavior of "political generals" in that war. Why is Sickles different? Unfortunately, readers never really learn the answer to that question from this book.
An insightful biography that skillfully addresses Sickles' contradictions, impulses, and personality combined with an analysis of the social events of the time would be a very interesting study indeed. Unfortunately, this isn't that book.

The author appears to be more interested in General Stickes' first wife than with the General. Read his biography on any of the many web pages and you realize what an extraordinary person he was. The author devotes the greatest part of the book to the murder of Barton Key. Once past this eiposode, he seems to run out of material. Little mention is made of the relationship that the General must have had with the various Presidents that he served, the extended time he spent in Spain, or his second marriage. Better than waste your time reading this book search the internet for the General. Read the obituary and editorial of the NY Times at the time of his death to get a contemporary feeling as to the statue of this man.

American Scoundrel is the disappointing biography of Dan Sickles, one of the most controversial 19th Century Americans. Politician, soldier, philanderer, and murderer, Sickles deserves a biography that explores his inner-workings. This book also is missing some of Sickles' key acts, such as influencing the outcome of the "stolen" election of 1876 by urging the Republican leaders in key states to hold on until the election could be swung. Say what you will about Sickles as a person, but he was always in the thick of things even after his infamous murder of the son of Francis Scott Key. Unfortunately Thomas Keneally does not deliver a gripping account of a compelling man. Maybe it's impossible to capture why Sickles often risked such a brilliant career for physical gratification, or why a man who was such a magnetic presence for others did not have a moral compass of his own.

Dan Sickles, a Civil War-era New York politician, became notorious for shooting down the lover of his teenage wife in cold blood...and getting away with it (claiming it was justifiable). As a Union general, Sickles is famous for what is regarded by many as one of the most outrageous tactical errors of the Civil War: the advance down from Cemetary Ridge on the 2nd day of Gettysburg. Thomas Keneally's book is a lengthy--but not very invigorating or enlightening--biography of Sickles.

The story of Dan Sickles is a puzzle to many Civil War buffs, but this book does not shed much light on the mystery of why a fellow who by all accounts was a murderer, a highly corrupt politician, an incompetent general, and in the whole a sociopath, rose to such positions of responsibility.

So I read this book hoping to learn "how did such a maniac rise to so many positions of responsibility and power? Was he especially charming? intelligent? handsome? sneaky?" Although Thomas Keneally describes Sickles crises (especially his murder trial) in painful and fairly tedious detail, I never found my answer. Sickles appears to have had no redeeming features whatsoever.

Perhaps we should not judge Keneally too harshly for being unable to find the good sides to a sociopath. But perhaps we needn't read the book about him, either.

Dan Sickles, the notorious scoundrel of this book's title, appears to have gotten away with so many of his sins because he was colorful, resourceful, and charming. Unfortunately for the reader, the same cannot be said of Thomas Keneally's writing. Keneally tells us what a colorful character Sickles was, but never really shows us or makes us feel it. One is left with the thought that Sickles must have been a fascinating and complex man, and the hope that someone will someday write a decent biography of him that will truly capture those qualities.

Despite the fact that Sickles is best known as a Civil War general, this is not a book for Civil War buffs. Keneally's writing on the war is superficial at best, and sometimes nakedly erroneous. (He states more than once that Gen. Stonewall Jackson was shot dead at the Battle of Chancellosville, when of course, even a casual student of the war knows that the general only received a wound in the battle and lingered on for some time, dying of pneumonia while recovering from his wound.)

The intended audience of this book, which is reflected in the writing style as well as content, instead appears to be those who loved following the O.J. Simpson trial in the tabloids. The bulk of the book is devoted to Dan's amorous affairs, his young wife's affair, and his murder of his wife's lover and subsequent trail and acquittal. He writes extensively and floridly on these subjects, without managing much real illumination. I must admit that I was only able to make it through the endless trial material by resorting to skimming the text. However, if you are captivated by tabloids coverage of celebrity trials, this book may suit your tastes.

There were germs of interesting facts in this book. Sickles led a fascinating life, from his notorious service in the diplomatic corps, his machinations as a Tammany politician, his work to help create New York City's Central Park, and his controversial service as a Union general. For its outline of the fascinating facts of Dan Sickles' life, I give this book two stars, but because of its sadly disappointing execution, I cannot give it any more, and cannot recommend it.

Theo Logos

Keneally builds his book around two pivotal events in Dan Sickles' life; his muder of Barton Key, his wife's lover, in 1859, and his generalship on the second day at the Battle of Gettysburg. The description of the trial, and its cast of characters, was well written and engaging. The story of Gettysburg, and Sickles' career throughout the Civil War, is marred by many errors of fact that a competent editor should have caught. To mention two, during the Confederate attack on May 2 at Chancellorsville, Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded. He was not killed, as Keneally states in two different places in his text. Second, Hancock's role during the evening of the first day at Gettysburg disappears from sight in Keneally's telling. There is only O.O. Howard, and Dan Sickles' determination to fight at Gettysburg, on display in Keneally's text. I'll leave aside the controversy concerning Sickles' action on the afternoon of July 2, a controversy on which, amazingly, Keneally takes no position.

I enjoyed the first two-thirds of the book, particularly the material on political life in New York City and the trial, but found the Civil War material poorly done. It seemed to me, from the cursory job Keneally did with the last fifty years of Sickles' life, that he tired of his subject, and failed to give us much insight into this complex character.

Read this biography and decide which still-in-the-news contemporary politician Dan Sickles most reminds you of (hint: like Dan, now a New Yorker). The personal traits they share are amazing.

Here is why you should be fascinated by a biography of Dan Sickles. He was a hard core practitioner of Tammany Hall politics and mastered that machine in the 1850's. He deserves at least some credit for forming New York's Central Park through is expert lobbying and deal making. He was a Congressman and a prime example of the type of northern Democrat who was willing to support the South on slavery for the sake of keeping them in the Democrat Party. He was a notorious woman-izer who traveled with a prostitute to England on a diplomatic mission and presented her to the Queen as his wife. He was a great friend and supporter of President Buchanan. He shot and killed the son of Francis Scott Key (yes, that Francis Scott Key), in front of the White House when he learned that Key's son had been carrying on a torrid affair with his wife. His legal team included Edwin Stanton (later Lincoln's able Sec. of War) and used the first ever argument of temporary insanity to win Sickles an acquittal in the slaying. With secession, Sickles became a relentless advocate for a hard war and supporter of Lincoln. He helped raise a brigade and became a general. At Gettysburg, Sickles defied orders and moved his entire corps out in front of the Union line giving history the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield and an almost disastrous outcome on Day 2 of the battle. In that battle, Sickles had his leg shot off by a cannonball. He saved the leg, it was sent to the medical military museum in Washington (where you can still visit it today) and used to visit it regularly. He participated in séances with Mary Lincoln. After the war he was a military governor (apparently quite good and fair) of South Carolina and North Carolina. A sometime-diplomat, he married a Spanish woman after carrying on an affair with the deposed queen of Spain. He became great friends with Longstreet as they banded together to defend their miscues at Gettysburg. Head of the New York Monuments Commission, he helped spur the building of grand monuments at Gettysburg Battlefield and arguably helped convince the US Government that it ought to take over and preserve the battlefield as a park. Reelected to Congress for a single term several decades after the Civil War, he found times had changed politically. Still Tammany till the end, he was arrested in his nineties because the accounts of the New York Monuments Commission were some $27,000 short, money which he apparently pocketed.

You can't make this stuff up. Its all true and should be the foundation for a great book (and a couple of great movies). Unfortunately, the killing of Barton Key and his acquittal on temporary insanity overwhelms the book. Or, more correctly, the plight of his wife Teresa overwhelms the book. Every chapter returns to his wife and Sickles' complete boorishness toward her before he found out she was cheating and complete unwillingness to let his still wife share his life at all after the murder. It is a great episode in Sickles life and it stained him for a brief time until the Civil War and Sickles incredibly strong and charming personality removed that stain from his life's adventures.

But the reader is treated to repetitive and numbing descriptions of his suffering wife Teresa's domestic situation and habits throughout the book. She plainly receded in Sickles' life after the Civil War but doesn't recede in this book's telling of those chapters. Instead, she intrudes again and again to repeatedly make the author's point that she was cruelly ignored and wanted back into her husband's world. So much so that this book perhaps should have been titled "The Story of Dan and Teresa Sickles" (or maybe "The Story of Teresa and Dan Sickles"). The author's unwillingness to let go of her long after she has ceased to be a factor in Sickle's life really interferes with this book.

There were also a few historical mistakes, like placing Senator Ira Harris in Lincoln's box at the assassination (it was his daughter, Clara, who was the fiancé of Major Rathbone) and having South Carolina secede in January of 1861 instead of December of 1860. These would probably only be picked up by Civil War buffs (arguably the audience which would read this because of Sickle's infamous Gettysburg excursion) but call into question the author's command of the facts.

Dan Sickles is a very interesting subject for a biography. Disappointingly, the author blows what could have been a fascinating and rollicking bio with a long treatise basically dedicated to rehabilitating Sickles' wife Teresa, a woman who undoubtedly suffered because of the double standards of the time and who unfairly had her life severely constrained because of the actions and attitude of her husband Dan Sickles. But come on, we get the point. For example, I did not know Sickles had been military governor of South Carolina (with North Carolina later added to his administration) after the war. He appears to have been quite fair and just and to have protected the new freedmen from harassment. The book doesn't plumb this enough. We get some of the information but are treated to poor Teresa's lack of an invitation to join Dan Sickles in Charleston where she could reign as the General's wife over Carolinian society. The author really let his evident sympathy for Teresa overwhelm the all too fascinating portrait of a man rightly called "American Scoundrel."

Interesting in parts, but broken-up with digressions on Teresa. A deserved three stars.

This book reads like there is an invisible "and then" beginning each sentence. If it were the chronological outline for the actual book, I would say good job; but as a published biography, it is almost unreadable. The fact that I slog (and skim) on is purely testament to the fascinating Sickles and despite the author's inane ruminations as to what Teresa might be doing, or the childish segues ("... speaking of humidity...") which frequently, in the space of a single paragraph, sling the reader from Gettysburg to DC to NYC with only the most contrived and nonsensical connection.
Someone should write a book about this guy. Sickles that is.

Any students of the civil war and especially of Gettysburg will not only recognize the name of Dan Sickles but will probably already have a strong opinion about the man. Did he almost cause disaster for the Union at Gettysburg or did he save the day? That is a question that will probably be argued for the next one hundred and forty years just as it has been for the last one hundred and forty years. This book will not help the reader to decide that question, nor will it give much in the way of details about any of the battles General Sickles was involved in. This is a biography that does not dwell on the aspects of the General's life that have been detailed over and over by other authors, but instead searches for what made Dan Sickles tick.

There are indeed some historical inaccuracies to be found in this book. As mentioned by other reviewers, Stonewall Jackson did not die on the battlefield at Chancellorsville and it is unlikely that Mr. Keneally's remarks about James Longstreet's actions on July 2, 1863 show any real understanding of the reality on the Confederate side of the battlefield on that hot summer day. Still, I tend to attribute that to the author concentrating on his subject and just more or less casting a glancing blow toward a subject he didn't take the time to research. On the topic of Dan Sickles the author seems to be right on target.

Indeed, the author does spend a lot of time discussing Sickles' relationship with his first wife and of course on the killing of Barton Key. But to really understand Dan Sickles, one has to understand his relationships with women and his reaction to the affair his wife was having. Read carefully through these pages and you will start to understand the man and his motives. In discovering his wife's affair his pride seems to have been more wounded than his affection for his wife. He indeed seems to have realized very early that his very promising political career was ruined and one gets the distinct feeling that the loss of his power and prestige was the real cause for his murderous fury. He had very little of a relationship with his wife before the murder and soon after his trial things were pretty much back to normal. He simply was not good husband material, period.

The driving force behind Dan Sickles was ambition for power and glory. Money meant little to the man and he was always in debt as he squandered the money he had in order to appear more affluent than he was. Still, he had some highly redeeming qualities. He was a mover behind the establishment of Central Park and the preservation of our battlefields. Much of his money was spent giving handouts to destitute veterans who came to him asking for help and he seems to have mastered almost any task he took on. One telling story is of Champ Clark's young son who roamed freely around the House chamber during Dan's last term in Congress. The young boy spent a lot of time on the old General's lap and always came away with his pockets filled with candy or other such treats. Dan Sickles had a good side and this book brings that out.

Basically, this is a very well written book that in spite of its faults helps the reader to come to know General Dan Sickles. After reading this book one will more clearly understand all of his actions, including those actions on that fateful July afternoon in Pennsylvania.