Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 29, 1992 TAG: 9203290248
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: E-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by ROBERT HILLDRUP
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Given the current problems of Congress - a group that Mark Twain labeled as America's only native criminal class - the title of Nat Brandt's new book hardly commands a second glance.
But the murder herein described is exactly that - the premeditated shooting of a United States district attorney in the presence of a dozen witnesses on a Washington street.
The time is February 1859. Philip Barton Key, the district attorney for the District of Columbia, already has a measure of fame - his father was the author of "The Star-Spangled Banner." But Key, a ladies' man, has taken a fancy to Teresa Sickles, the young wife of New York Congressman Dan Sickles, and so brazen has their affair become that everyone in town but the husband seems to know.
When Sickles does find out at last, he tracks Key down and kills him in broad daylight almost across the street from the White House.
Nat Brandt creates this page from history in an absolutely fascinating way. The killing, rather than destroying Sickles, enhances his reputation - at least for a time - for a jury finds him not guilty, using the new concept of temporary insanity. But then Sickles forgives his wife and takes her back, and public opinion turns against him.
Only the Civil War gives Sickles a chance to save his reputation, and he makes the most of it. Sickles and his men hold the Union left in the Peach Orchard at Gettysburg and, in a sense, help guarantee the failure of Pickett's charge later in the battle. Sickles - who loses a leg in the war, then has it preserved at the Smithsonian and makes a habit of visiting it regularly - is himself as much a scoundrel as Key.
Nat Brandt has made a habit of taking segments of American history, particularly those surrounding the Civil War, and turning them into popular, highly readable books. This one is no exception.
Robert Hilldrup is a Richmond writer and former newspaperman.
by CNB