Daniel Ephraim Sickles, an American general, born in New York, Oct. 20, 1822. He studied at the university of New York, but did not graduate, and was admitted to the bar in 1844. In 1847 he was elected to the state legislature, and in 1853 was appointed corporation attorney in New York city. In the latter year he accompanied Mr. Buchanan to England as secretary of legation. He was elected to the state senate in 1855 and to congress in 1856, and reelected to the latter in 1858 and 1860. In 1859 he shot Philip Barton Key in Washington for an intrigue with his wife, and was tried for murder, but acquitted. On the outbreak of the civil war in 1861 he raised the Excelsior brigade in New York, and was commissioned colonel. In September his nomination as a brigadier general of volunteers was rejected by the senate, but on its renewal was confirmed; and in the battles of the Chickahominy campaign he commanded a brigade of Hooker's division of the 3d corps. He succeeded Hooker in the command of his division, which he led in the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg. He was commissioned a major general of volunteers Nov. 29, 1862, and commanded the 3d corps at Chancellorsville, May 2-4, 1863, and at Gettysburg, July 2, where he lost a leg.

He was appointed colonel of the 42d infantry regiment of the regular army, July 28, 1866, and was commander of the second military district (North and South Carolina) till Aug. 26, 1867. In 1869 he was appointed minister to Spain, which office he resigned in 1874. He married a Spanish lady as his second wife.