On this day in 1859 New York Congressman Daniel Sickles was acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity. This would be the first time that this defense would be successful in the United States. He had killed his wife’s lover-Philip Barton Key II- the son of Francis Scott Key.

Daniel Sickles would go on to be a general in the American Civil War. His actions at Gettysburg would be infamous and he would also lose his leg at Gettysburg, putting him out of the war. He was quite a character. There are a couple books out about him the best being “Sickles The Incredible” by W.A. Swanberg. Sickles would also be responsible for saving the battlefield at Gettysburg and it becoming a National Military Park. When asked once why there wasn’t a memorial to him at Gettysburg, he replied “The entire battlefield is a memorial to Daniel Sickles.”