Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in to episode 344 of our Civil War podcast.

I'm Rich.

And I'm Tracy.

Hello y'all.

Welcome to the podcast.

As you guys already call, we use the last episode to start to look at the life story of

Daniel Edgar Sickles.

One thing we didn't mention in the last show is that when Sickles left New York with the

first units of the Excelsior Brigade, he had left the friend with whom he'd recruited

the regiments.

One William Wiley stuck with the bill for housing, feeding, and supplying the men.

Wiley said the bill totaled over $280,000.

And he would later complain bitterly that Sickles had, quote, marched off with three regiments

and paraded them before Lincoln and said he had done all of this out of his own pocket.

There were piles of judgments against him in the offices.

He left me in the lurch.

I left him on account of it, denounced him then, and have done so since.

End quote.

Well, so there you go.

At any rate by the end of the last episode, Sickles was done schmoozing in Washington, had

his coveted Brigadier General Star and was finally actually heading off to war.

We've talked before on the podcast about political generals, but we know some folks may be joining

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