George Sykes
Union General during the American Civil War (1822-1880)
George Sykes (October 9, 1822 – February 8, 1880) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general during the American Civil War.
He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1842, then served in numerous conflicts, including the Second Seminole War and the Mexican–American War. During the Civil War, he was appointed commander of the 2nd Division of the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, and continued in that role through the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, and the Battle of Chancellorsville.
Sykes assumed command of the V Corps on June 28, 1863, after Major General George G. Meade was promoted to command the entire army. Sykes's Corps fought with distinction on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2. He was relieved from command for medical reasons on March 23, 1864, and sent to duty in Kansas. Sykes remained in the army after the war and died in 1880.
Early life
Sykes was born in Dover, Delaware. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1842 and graduated 39th out of 56 cadets. It was during his time as cadet that he acquired the nicknames "Tardy George" and "Slow Trot" Sykes.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “George Sykes” as union General during the American Civil War (1822-1880). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as union General during the American Civil War (1822-1880). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q945728. VIAF identifies the subject as 65574631. The Library of Congress control number is n88254309. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1822, 1880, 1842 and 1862.
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This entry incorporates text from “George Sykes” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.