Philip Sheridan

Philip Henry Sheridan (March 6, 1831 – August 5, 1888) was a career U.S. Army officer and one of the great generals in the American Civil War. His actions proved decisive for the Union. He also prosecuted the latter years of the Indian Wars of the Great Plains. Both as a soldier and private citizen he was instrumental in the development and protection of Yellowstone National Park.

Early life

Sheridan was born in Albany, New YorkEicher, p. 482. Albany was his most likely birthplace and was claimed by him, but alternative accounts include: Somerset, Ohio, on September 6 1831; onboard a ship sailing to New York from County Cavan, Ireland; Boston, Massachusetts, to John and Mary Sheridan, immigrants from the parish of Killinkere, County Cavan, Ireland. He grew up in Somerset, Ohio. Fully grown, he reached only 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) tall.

In 1848, a family friend obtained an appointment for him at the U.S. Military Academy. In his third year he was suspended for a year for fighting with a classmate. The previous day Sheridan had threatened to run him through with a bayonet in reaction to a perceived insult. He graduated 34th in his class, near the bottom, in 1853.

Sheridan was commissioned as a second lieutenant and was assigned to the 1st U.S. Infantry Regiment at Fort Duncan, Texas, then to the 4th U.S. Infantry in the Pacific Northwest. There he performed duty at the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation in Yamhill County, Oregon.

A month later he commanded his first forces in combat. At the Battle of Boonville, July 1, 1862, he held back several regiments of General James R. Chalmers's Confederate cavalry. His actions so impressed his commanders that they promoted him to brigadier general and assigned him command of the 11th Division, III Corps, Army of the Ohio. It was just after Boonville that one of his fellow officers gave him the horse, which he named Rienzi, that he would ride throughout the war.

On October 8, 1862, Sheridan again distinguished himself during the Battle of Perryville. He pushed two Arkansas brigades across Bull Run but was ordered back by III Corps commander, Major General Charles Gilbert. Both sides suffered heavy casualties.

On December 31, 1862, the first day of the Battle of Stones River, Sheridan held back the Confederate advance until his ammunition ran out and he was forced to withdraw. For his actions he was promoted to major general and given command of the 2nd Division, IV Corps, Army of the Cumberland. In six months he had risen from captain to major general.

At the Battle of Chickamauga, September 19–20, 1863, Sheridan, along with the rest of the army was forced to withdraw after two days of heavy losses.

During the Siege of Chattanooga, at the Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863, Sheridan took the initiative and broke through the Confederate lines. General Ulysses S. Grant, newly promoted to be general-in-chief of all the Union armies, decided he wanted Sheridan when he went east. In March 1864, Grant assigned him to command the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac.

During the Overland Campaign, Sheridan fought at the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5–7, 1864) and Spotsylvania Court House (May 8–21, 1864). His superior, Army of the Potomac commander George G. Meade reprimanded Sheridan for not performing his duties (screening and reconnaissance) as ordered. Sheridan was frustrated at this restriction and went directly to Meade's superior, General Grant, recommending that his corps be assigned to strategic raiding missions. Grant agreed, and from May 9 through May 24, 1864, sent him on a raid toward Richmond, directly challenging the Confederate cavalry. The raid was less successful than hoped, although his soldiers managed to kill Confederate cavalry commander General J.E.B. Stuart at Yellow Tavern (May 11, 1864). Rejoining the Army of the Potomac, Sheridan's cavalry excelled at Haw's Shop (May 28, 1864). Sheridan seized the critical crossroads that triggered the Battle of Cold Harbor (June 1–12, 1864) and withstood a number of assaults until reinforced.

Army of the Shenandoah

Throughout the war, the Confederacy sent armies out of Virginia through the Shenandoah Valley to invade Maryland and Pennsylvania and threaten Washington, D.C. General Jubal A. Early, following the same pattern in the Valley Campaigns of 1864, attacked Union forces near Washington and raided several towns in Pennsylvania. In August 1864, General Grant organized the Middle Military Division, whose field troops were known as the Army of the Shenandoah. He put Sheridan in charge to drive Early out of the Valley and close it as a route to Washington.

Sheridan went at it with vigor. He beat Early at Third Winchester and Fisher's Hill. At the Battle of Cedar Creek, Early launched a surprise attack while Sheridan was away from his army, at Winchester, Virginia. Hearing the distant sounds of artillery, he rode aggressively to his command. (A famous poem, Sheridan's Ride, was written by Thomas Buchanan Read to commemorate this event.) He reached the battlefield about 10:30 a.m. and began to rally his men. Fortunately for Sheridan, Early's men were too occupied to take notice; they were hungry and exhausted and fell out of their ranks to pillage the Union camps. Sheridan's actions saved the day and dealt Early his most significant defeat, rendering his army incapable of future offensive action.

Sheridan ordered total destruction in the Valley to deny the Confederacy its use as an agricultural resource. His troops destroyed crops and livestock, seized stores and equipment, and burned what they could not remove. Referring to the possibility of another Confederate army using the Valley to threaten the North, he said: "If a crow wants to fly down the Shenandoah, he must carry his provisions with him." The destruction presaged the scorched earth tactics of Sherman's March to the Sea through Georgia—deny an army a base from which to operate and bring the effects of war home to the population supporting it.

Final drive

Sheridan again disobeyed orders and rejoined the Army of the Potomac in March 1865. At Waynesboro, March 2, 1865, he trapped the remainder of Early's army and 1,500 soldiers surrendered. On April 1, 1865, he cut off General Robert E. Lee's lines of support at Five Forks, forcing Lee to evacuate Petersburg.

President Abraham Lincoln sent Grant a telegram on April 7, 1865: "Gen. Sheridan says 'If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender.' Let the thing be pressed." At Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865, Sheridan blocked Lee's escape, forcing the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia later that day.

Reconstruction

At the close of the Civil War, Sheridan was sent to the U.S.-Mexico border under the Monroe Doctrine to "observe" the disputes between the French forces of Napoleon III, and the Mexican republicans. His presence, U.S. political pressure, and the growing resistance of Benito Juárez induced the French to abandon their claims over Mexico. Napoleon III withdrew his troops in 1866. Sheridan later admitted in his memoirs that he had supplied arms to Juárez's forces: "... supplied with arms and ammunition, which we left at convenient places on our side of the river to fall into their hands".

In 1866, with Reconstruction barely started, Sheridan was appointed military governor of the Fifth Military District (Texas and Louisiana). He severely limited voter registration for former Confederates and then required that only registered voters (including black men) be eligible to serve on juries. On July 30, 1866, while Sheridan was out of town, a white mob broke up the state constitutional convention in New Orleans. Thirty-four blacks were killed. Shortly after Sheridan returned, he wired Grant, "The more information I obtain of the affair of the 30th in this city the more revolting it becomes. It was no riot; it was an absolute massacre." An inquiry implicated the mayor of New Orleans and President Andrew Johnson. Sheridan, under his authority, relieved the mayor. The governors of Texas and Louisiana complained so much that he finally removed them. First the Louisiana governor went, and the Texas governor followed for being an "impediment to the reconstruction of the State". Within a month of the Texas governor's firing, President Johnson removed Sheridan.

Indian Wars

During the Civil War, the Indians on the Great Plains were generally peaceful. In 1864, Major John Chivington (a state militia officer) attacked a peaceful village of Arapahos and Southern Cheyenne at Sand Creek in Colorado, killing over 150 Indians. That attack ignited a general war with the Indians.

The protection of the Great Plains fell under the Department of the Missouri. General Winfield Scott Hancock was assigned to the Department of Missouri in 1866 but had been unable to get the Indians to abide by their treaties or by the newly signed ones. The Indians had continued to attack mail coaches, burn the stations, and kill the employees. They had also killed and kidnapped a considerable number of settlers on the frontier. Under pressure from the various governors in the Great Plains, General Grant turned to Philip Sheridan.

In 1867, Grant appointed Sheridan to head the Department of the Missouri. His first task was to end the Indian Wars. His troops, even supplemented with state militia, were spread too thin to have any real effect. He conceived a strategy based on his Shenandoah experience. In the Winter Campaign of 1868–69 he attacked the Indians in their winter quarters, taking their supplies and livestock and killing those who resisted. This strategy was to continue until the Indians abided their treaties. The Indian raids subsided during the 1870s and by the early 1880s were almost over.

There is a widely told story attributed to Sheridan during his campaign against the Indians. Some natives reputedly told Sheridan, "We're good Indians," to which Sheridan is often quoted as having replied, "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead." The story is of questionable authenticity and Sheridan always denied it. It is thought that what he actually said was "The only good Indians I knew are dead." However, the quote has being twisted into "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

Other assignments

In 1870, the Secretary of War, at Sheridan's request, authorized him to observe and report on the Franco-Prussian War. As a guest of the King of Prussia, he was able to observe the planning and execution of some of the battles.

In 1871, Sheridan took several companies of troops to Chicago during the Great Chicago Fire. The mayor, to calm the panic, put the city under martial law, and issued a proclamation putting Sheridan in charge. As there were no widespread disturbances the martial law was lifted within a few days.

On November 1, 1883, Sheridan succeeded William T. Sherman as Commanding General, U.S. Army, and held that position until shortly before his death.

Yellowstone

The protection of the Yellowstone area was Sheridan's personal crusade. He authorized Lieutenant Gustavus Doane to escort the Washburn Expedition in 1870 and for Captain John W. Barlow to escort the Hayden Expedition in 1871. As early as 1875 Sheridan promoted military control of the area to prevent destruction of natural formations and wildlife.

In 1882, the Department of the Interior granted rights to the Yellowstone Park Improvement Company to develop 4,000 acres (16 km²) in the park. Their plan was to build a railroad into the park and sell the land to developers. Sheridan personally organized opposition to the plan and lobbied Congress for protection of the park; including expansion, military control, reducing the development to 10 acres (40,000 m²), and prohibiting leases near park attractions. In addition to lobbying Congress, he arranged an expedition to the park for President Chester A. Arthur and other influential men.

His lobbying soon paid off. A rider was added to the Sundry Civil Bill of 1883, giving Sheridan and his supporters almost everything they had asked. In 1886, after a string of ineffectual and sometimes criminal superintendents, Sheridan ordered the 1st U.S. Cavalry into the park. The military operated the park until the National Park Service took it over in 1916.

Personal life

In 1870, Sheridan toured most of Europe after his inspection of the military affairs of the Franco-Prussian War.

On June 3, 1875, he married Irene Rucker, a daughter of a long time army officer. She was 22, he 44. They had four children: Mary, Philip Jr., and twin daughters, Irene and Louise. After his death Irene never remarried, saying, "I would rather be the widow of Phil Sheridan than the wife of any man living."

After the marriage Sheridan and his wife moved to Washington. They lived in a house given to them by Chicago citizens in appreciation for Sheridan's protection of the city after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.

Shortly before his death, Sheridan was promoted to the rank of general in the Regular Army (the rank was titled "General of the Army of the United States", by Act of Congress June 1 1888, the same rank achieved earlier by Grant and Sherman, which is equivalent to a four-star general, O-10, in the modern U.S. Army).

Philip Sheridan died in Nonquitt, Massachusetts. His body was returned to Washington and he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

In memoriam

Fort Sheridan in Illinois was named to honor General Sheridan's many services to Chicago.

The M551 Sheridan tank is named after General Sheridan.

Mt. Sheridan in Yellowstone National Park was named for Sheridan by Captain John W. Barlow in 1871.

Sheridan appeared on ten-dollar bill|$10 U.S. Treasury Notes" target="_blank" >^* issued in 1890 and 1891. These rare notes are in great demand by collectors today.

Sheridan County, Montana, Sheridan County, Wyoming, and Sheridan County, Kansas, are named for him, as are the cities of Sheridan, Wyoming, Sheridan, Arkansas, and Sheridan, Oregon.

Sheridan Square in the West Village of New York City is named for the general and his statue is displayed nearby in Christopher Street Park. Sheridan Circle in Washington, D.C., is also named for him.

The only equestrian Civil War statue in Ohio honors Sheridan. It is in the center traffic circle on US Route 22 in Somerset, Ohio, not far from the house where Sheridan grew up.

In the television series Babylon 5, the fictional character of Captain John Sheridan (played by Bruce Boxleitner) is a direct descendant of Philip Sheridan.

During World War II, the U.S. Navy named a Liberty Ship the SS Philip H. Sheridan.

References

Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
U.S. War Dept., The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.
Wittenberg, Eric J., Little Phil: A Reassessment of the Civil War Leadership of Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, Potomac Books, 2002, ISBN 1-57488-548-0.

Notes

External links

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