Word Celebrity Blog

Philip Henry Sheridan


John and Mary (Minah) Sheridan, came to America in 1830.  They made the long journey from Ireland at the urging of John's uncle, Thomas Gainor, who was living in Albany, New York.  John and Mary Sheridan were second cousins from County Cavan, Ireland.  Before leaving Ireland the couple had two children, Patrick H. and Rosa. Rosa died aboard ship and was buried at sea.

Philip Henry was born on March 6, 1831.  His birthplace is still a mystery . There are no records available at Albany, New York, Boston, Mass. (where their ship landed), nor at Somerset, Ohio.  Phil Sheridan at various times during his lifetime, claimed all three places.  He arrived with his parents in Somerset, Ohio as a young baby and spent his childhood there.  The Sheridan family had two more children:  Mary, Michael, and John L. Sheridan.

Philip Henry  Sheridan attended school in Somerset until the age of fourteen, at which time he went to work for various businessmen as a store clerk and bookkeeper.


























In 1848, Congressman Thomas Ritchie,  who knew both Phil Sheridan and his father,  obtained an appointment to West Point for Phil Sheridan.  In 1851, his third year at West Point,  he was suspended for a year for fighting with a fellow cadet, a classmate, William R. Terrill.  The previous day, Phil Sheridan had threatened to run him through with a bayonet.  This was Phil's reaction to a perceived insult on the parade ground.  The disciplinary suspension delayed his graduation until 1853.


























Brevet Second Lieutenant Philip Sheridan.


Phil Sheridan graduated 34th in a class of 1852, in July, 1853, and was assigned to the 1st Infantry at Fort Duncan, Texas, as a 2nd Lieutenant.  In 1855 he was transferred to the 4th Infantry in the Pacific Northwest.  In April, 1856, he was assigned to duty at the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation in Yamhill County, Oregon, and was promoted to 1st Lieutenant.

Phil Sheridan lived with a mistress during part of his tour of duty. She was an Indian woman named Sidnayoh (called Frances by her white friends), who was the daughter of the chief of the Klickitat Tribe.  (Phil Sheridan neglected to mention this relationship in his memoirs).


























Following the outbreak of the Civil War,  Phil Sheridan received a captaincy in the 13th Infantry,  was appointed chief commissary and quartermaster for the Army of the Southwest Missouri District. 

He was made colonel of the 2nd Michigan Volunteer Cavalry in May 1862, and took part in the Union advance on Corinth, Mississippi., under General Halleck and won a victory over Confederate cavalry at Booneville, Mississippi, on July 1, 1862.

When he was made a brigadier general of volunteers and given command of a division of the Army of the Ohio, Phil Sheridan distinguished himself under Don Carlos Buell at Perryville, in Oct. 1862.  Again he was promoted to major general of volunteers in Dec., 1862,  for his conduct under the command William S. Rosecrans at Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

In the Chattanooga campaign in 1863,   Phil Sheridan aided George H. Thomas in holding off the Confederates at Chickamauga and had a prominent part in the Union victory at Missionary Ridge. General Ulysses S. Grant recognized his ability and appointed Phil Sheridan commander of the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac in April, 1864.


























Lieut. General U.S. Grant.


Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant, newly promoted to be general-in-chief of all the Union armies, summoned Phil Sheridan to the Eastern Theater to command the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac.  Unbeknownst to Phil Sheridan,  he was actually General Grant's second choice, after Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin,  but General Grant agreed to a suggestion about General Sheridan from Chief of Staff Henry W. Halleck.   After the war, and in his memoirs,  U. S. Grant claimed that Phil Sheridan was the very man he wanted for the job. General Phil Sheridan arrived at the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac on April 5, 1864,  less than a month before the start of General Grant's massive "Overland Campaign" against General Robert E. Lee.






















Geneneral George G.  Meade


In the early battles of the campaign, Phil Sheridan's cavalry was relegated by army commander Maj. General George G. Meade to its traditional role  —  screening, reconnaissance, and guarding trains and rear areas  —  much to Phil Sheridan's frustration.  In the Battle of the Wilderness on May 5–6, 1864,  the dense forested terrain prevented any significant cavalry role.  As the army swung around the Confederate right flank in the direction of Spotsylvania Court House,  Phil Sheridan's troop failed to clear the road from the Wilderness,  lost battles along the Plank Road on May 5 and at Todd's Tavern on May 6 through May 8. This allowed the Confederates to seize the critical crossroads before the Union infantry could arrive.

When General Meade quarreled with Phil Sheridan for not performing his duties of screening and reconnaissance as he was ordered,  Phil General Sheridan told General Meade that he could "whip Stuart" if General Meade let him. General George Meade reported the conversation to General Grant, who replied, "Well, he generally knows what he is talking about. Let him start right out and do it."


























General Meade deferred to General Grant's judgment and issued orders to Phil Sheridan to "proceed against the enemy's cavalry" and from May 9 through May 24, sent him on a raid toward Richmond,  which directly challenged the Confederate cavalry.  The raid was less successful than was hoped for;  although Phil Sheridan's raid managed to mortally wound Confederate cavalry commander Major General  J.E.B. Stuart at Yellow Tavern, on May 11 and beat Major General  Fitzhugh Lee at Meadow Bridge on May 12,  the raid never seriously threatened Richmond and it left General Grant without cavalry intelligence for Spotsylvania and North Anna.

Historian Gordon C. Rhea wrote, "By taking his cavalry from Spotsylvania Court House, Sheridan severely handicapped Grant in his battles against Lee. The Union Army was deprived of his eyes and ears during a critical juncture in the campaign. And Sheridan's decision to advance boldly to the Richmond defenses smacked of unnecessary showboating that jeopardized his command."



























After rejoining the Army of the Potomac,  General Phil Sheridan's cavalry fought at Haw's Shop on May 28. In the battle the Union forces suffered heavy casualties.  The Confederate cavalry obtained intelligence about Union dispositions.  The Confederates seized critical crossroads that triggered the "Battle of Cold Harbor" on June 1 to June 12. and withstood a number of assaults until reinforced.

General Grant then ordered Phil Sheridan on a raid to the northwest to break the Virginia Central Railroad and to link up with the Shenandoah Valley army of Maj. Gen. David Hunter. General Phil Sheridan was intercepted by the Confederate cavalry under Major General Wade Hampton at the "Battle of Trevilian Station" on June 11–12.  This was to be the largest all-cavalry battle of the war. General Sheridan achieved tactical success on the first day,  but suffered heavy casualties during multiple assaults on the second day. General Phil Sheridan withdrew his forces without achieving his assigned objectives.

On his return march, Phil Sheridan encountered the Confederate cavalry at Samaria (St. Mary's) Church on June 24,  where General Sheridan's cavalrymen suffered heavy casualties,  but they successfully protected the Union supply wagons they were escorting.


























General Ulysses S. Grant.


In attempts to distract General Grant from the Siege of Petersburg, Confederate cavalry troops attacked Union forces near Washington D.C. and raided several towns in Pennsylvania.  General Jubal Early's troops, which were occupying the Shenandoah Valley  had nearly taken Washington D.C. in July and they were still lingering, threateningly, in the lower valley.

General Grant, reacted to the political unrest that was caused by the Confederate invasion. He organized the "Middle Military Division", whose field troops were known as the "Army of the Shenandoah". He placed General Phil Sheridan in command the army.

He had considered various candidates for command, including George Meade, William B. Franklin, and David Hunter. All of these choices were rejected by either General Grant or the War Department. Phil Sheridan was given the command over the objection of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who believed Sheridan was too young for such a high post,


























Union Major General Philip H. Sheridan.


General Phil Sheridan took command at Harpers Ferry on August 7, 1864.  His mission was not only to defeat General Jubal Early's army and to close off the Northern invasion route, but to also deny the Shenandoah Valley as a productive agricultural region to the Confederacy.   General Grant  told Phil Sheridan, "The people should be informed that so long as an army can subsist among them recurrences of these raids must be expected, and we are determined to stop them at all hazards.... Give the enemy no rest... Do all the damage to railroads and crops you can. arry off stock of all descriptions, and negroes, so as to prevent further planting. I f the war is to last another year, we want the Shenandoah Valley to remain a barren waste."























General Phil Sheridan got off to a slow start. He needed time to organize and to react to the reinforcements that were reaching Jubal Early.

General Grant ordered Phil Sheridan not to launch an offensive "with the advantage against you."

The two armies remained unengaged for over a month, which caused political unrest in the North, since the 1864 election drew near. Generals Grant and Sheridan conferred on September 16, at Charles Town and agreed that General Phil Sheridan would begin his attacks within four days.

With 40,000 infantry and cavalry General Phil Sheridan's massive assault sent the Confederates fleeing.

When General Early launched a surprise attack on General Sheridan's forces at Winchester, Virginia, on Sept. 19, 1864,  General Phil Sheridan again drove the Confederate army from the field. 

At Fishers Hill, Virginia on Sept. 22, 1864, General Phil Sheridan roundly defeated General Early and drove him up the valley.  General Sheridan then slowly withdrew,  all the time,systematically laying waste to the Shenandoah Valley,  that, as he reported, even a crow flying over the place would have to take his rations with him.


























General Jubal Early advanced again, and on the morning of October 19, 1864, while Phil Sheridan was at Winchester, Virginia, 15 miles away, he surprised the Union forces at Cedar Creek and drove them back.  Upon hearing of the defeat, General Sheridan hurried to the field and rallied his men.  Phil Sheridan counter-attacked and won a decisive victory. (This success was highly dramatized by Thomas Buchanan's poem, "Sheridan's Ride.")   Phil Sheridan was made a major general in the regular army in November, 1864.

As General Jubal Early attempted to regroup his troops,  General Phil Sheridan began the punitive operations of his mission.  He sent his cavalry as far south as Waynesboro to seize or destroy livestock and provisions, and to burn barns, mills, factories, and railroads.

General Phil Sheridan's men did their work relentlessly and thoroughly.  The troops made over 400 miles uninhabitable.  The destruction denied the Confederate army a base from which to operate.  It also brought the effects of war home to the southern population who had been supporting it.  The residents of the valley  referred to this widespread destruction as "The Burning."

The Confederate forces were not idle during this period. General Sheridan's men were plagued by guerrilla raids by the partisan ranger Col. John S. Mosby and his men.

General Phil Sherman's long raid against General Robert E. Lee's communications,  devastated the Confederate supply depots and railroads.  General Sheridan then marched unopposed through central Virginia,  until he reached General Grant's position in time to participate in the final campaign against General Robert E. Lee.




















General Phil Sheridan interpreted General Grant's orders very liberally and  moved to rejoin the Army of the Potomac at Petersburg.  He later wrote in his memoirs, "Feeling that the war was nearing its end, I desired my cavalry to be in at the death."   His finest service of the Civil War was demonstrated during his relentless pursuit of Robert E. Lee's Army, effectively managing the most crucial aspects of the Appomattox Campaign for General Grant.

At the Battle of Waynesboro, on March 2,  General Sheridan trapped the remainder of Jubal Early's army and 1,500 soldiers surrendered.  On April 1, he cut off Geneneral Robert Lee's lines of support at Five Forks, forcing General Lee to evacuate Petersburg.

General Phil Sheridan's aggressive and well-executed performance at the Battle of Sayler's Creek, on April 6, effectively sealed the fate of Robert E.Lee's army, by capturing over 20% of his remaining men.

President Abraham Lincoln had sent General Grant a telegram on April 7:  "Gen. Sheridan says 'If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender.' Let the thing be pressed." 





















In March, 1865, General George Custer of  Phil Sheridan's army defeated the remains of Jubal Early's command at Waynesboro.  General Sheridan then moved eastward, destroying Confederate communications as he went. A fter his victory at Five Forks on April 1, 1865, General Phil Sheridan raced  General Robert E. Lee to Appomattox, where the last cache of Confederate food was stored.  He arrived before General Robert E. Lee,  which cut off the Confederate retreat,  forcing Robert E. Lee's surrender.

General U. S. Grant summed up Little Phil Sheridan's performance in these final days: "I believe General Sheridan has no superior as a general, either living or dead, and perhaps not an equal."






















After the surrender of General Robert E. Lee, and of General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina, the only significant Confederate fighting force remaining was in Texas under General Edmund Kirby Smith.

General Phil Sheridan was supposed to lead the troops in the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington, D.C.,  but General Grant had appointed him as commander of the Military District of the Southwest on May 17, 1865,  with orders to defeat General Edmund Kirby Smith without delay and restore Texas and Louisiana to Union control.  General Smith finally surrendered, before Phil  Sheridan reached New Orleans.

General U. S. Grant was also concerned about the situation in neighboring Mexico, where 40,000 French soldiers were propping up the puppet regime of Austrian Archduke Maximilian, and he gave General Phil Sheridan permission for a large Texas occupation force.

General Phil Sheridan assembled 50,000 men in three corps and quickly occupied the Texas coastal cities, He then moved inland, and began to patrol the United States - Mexican border.  The United States Army's presence and political pressure, along with the growing resistance of Benito Juárez induced the French to abandon their claims against Mexico and Napoleon III withdrew his troops in 1866.  General Phil 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".

On July 30, 1866, while General Phil Sheridan was in Texas, a white mob broke up the state constitutional convention in New Orleans.  34 black people were killed.  Shortly after General Sheridan returned, he wired General 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."

In March 1867, with Reconstruction barely started, General Phil 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.


























An inquiry into the deadly riot of 1866 implicated numerous local officials and General Sheridan dismissed the mayor of New Orleans,  the Louisiana attorney general,  and a district judge.   He later removed the Louisiana Governor James M. Wells, accusing him of being "a political trickster and a dishonest man."   He also dismissed Texas Governor James W. Throckmorton,  a former Confederate,  for being an "impediment to the reconstruction of the State"   He replaced him with the Republican who had lost to him in the previous election.

General Phil Sheridan had been feuding with President Andrew Johnson for months over interpretations of the Military Reconstruction Acts and voting rights issues,  and within a month of the second firing, Andrew Johnson, the president  of the United States removed General Phil Sheridan, stating to an outraged General Grant that, "His rule has, in fact, been one of absolute tyranny, without references to the principles of our government or the nature of our free institutions."

In August 1867, then President U. S. Grant appointed Phil Sheridan to head the Department of the Missouri and pacify the Plains.  His troops,supplemented with state militia, were spread too thin to have any real effect. He conceived a strategy similar to the one he used in the Shenandoah Valley.  In the Winter Campaign of 1868–69,  General Sherman attacked the Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Comanche tribes in their winter quarters, taking their supplies and livestock and killing those who resisted. He then drove the rest back into their reservations.

By promoting in Congressional testimony the hunting and slaughter of the vast herds of American Bison on the Great Plains and by other means,  General Sheridan helped deprive the Indians of their primary source of food.  Professional hunters,  trespassing on Indian land,  killed over 4 million bison by 1874.  General Sheridan wrote, "Let them kill, skin and sell until the buffalo is exterminated".


























When the Texas legislature considered outlawing bison poaching on tribal lands,  General Sheridan personally testified against it in Austin, Texas.  He suggested that the legislature should give each of the hunters a medal, engraved with a dead buffalo on one side and a discouraged- looking Indian on the other. 

This strategy continued until the Indians honored their treaties.  General Sheridan's department conducted the Red River War,  the Ute War,  and the Great Sioux War of 1876-77,  which resulted in the death of his trusted subordinate, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.  The Indian raids subsided during the 1870s and were almost over by the early 1880s,  as General Sheridan became the commanding general of the U.S. Army.   He was promoted to lieutenant general in 1869.




















There is an anecdote told concerning General Sheridan during his campaign against the Indians.  Comanche Chief  Silver Knife (Tosawi), reputedly told Phil Sheridan, in 1869, "Me Tosawi. Me good Indian," to which Sheridan is said to have replied, "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead."  This was then misquoted as "The only good Indian is a dead Indian".  General Phil Sheridan later denied he had made the statement to Tosawi.  Earlier that year, on May 28,  Rep. James M. Cavanaugh said in the House of Representatives, "I have never seen in my life a good Indian... except when I have seen a dead Indian."   Some say that remark may have been mistakenly attributed to Phil Sheridan.

President Grant,  at General Sheridan's request,  sent him to observe and report on the Franco- Prussian War. As a guest of the King of Prussia,  Phil Sheridan was present when Napoleon III surrendered to the Germans; This was gratifying for General Sheridan following his experiences with the French Army in Mexico.  He later toured most of Europe and returned to the United States to report to President Grant that although the Prussians were "very good brave fellows [who] had gone into each battle with the determination to win, ... there is nothing to be learned here professionally."  He criticized their handling of cavalry and likened their practices to the manner in which General Meade had attempted to supervise him.



















Great Chicago Fire.


In 1871,  General Phil Sheridan was present in Chicago during the Great Chicago Fire and coordinated military relief efforts.  The mayor,  Roswell B. Mason,  to calm the panic,  placed the city under martial law, and issued a proclamation putting General Sheridan in charge.  As there were no widespread disturbances, martial law was lifted within a few days.  Although Phil Sheridan's personal residence was spared,  all of his professional and personal papers were destroyed.

On June 3, 1875,  Phil Sheridan married Irene Rucker. She was the daughter of Army Quartermaster General Daniel H. Rucker.  She was 22, and he was 44.  They had four children: Mary, born in 1876; twin daughters, Irene and Louise, in 1877; and Philip, Jr., in 1880.  After the wedding, General Sheridan and his wife moved to Washington, D.C.  They lived in a house which was given to them by Chicago citizens in appreciation for General Sheridan's protection of the city after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.

When Chicago's Washington Park Race Track organized the American Derby in 1883, Phil Sheridan served as its first president.


















The protection of the Yellowstone area was Phil 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.  Captain John Barlow named Mount Sheridan, a peak overlooking Heart Lake in Yellowstone, for the general in 1871.  As early as 1875,  General Sheridan promoted military control of the area to prevent the 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 in the park.  Their plan was to build a railroad into the park and sell the land to developers.  Phil 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, and prohibiting leases near park attractions.  In addition, he arranged an expedition to the park for President Chester A. Arthur and other influential men. Phil Sheridan's lobbying soon paid off.  A rider was added to the Sundry Civil Bill of 1883,  giving Phil Sheridan and his supporters almost everything for which they had asked.  In 1886, after a string of ineffectual and sometimes criminal superintendents,  General Phil Sheridan ordered the 1st U.S. Cavalry into the park.  The military operated the Yellowstone park until the National Park Service took it over in 1916.


























General Phil Sheridan worked for the creation of the Yellowstone National Park and its preservation.  By the use of troops to protect the park, some say that he may have been trying to salve his conscience for the destruction in the Shenandoah Valley.  The protection of the Yellowstone area was Phil Sheridan's personal crusade.

General Phil Sheridan served as commander in chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS) veterans' organization from 1886 to 1888.

He was promoted on June 1, 1888, shortly before his death,  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.



















Phil Sheridan completed his memoirs shortly before his death on Aug. 5, 1888, in Nonquitt, Massachusetts.



























Philip Henry Sheridan suffered a series of massive heart attacks two months after sending his memoirs to the publisher.  At 57 years of age, the hard living and hard campaigning and a lifelong love of good food and drink had taken their toll.  He had been thin in his youth, but  he had reached over 200 pounds.

After his first heart attack, the United States Congress quickly passed legislation to promote him to full general and he received the news from a congressional delegation with joy, despite his pain.  His family moved him from the heat of Washington D.C. and he died in his vacation cottage at Nonquitt, Massachusetts.

The body of General Philip Henry Sheridan was returned to Washington D.C. and he was buried with honors on a hillside facing the capital city, near Arlington House in Arlington National Cemetery.

His wife Irene never remarried, and she may have given her husband his greatest tribute when she said:  "I would rather be the widow of Phil Sheridan than the wife of any man living."






















Major Philip H. Sheridan, Jr (1880 - 1918).


Major Philip Sheridan, Jr., followed in his father's footsteps and graduated near the bottom of the West Point class of 1902.   He served as a cavalry lieutenant,  a military aide to President Theodore Roosevelt,  and in Washington D.C. with the general staff.  He was also felled by a heart attack,  in 1918, at the age of 37.



In Memoriam




























General Philip Sheridan's headstone at Arlington National Cemetery.  The following inscription faces Washington, D.C.

"Coming to the rescue, Sheridan dispatched Troop M of the First United States Cavalry to take control of Yellowstone."

The sculpture on the marker was executed by English sculptor Samuel James Kitson. The burial of General Philip Sheridan's body, helped to  elevate the Arlington cemetery to national prominence.





















Near Sheridan Drive, Arlington Virginia.


Sheridan Drive in Arlington National Cemetery partially encircles the area that contains the general's gravesite. The Sheridan Gate, constructed in 1879 and demolished in the 1960s,  was once the Cemetery's main entrance.






















Fort Sheridan Illinois From Above.


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




















The M551 Sheridan light tank is named after General Sheridan.





















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



General Phil Sheridan appeared on $10 U.S. Treasury Notes issued in 1890 and 1891.  His bust then reappeared on the $5 Silver Certificate in 1896.  These rare notes are in great demand by collectors today.



In 1937 the US Post Office issued a series of commemorative stamp issues honoring various Army and Navy heroes.  Among them was an issue commemorating Generals Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman and Philip H. Sheridan. Generals Sherman, Grant and Sheridan, Issue of 1937


Sheridan County, North Dakota, Sheridan County, Nebraska, Sheridan County, Montana, Sheridan County, Wyoming, and Sheridan County, Kansas, are named for him, as are the cities of Sheridan, Colorado, Sheridan, Montana (in Madison County) Sheridan, Wyoming, Sheridan, Arkansas, Sheridan, Oregon, Sheridan, Indiana, and Sheridan, Illinois (LaSalle County).





















Sheridan Square Viewing Gardens.


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, Sheridan Street, and the neighborhood of Sheridan-Kalorama in Washington, D.C., are also named after him.






















Sheridan Glacier, Sheridan River, Cordova Alaska.


Sheridan Glacier, located 15 miles outside of Cordova, Alaska was named in his honor.





















There is an equestrian statue of General Phil Sheridan in front of the New York State Capitol near Sheridan Avenue.




















General Philip Sheridan by Gutzon Borglum - 1908 -  in the center of Sheridan Circle in Washington, D.C.


















0326 - Philip H. Sheridan - USAT


In World War II, the United States liberty ship, SS Philip H. Sheridan, was named in his honor.























The Fort Sill Marine Corps.


Sheridan Road in Lawton, Oklahoma, leads to Fort Sill, where Sheridan supposedly uttered the words "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead."























A statue of General Phil Sheridan by Allen George Newman is sited in Scranton, Pennsylvania.


Sheridan Road in Chicago and the North Shore suburbs is named in honor of Philip Sheridan and leads to the Town of Fort Sheridan, the landmark former U.S. Army base now converted to an upscale residential community.[64] Sheridan Road runs continuously for approximately 60 miles, mostly along the shoreline of Lake Michigan, from Chicago to Racine, Wisconsin.


An equestrian statue of Sheridan by Gutzon Borglum (sculptor of the figures on Mt. Rushmore) at Belmont Avenue and Sheridan Road in Chicago depicts the general on his horse, Rienzi.


The Sheridan Drive in the northern suburbs of Buffalo, New York is named for Sheridan Road in Chicago, and thus indirectly after Philip Sheridan. An equestrian statue of the general was planned to be built there in 1925, but was cancelled and built instead at the New York State Capitol.


John Philip Sousa wrote a descriptive piece for band memorializing Sheridan. Describing "Sheridan's Ride" of 1891 as a "Scenes Historical", Sousa musically characterized Sheridan's famous ride back to his army in the Battle of Cedar Creek. The composition has six sections: Waiting for the Bugle, The Attack, The Death of Thoburn, The Coming of Sheridan, and The Apotheosis.




























General Phillip Henry Sheridan - Somerset, Ohio























The following is the text that is on the above placque.


"The Sheridan monument was erected by and given to the Village of Somerset by the State of Ohio in 1905 to honor the memory of Somerset's General Phillip Henry Sheridan. "Little Phil" was raised in Somerset and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1852. He rendered valuable service to the Federal Army in the Civil War at Stone's River, Missionary Ridge, Yellow Tavern, Winchester, Cedar Creek, Five Forks, and Appomattox. He later commanded in the West and became General of the Army in 1883, received his fourth star, and died in 1888. The heroic sculpture, created by Carl Heber of New York, portrays "Sheridan's Ride" to Winchester. Somerset citizens paid for the granite base through a children's "penny fund."


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

Sheridan High School is located 5 miles north of General Sheridan's home town of Somerset.  The athletic team is nicknamed "The Generals".