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Show "Little Phil's" Meteoric Career Recalled by Death of His Widow The Son of Poor Irish Immigrants, Sheridan Became the North's Greatest Cavalry Leader During the Civil War and Later Rose to the Highest Position in the American Army. He Owes Much of His Fame to a Poem That Is Filled with Historical Inaccuracies. By ELMO SCOTT WATSON THE death of Mrs. Philip Henry Sheridan in Washington Wash-ington recently not only marked the passing of the last surviving widow of a major figure in the Civil war but it also served to recall to Americans once more the meteoric career of the man whose name she bore. For the story of Phil Sheridan is a typical American "success story" in keeping with the tradition that no matter how humble a boy's origin nor how poverty-stricken his youth may be, he has the chance to become wealthy or famous or both. In the case of Sheridan it was fame rather than wealth which he gained during the 57 years of his life. The fighting qualities which this fiery little lit-tle Irishman displayed in the days when the trooper was the most picturesque and romantic ro-mantic figure in our military forces won for him two papula papu-la ;i "T :ti DUl" lai mid i nca xjiuic J. nn and "Fighting Phil." His genius for leadership and his unvarying success in battle as a cavalry commander also won for him the sobriquet of the "American Murat." The implied compliment in that title, however, does less than jus- r t"n 1 ; 1 GEN. PHIL SHERIDAN tice to Sheridan. Napoleon's great cavalry leader suffered defeat de-feat at the battles of Leipzig and Tolentino, shared in his chief's disaster at Waterloo, finally was taken prisoner by his enemies and his career ended before a firing squad. In contrast to this is Sheridan's record he suffered several temporary reverses but he never, finally, lost a battle. During the Civil war, according accord-ing to Joseph Hergesheimer, Sheridan's biographer, "the South soon developed a number of great cavalry leaders; the North eventually had but one Gen. Philip Henry Sheridan." More than that other competent military historians rank him among the outstanding cavalry leaders of all time. Considering these facts it seems rather ironi- jr - 1 - ' " ' ( it , t ' J 1 ' i - ' 'hir i ' -i 6 r t Z ' ' f ' y I ,' J, ,'- '1L ' tj't Ti -i4 V ': ! ' ! t I ; t H - t S 5- a- , t v ' , ' - " - f cal that his fame among his fellow-Americans has been chiefly perpetuated by a poem and one that is filled with historical inaccuracies! in-accuracies! Born March 6, 1831, the son of John and Margaret Sheridan, poor Irish immigrants to America, Amer-ica, Sheridan spent his boyhood and youth near Somerset in Perry Per-ry county, Ohio, where he worked for a country storekeeper for the sum of 50 cents a week. Although 'ij- ) v;;; , ' ; 1 i - ' v ' ' ' ! i 'T' ,J ri v. . i ' ' - JUS"' ' x ( -. i " X " - '- . Gen. Phil Sheridan and His Staff Left to right: Gen. Henry E. Davies, Gen. David M. GregB, General Sheridan, Gen. AVesley Mer-ritt, Mer-ritt, Gen. James Wilson and Gen. Kobcrt S. Foster. his employer testified to the fact that he was a faithful worker, he also commented upon the fact that what time the boy wasn't working he was "talkin' soldier or playin' soldier." A Scrappy Cadet. At the age of seventeen Sheridan Sheri-dan had the good fortune to secure se-cure an appointment to West Point. His limited education made the work there unusually difficult for him, but he made a fairly good record at the academy. acade-my. However, he lived up to his "scrappy" reputation by having a fight with a fellow cadet which resulted in his suspension for a year, so, instead of being graduated gradu-ated in the class of 1852, as he should have been, he was not graduated until 1853 and then he stood No. 34 in a class of 52. Following his graduation and appointment as a second lieutenant lieuten-ant in the infantry, Sheridan spent the next eight years in comparative obscurity. He was detailed to the frontier and saw service against the Indians in Oregon and Washington. This not only afforded him good training with the dragoons for his future career as a cavalryman but also gave him an insight into the Indian In-dian character which was to be particularly valuable during the Plains wars after the conflict of 1861-65. The outbreak of the Civil war, however, gave Sheridan h i s chance to display his real genius as a cavalry leader. Detailed first on the staff of General Hal-leck Hal-leck at St. Louis, he soon attracted at-tracted attention by his capacity for detail, his energy and his unfailing un-failing devotion to duty, and these qualities resulted in his appointment ap-pointment as colonel of the Second Sec-ond Michigan cavalry. Only a few weeks later he was elevated to the grade of brigadier general of the United States Volunteers. That was in 1862, and by the end of the year he had been placed in command of a division and given his commission of major ma-jor general. And all of this had Rienzi, the Black Charger on Which Sheridan Made His Famous Ride. happened when he was but thirty-two years of age. Sheridan's record during fhe first three years of the war was brilliant enough, with his part in the battles at Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Chatta-nooga, but he rose to the heights in 1864 when he was made chief of the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac and started upon his famous campaign in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia. There his problem was to check mate another brilliant cavalry leader, Gen. Jubal A. Early of the Confederate army, and to devastate this rich country so that it could no longer feed the Confederate army. It was during this campaign that the incident occurred which inspired Read's famous poem and gave rise to one of those popular pop-ular legends so dear to the heart of Americans and usually so filled with inaccuracies as to historical his-torical fact! That legend tells how Sheridan at Winchester, hearing heavy firing in the direction direc-tion of Cedar Creek, where his army was stationed, suspected something was wrong, sprang to the back of his coal black charger, charg-er, Rienzi, and made a mad dash of 20 miles to find his army being be-ing routed by Early's surprise attack. Then, according to the school book histories, "Swinging his hat, he dashed along the line of battle, bat-tle, shouting, 'Never mind, boys, we'll whip them yet.' The 'boys' responded by throwing up their caps and hurrahing with the wildest wild-est joy. Before night set in they drove Early out of the Valley." Another version of the legend has him shouting, "Turn, boys, turn! We're going back!" However, How-ever, a reference to Sheridan's "Personal Memoirs" and other standard authorities will demonstrate demon-strate that these legends need correction in several respects. In the first place, Sheridan wasn't "twenty miles away" as the poet has it. It was only 13 or 14 miles from Winchester to Cedar Ce-dar Creek and Sheridan had his first view of his disorganized army at Mill creek, less than a mile from Winchester. From there to the actual "front" if there was such a thing on that day it wasn't much more than nine or ten miles. His ride was not made alone nor was it covered at top speed. He was accompanied by two of his aides-de-camp Maj. George A. Forsythe (later famous as an Indian fighter in the West) and Capt. Joseph O'Keefe. At places along the route he was forced to leave the road and make detours through the fields and he stopped frequently to give orders to officers of-ficers about rallying their men. His Greatest Service. Although Sheridan is known to more Americans because of this incident than any other in his career, his victory at Cedar Creek was among the less notable not-able of the many which he won during the war. Much more important im-portant were his harassing dashes against the Confederate forces in northern Virginia during dur-ing the last days of the war, when he finally wore out the Confederate Con-federate cavalry, inferior in numbers, num-bers, mounts and equipment, and broke the morale of the Confederate Confed-erate infantry. By doing that he contributed greatly to the forces which led to the surrender of General Lee at Appamattox. After the Civil war Sheridan's career was distinguished by his service on the Mexican border in the days when the Maximilian incident was a threat to our peaceful relations with European countries, and by his work during dur-ing the Indian wars on the plains when he was in command of the operations which finaUy brought about the subjugation of the warlike war-like tribes. He was guest ob-' server on the staff of King William Wil-liam during the Franco-Prussian war and became commander in chief of the United States army after the retirement of Sherman. Sheridan died in 1888 at the age of fifty-seven years with the rank of full general, a grade which had been restored by congress that year in his favor. Just as Ih-nry Wadsworth Longfellow helped immortulizc j I'uu! Revere by writing a poem about his famous ride, so did Thomas Buchanan Read, who was a painter as well as a poet, per" form a similar service for Gen. Phil Sheridan. No doubt you have seen reproductions of his painting of "Sheridan's Ride." It shows "Little Phil" impeccably dressed in his general's uniform, with his black hat set firmly on his head as he waves his sword in his right hand while his charger Rienzi seems to be suspended in mid-air with all four feet oil the ground. According to the testimony of men who saw him that day, the reality was quite different. Instead In-stead of being a fashion-plate picture pic-ture of an officer, Sheridan and his mount were dust-covered and grimy and most of the time he was carrying his hat in his hand because he always had difficulty in keeping a hat on his "round, bullet head"! Testimony as to the time required re-quired for the ride varies. Sheridan Sheri-dan says that he arrived at the battlefront within two or three hours after leaving Winchester, but Torbert, his chief of staff, declares de-clares that it was nearer five hours later. As for the words which Sheri-dnn Sheri-dnn used to rally his men, Gen. Hazard Stevens, who was on the field when his commander arrived, ar-rived, says "Sheridan rode down the line of battle, and in a voice surcharged with passion and conviction, cried out, 'Men, by God, we'll whip them yet I We'll sleep in our old camp tonight!' to-night!' There was a universal answering cheer; a mighty change of feeling took place; hope and confidence returned. The troops no longer merely believed that the worst was over, that they ? . J.. i H ; .V f' "' ; ' n ' 1 Sheridan Statue in Washington i i could hold their ground until ' night and make good an orderly ' retreat upon Winchester they all burned to attack the enemy, to drive him-back. And every man knew that Sheridan could do it." i Private F. A. Brown says that when Sheridan demanded of General Gen-eral Wright, "What's our position?" posi-tion?" Wright replied: "I have the army in a safe position to retreat." re-treat." "Retreat, hell!" snapped Sheridan, "We will not retreat! Come on, boys, we will occupy our camp tonight." Swear Words Deleted. In his "Memoirs" Sheridan does not mention using any strong language to rally his men. He makes it rather commonplace and conversational. He writes: "I said nothing except to remark as I rode among those on the road: 'If I had been with you this morning this disaster would not have happened. We must face the other way; we will go back and recover our camp." Sheridan's black charger on his famous ride was known as Rienzi because the horse was presented to him at Rienzi, Miss., in the summer of 1862 by Capt. Archibald P. Campbell. After the battle of Cedar Creek, the horse was given another name Winchester, Win-chester, in honor of Sheridan's historic ride from that town. Winchester Win-chester survived his master by a few years and after his death he H J s " -si" rw . . - Sheridan's Grave in Arlington was stuffed by a taxidermist and became an exhibit in the museum muse-um of the Military Service institute insti-tute on Governor's island, N. Y. In 1922 Rep. Ambrose Kennedy of Rhode Island discovered the famous fa-mous relic tucked away in a shed on Governor's island and started a movement which resulted in the transfer of the animal to the National museum in Washington where it is now on exhibition. |