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Ulysses S. Grant considered Phil Sheridan the greatest general in history. The best example of Sheridan’s exemplary ability was his success turning defeat into victory at the Battle of Cedar Creek during October 18, 1864. The battle took place in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. The Confederate Army under Jubal Early made a surprise pre-dawn flank attack on the Union line, and they also attacked some exposed Union positions. This attack caused most of the Union Army here to retreat in panic. Meanwhile, General Sheridan had just returned from a meeting in Washington DC and was asleep. When he was informed of the attack, he mounted his horse and personally rallied troops back to the front. He reorganized the defense until it was a solid line. The Confederates paused their attack to forage through captured supplies because they were starving. This gave Sheridan time to organize a counterattack (he was a very aggressive commander), and they drove the Confederates back past their starting point earlier in the morning–a decisive victory and all in less than 24 hours. After this battle, the Confederate Army was never able to stop Sheridan’s troops from cutting the supply lines of the main army in Virginia, and the Confederates basically ran out of food and ammunition, forcing them to give up 6 months later.

General Sheridan was a career military man who worked his way up from lieutenant to commander of the U.S. Army. He greatly impressed all his superior officers during a career that included subduing recalcitrant Indians, decisively defeating the Confederate Army in battle after battle, and administering the defeated rebels during reconstruction.

Map of the Shenandoah Valley campaign where the Union Army cut off supplies to the main Confederate Army in Virginia. Along with Sherman’s march through Georgia, this made the Confederacy surrender. They ran out of food and ammunition.

Sheridan personally rallied the troops and reorganized them, turning a stunning defeat into a decisive victory all in 1 day at the Battle of Cedar Creek.

Historians aren’t sure where Phil Sheridan was born. Phil Sheridan was officially born in Albany, New York during 1831, but some suspect he was born on a ship when his family immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland. His mother may have lied, so she could claim he was an American from birth. He was part of a large Irish family that eventually settled in Somerset, Ohio where he clerked in a dry goods store as a teenager. This gave him the experience to be a good supply officer in the army. Sheridan was able to attain an appointment to West Point. He finished near the bottom of his class and was suspended for a year because he started a fight with an older classmate during a marching drill. He was lucky he was not expelled. Sheridan was short, standing just 5’5″, and had a pugnacious personality. The army assigned Sheridan to small western forts, first at Fort Duncan in Texas and later to Fort Reading in California until 1861 where he served as a supply officer. He gained experience solving disputes between Indian agents and Indians who were often cheated. There were some violent incidents.

The onset of the Civil War was a great development for career army officers stuck in stagnant assignments. He impressed his superior officers with his efficient audit of the Missouri quartermaster corps where the army had been defrauded by some corrupt officers. He was promoted to chief quartermaster officer for the 15,000-man army in Missouri. He was known for successfully cracking down on corrupt army officers profiting from the war. These were all non-combat positions, but he was finally promoted to Colonel and put in charge of the 2nd regiment of Michigan cavalry. He soon proved to be as good a combat officer as he was a supply officer. He led men in the Battle of Perryville in Kentucky and the Battle of Stones River. The first was a stalemate; the second was a resounding victory. His regiment’s performance in the latter battle was considered outstanding. Sheridan’s forces were under General Rosecrans when the Union Army outmaneuvered the Confederates through Tennessee and into north Georgia. His regiment took part in the Battle of Chickamauga–a defeat and uncharacteristically a less than stellar performance from his troops. He did manage to rally his troops and organize a successful rear-guard defense and retreat. Sheridan’s role in the Union victory at the Battle of Missionary Ridge during November of 1864 got him promoted to cavalry general of all the Union’s cavalry in Virginia. The Battle of Missionary Ridge was the Union’s army’s successful defense of Chattanooga when they were nearly surrounded and cut off from supplies.

Sheridan’s cavalry burned through the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, destroying farms, slaughtering livestock, wrecking railroad lines, and starving Confederates. Along with Sherman’s March through Georgia, this did more to shortening the war than anything else. They cut the Confederacy off from their main bread baskets. Sheridan’s cavalry was there at the end, ready to give the Confederate army a decisive final blow when they surrendered. He was disappointed that he didn’t get 1 more chance to beat them severely.

After the war General Sheridan was put in charge of a military district that included Louisiana and Texas. Union troops occupied the defeated rebellious states and had to protect freed slaves and enforce free elections. Sheridan did not like Texans and southerners, and he hated ex-Confederates. (He would have been infuriated that some modern military bases are named after mediocre traitorous Confederate Generals.) Sheridan oversaw the integration of street cars in New Orleans (southern whites didn’t think black people should ride in the same cars as them), and he quelled some of the political violence. He didn’t get along with southerners and during 1868 was put in charge of the U.S. Army in the west, then in the process of forcing Indians onto reservations.

Sherman’s successful war against the Indians mirrors the strategy he used to defeat the Confederacy. It was a ruthless campaign to cut off Indians from their supplies. Innocent people on both sides were killed. Indians massacred white settlers, and the army retaliated and often killed women and children when they raided Indian camps. The army attacked Indian camps in a war of attrition that just wore the Indians down until they gave up and agreed to go live on reservations. The U.S. Army didn’t win every battle. Most notably they lost at the Battle of Little Big Horn when Custer divided his forces and attacked a force of Indians that outnumbered his. But the relentless campaigns eventually did make the Indians quit.

Sheridan became commander of the whole U.S. Army after William Sherman retired. Sheridan didn’t get married until he was 44 in 1875. He did have an Indian lover who lived with him at Fort Reading before the Civil War when he was stationed in California. She came to see him many years later when he was in Washington DC before she agreed to marry a French trapper. Apparently, Sheridan was her first choice. It’s just conjecture on my part, but he probably didn’t want to marry her because a mixed-race marriage would have hurt his military career ambitions. Instead, he married Irene Rucker who was 23 years younger than him. They had 4 children. Despite having a small frame, Sheridan grew fat during middle age. He was always a hearty eater and drinker, and he developed heart problems. He suffered a series of heart attacks and died in 1888 at the age of 57.

Reference:

Morris, Roy

Sheridan: The Life and Wars of General Phil Sheridan

Random House 1992