Phillip H. Sheridan

Included here are in-depth biographies of General Phillip H. Sheridan. Sources include Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography, Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, the Federal Publishing Company’s The Union Army: A History of Military Affairs in the Loyal States 1861-65—Records of the Regiments in the Union Army—Cyclopedia of Battles—Memoirs of Commanders and Soldiers, Vol. VIII, Biographical, and Scribner’s Campaigns of the Civil War.

Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography - SEE BELOW

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography - SEE BELOW

Federal Publishing Company’s The Union Army

Scribner’s Campaigns of the Civil War

Civil War Library website

Phillip H. Sheridan - Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography

SHERIDAN, PHILIP HENRY (Mar. 6, 1831-Aug.5, 1888), Union soldier, was the third of six children of John and Mary (Meenagh) Sheridan, who emigrated to America from County Cavan, Ireland, about 1830. They lived for a time in Albany, N. Y., where, according to his own account, Philip was born. Hoping to provide a better maintenance for his growing family, the father took them to Somerset, Perry County, Ohio, where he sought work upon the canals and roads then under construction. The village school provided Philip with the most rudimentary kind of an education, and eve n this was interrupted when he became a clerk in a county-store at the age of fourteen. He was too young to follow the youths of Somerset when they enlisted for the Mexican War, a bitter disappointment which was mitigated only by his appointment to the United States Military Academy. On the day of registration, July I, 1848, Sheridan gave his age as eighteen years and one month, which would indicate that he had been born in 1830. With the aid of his roommate, Henry Warner Slocum [q.v.], he succeeded in passing the examinations, but his pugnacious tendencies soon brought him to grief. An altercation with a cadet-officer, who, Sheridan believed, treated him unjustly, reached a climax when Sheridan stepped from the ranks and pursued his superior with bayonet fixed. He was suspended from the Academy for a year, but subsequently was graduated with the class of 1853, number thirty-four in a class of forty-nine.

As a brevet second lieutenant, 1st Infantry, he served for a year along the Rio Grande River, and then, with the 4th Infantry, he saw arduous service against hostile Indians in the Northwest. In the spring of 1861, he received his captaincy in the 13th Infantry, and began his war service as quartermaster and commissary of Union troops in southwest Missouri and as General Halleck's quartermaster during the Corinth campaign. His aggressive spirit chafed, however, under the restrictions of staff duty, and he therefore welcomed his appointment as colonel of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry on May 25, 1862. In a little over a month, he won the stars of a brigadier-general for his signal victory at Booneville, Mo., where he commanded a brigade. His subsequent service was brilliant; at Perryville, commanding an infantry division, he succeeded where others failed, and at Stone River, he practically saved the army of Rosecrans by his stubborn resistance to the Confederate advance. His well-merited promotion to the rank of major-general of volunteers followed on Dec. 31, 1862. In the fall of the following year, Sheridan again distinguished himself in command of the XX Corps, Army of the Cumberland, at the sanguinary battle of Chickamauga. Some two months later in the battle of Chattanooga, his command swept up the heights and over the crest of Missionary Ridge in a magnificent charge which contributed largely to Grant's defeat of Bragg and brought Sheridan into favor with Grant. Accordingly, with the latter's promotion to the rank of lieutenant-general, he gave Sheridan command of all the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, a corps consisting of three divisions, with about 10,000 men for duty.

Sheridan initiated a complete reorganization of his cavalry command with characteristic energy, and in a little over a month was actively engaged in the battles of the Wilderness, Todd's Tavern, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor. Beginning on the morning of May 9, 1864, and continuing until May 25, Sheridan's corps raided the Confederate communications around Richmond, destroyed about ten miles of track on three important railroads, broke up telegraph communication, captured many trains of stores, and caused great alarm and apprehension in the Confederate capital. On May 28, he fought the battle of Hawes's Shop and, soon after, the battle at Trevilian Station. During the months of May, June, and July, he was engaged in successive raids against the Confederate lines, performing brilliant service and securing decisive results. Early in August 1864, Sheridan was placed in command of the Army of the Shenandoah, and received Grant's personal instructions to drive the enemy south and to destroy all supplies in the fertile Shenandoah Valley which might enable them to use it again as a base of operations. Sheridan prepared his plans with a caution which seemed almost dilatory to his superiors at Washington, and then, with forceful initiative, accomplished the defeat of Jubal Anderson Early [q.v.], at Winchester (Opequon) on Sept. 19, and again at Fisher's Hill on Sept. 22. As a reward, he was promptly promoted brigadier-general in the regular army. He then proceeded to lay waste the Valley, driving out its herds of domestic animals and virtually reducing its non-combatants to the state of starvation. For this, Sheridan was severely censured by Southern sympathizers, but in his eyes it was a matter of military necessity, the means calculated to be the most effective in bringing the war to an early end. For three years the Valley had sustained Confederate forces which had dealt out defeat after defeat to the Federal armies and it had supported the so-called "guerrilla bands," such as Mosby's Men, which had wrought so much damage within the Union lines.

Sheridan's little army was, however, surprised by Early at Cedar Creek, and all but routed on Oct. 19, 1864. The commander, resting at Winchester en route to his army, was twenty miles from the scene. He made his famous ride to the battle-field-immortalized in verse by Thomas Buchanan Read [q.v.]-rallied his demoralized troops, reformed his retreating lines, and decisively snatched victory from defeat. As a fitting climax to this series of accomplishments, Sheridan was made a major-general in the regular army on Nov. 8, 1864, and, with his veteran troops, received the thanks of Congress for their achievements in the Valley of the Shenandoah, and especially for the victory at Cedar Run. "Little Phil" as Sheridan was known to his soldiers, was indefatigable. He was actively engaged from Feb. 27 to Mar. 24, 1865, in a great raid from Winchester to Petersburg, in which he again defeated Early at Waynesboro. He cut three railroads and two canals, destroyed important Confederate depots of supplies, and left Lee's army with but a single line of railroad communication with the South. Of even greater military importance, perhaps, the strategic concentration of Sheridan's forces at Five Forks upon the successful conclusion of this raid, enabled him, on Apr. 1, 1865, to turn the flank of the Confederate army, force it to evacuate Petersburg and to initiate the ill-fated retreat to Appomattox. In the resultant final operations of the War, which included Sheridan's successful engagement at Sailor's Creek, his command was thrown squarely across Lee's line of retreat, and the surrender of the Confederate army to General Grant followed.

After the war, Sheridan was entrusted with the highly responsible problem of administering the military division of the Gulf, fraught with unsettled conditions along the Mexican border. He combined considerable material and moral support to the Mexican liberals with strong demonstrations of American troops north of the Rio Grande River, and practically forced the French government to withdraw its support of Maximilian (see Memoirs, post, II, pp. 210 ff .). Early in 1867, the Reconstruction Acts were passed, and Sheridan was made military governor of the fifth military district, Louisiana and Texas, with headquarters at New Orleans-an appointment entailing many difficult as well as delicate problems of administration, incident to the bitterness engendered by post-war conditions. His policies were characterized by severely repressive measures in the interest of Reconstruction in the South, a cause to which Sheridan was thoroughly, if sternly, devoted, and although he was strongly supported by General Grant, the disapproval of President Johnson event4ally brought about his relief from this duty and his transfer to the department of the Missouri. In this new sphere of action, he embarked upon military operations against the Cheyennes, Comanches, Arapahoes, and Kiowas, and finally forced these hostile Indians to settle upon the reservations which by treaty had been allotted them. On Mar. 4, 1869, President Grant appointed him lieutenant-general, and assigned him to command the division of the Missouri.

Sheridan went abroad in 1870-71, during the Franco-Prussian war, to visit the German armies in the field, met Bismarck, von Moltke, and the German emperor, and witnessed the great battle of Sedan. After a year's absence, he returned to resume command of his military division, with headquarters in Chicago. He was tentatively selected by the president to command the American forces in 1873, when an invasion of Cuba was seriously considered in connection with the Virginius affair. Two years later he was again sent to the city of New Orleans to settle disturbed conditions which culminated in political rioting. He was placed in command of the western and southwestern military divisions in 1878, and in 1884 he succeeded General Sherman as commander-in-chief of the army. On June 1, 1888, Congress bestowed upon him the highest military rank, that of general. The last months of his life were occupied by the writing of his Personal Memoirs (2 vols., 1888), the preface being signed only three days before his death at Nonquitt, Mass., where he had gone with his family in the hope of restoring his failing health. His funeral, with imposing military and civil honors, took place in Washington, D. C., and he was interred in the National Cemetery at Arlington. He was survived by his widow and by four children, three daughters and a son. He had been married to Irene the daughter of Gen. D. H. Rucker, later quartermaster-general of the army, June 3, 1875, while stationed in Chicago.

Sheridan was a short, slight man, of unprepossessing bearing in his later years, and even of ungainly appearance in his earlier. A pronounced reserve which characterized him at all times did not affect the magnetic quality of his personality which so impressed his military subordinates. Always just and considerate in his dealings with his men, and assiduous in promoting the health, personal comfort, and general welfare of his troops, he won from them a complete and enthusiastic confidence. When the battle waged hottest, Sheridan was at his best cool, exact, self-possessed, the dashing and brilliant leader of men willing to follow him anywhere. He was never a profound student of military science, but his natural aptitude for command led him always to execute with great success the two rules upon which he acted : to take the offensive whenever possible, and to wring the last possible advantages from a defeated enemy. It may be noted, however, that Sheridan rose to his conspicuous military position only near the end of the war, and that his greatest successes were won from a numerically inferior and poorly mounted foe.

[Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan (2 vols., 1888) ; Joseph Hergesheimer, Sheridan (1931);
W . H. Van Orden, Gen. Philip H. Sheridan (1896);
John McElroy, Gen. Philip Henry Sheridan ( 1896 );
G. W. Cullum, Biog. Reg . U. S. Mil. Acad. (1891);
J. H. Wilson, biog. sketch in Twentieth Ann. Reunion, Association Grads., U.S. Mil. Acad. (1889);
The Centennial of the U.S. Mil. Acad. at West Point, N. Y. (1904), vol. II; Adam Badeau, Mil. Hist. of U. S. Grant (1881), vol. III;
Horace Porter, Campaigning with Grant (1897);
Washington (D. C.) Post, Aug. 6, 1888.]

C. D.R.

Source: Dictionary of American Biography, Volume IX, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930, pp. 79-81.

Phillip H. Sheridan - Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography

SHERIDAN, Philip Henry, soldier, born in Albany, New York, 6 March. 1831; died in Nonquitt, Massachusetts, 5 August, 1888. After attending the public school he was entered as a cadet in the United States Military Academy, 1 July, 1848. On account of a quarrel with a cadet file-closer in 1850, whose conduct toward him he deemed insulting, he was suspended from the academy for a year, but returned, and was graduated, 1 July, 1853, standing thirty-fourth in a class of fifty-two, of which James B. McPherson was at the head. General John M. Schofield and the Confederate General John B. Hood were also his classmates. On the day of his graduation he was appointed a brevet 2d lieutenant in the 3d U.S. Infantry. After service in Kentucky, Texas, and Oregon, he was made 2d lieutenant in the 4th U.S. Infantry, 22 November, 1854, 1st lieutenant, 1 March, 1801, and captain in the 13th U.S. Infantry, 14 May, 1861. In December of that year he was chief quartermaster and commissary of the army in southwestern Missouri. In the Mississippi Campaign from April to September, 1862, he was quartermaster at General Halleck's headquarters during the advance upon Corinth. It then became manifest that his true place was in the field. On 20 May, 1862, he was appointed colonel of the 2d Michigan Cavalry, and on 1 July was sent to make a raid on Booneville, Mississippi. He did excellent service in the pursuit of the enemy from Corinth to Baldwin, and in many skirmishes during July, and at the battle of Booneville.

In reward for his skill and courage he was appointed, 1 July, a brigadier-general of volunteers, and on 1 October was placed in command of the 11th Division of the Army of the Ohio, in which capacity he took part in the successful battle of Perryville, on 8 October, between the armies of General Buell and General Bragg, at the close of which the latter retreated from £ In this action Sheridan was particularly distinguished. After the enemy had driven back McCook's corps and were pressing upon the exposed left flank of Gilbert, Sheridan, with General Robert B. Mitchell, arrested the tide, and, driving them back through Perryville, re-established the broken line. His force marched with the army to the relief of Nashville in October and November. He was then placed in command of a division in the Army of the Cumberland, and took art in the two days' battle of Stone River (or Murfreesboro), 31 December, 1862, and 3 January, 1863. Buell had been relieved from the command of the army on 30 October, and Rosecrans promoted in his lace. The Confederate army was still under Bragg. The left of Rosecrans was strong, and his right comparatively weak. So the right was simply to hold its ground while the left should cross the river. The project of Bragg, well-conceived, was to crush the National right, and he almost succeeded. Division after division was driven back until Cheatham attacked him in front, while Cleburne essayed to turn his flank, and Sheridan was reached; the fate of the day seemed to be in his hands. He resisted vigorously, then advanced and drove the enemy back, changing front to the south (a daring manoeuvre in battle), held the overwhelming force in check, and retired only at the point of the bayonet. This brilliant feat of arms enabled Rosecrans to form a new line in harmony with his overpowered right. Sheridan said laconically to Rosecrans, when they met on the field, pointing to the wreck of his division, which had lost 1,630 men: “Here are all that are left.” After two days of indecision and desultory attempts, Bragg abandoned Murfreesboro and fell back to Tullahoma, while Rosecrans waited for a rest at that place.

Sheridan's military ability had been at once recognized and acknowledged by all, and he was ap£ a major-general of volunteers, to date from 31 December, 1862. He was engaged in the pursuit of Van Dorn to Columbia and Franklin during March, and captured a train and many prisoners at Eaglesville. He was with the advance on Tullahoma from 24 June to 4 July, 1863, taking part in the capture of Winchester, Tennessee, on 27 June. He was with the army in the crossing of the Cumberland mountains and of the Tennessee River from 15 August to 4 September, and in the severe battle of the Chickamauga, on 19 and 20 September The National right, under McCook, was driven off the field, and in #eat danger of being cut off, but General George H. Thomas held the centre with an iron grip, and General Thomas L. Crittenden commanded the left. Bragg maneuvered to turn the left and cut Rosecrans off from Chattanooga. During the battle there was a misconception of orders, which left a gap in the centre of the line which the enemy at once entered. The right being thus thrown out of the fight, the centre was greatly imperilled. For some time the battle seemed irrecoverably lost, but Thomas, since called “the Rock of Chickamauga,” held firm; Sheridan alone rallied many soldiers of the retreating centre, and joined Thomas; and, in spite of the fierce and repeated attacks of the enemy, the entire force fell slowly back in good order within the defences of Chattanooga, whither Crittenden and Rosecrans had gone. Rosecrans was superseded by Thomas, to whom was presented a problem apparently incapable of solution. He was ordered to hold the place to the point of starvation, and he said he would. The enemy had possession of the approaches by land and water, men and animals were starving, and forage and provisions had to be hauled seventy-five miles.

General Grant was then invested with the command of all the southern armies contained in the new Military Division of the Mississippi, embracing the departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee. He reached Chattanooga on 23 October, and the condition of affairs was suddenly changed. He ordered the troops relieved by the capture of Vicksburg to join him, and Sherman came with his corps. Sheridan was engaged in all the operations around Chattanooga, under the immediate command and personal observations of General Grant, and '' an important part in the battle of Mission Ridge. From the centre of the National line he led the troops of his division from Orchard Knob, and, after carrying the intrenchments and rifle-pits at the foot of the mountain, instead of using his discretion to pause there, he moved his division forward to the top of the ridge and drove the enemy across the summit and down the opposite slope. In this action he first attracted the marked attention of General Grant, who saw that he might be one of his most useful lieutenants in the future—a man with whom to try its difficult and delicate problems. A horse was shot under him in this action, but he pushed on in the pursuit to Mission Mills, with other portions of the corps of Thomas harassing the rear of the enemy, for Bragg, having abandoned all his positions on Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga Valley, and Missionary Ridge, was in rapid retreat toward Dalton.

After further operations connected with the occupancy of east Tennessee, Sheridan was transferred by Grant to Virginia, where, on 4 April, 1864, he was placed in command of the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac, all the cavalry being consolidated to form that command. Here he seemed in his element; to the instincts and talents of a general he joined the fearless dash of a dragoon. Entering with Grant upon the overland Campaign, he took part in the bloody battle of the Wilderness, 5 and 6 May, 1864. Constantly in the van, or on the wings, he was engaged in raids, threatening the Confederate flanks and rear. His fight at Todd's Tavern, 7 May, was an important aid to the movement of the army; his capture of Spottsylvania Court-House, 8 May, added to his reputation for timely dash and daring; but more astonishing was his great raid from the 9th to the 24th of May. He cut the Virginia Central and the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroads, and made his appearance in good condition near Chatfield station on 25 May. In this raid, having under him kindred spirits in Merritt, Custer, Wilson, and Gregg, he first made a descent upon Beaver Dam on 10 #. where he destroyed a locomotive and a train, and recaptured about 400 men who had been made prisoners. At Yellow Tavern, on 11 May, he encountered the Confederate cavalry under J. E. B. Stuart, who was killed in the engagement. He next moved upon the outer defences of Richmond, rebuilt Meadow's bridge, went to Bottom's bridge, and reached Haxall's on 14 May. He returned by Hanovertown and Totopotomoy creek, having done much damage, created fears and misgivings, and won great renown with little loss. He led the advance to Cold Harbor, crossing the Pamunky at Hanovertown on 27 May, fought the cavalry battle of Hawes's Shop on the 28th, and held Cold Harbor until General William P. Smith came up with the 6th Corps to occupy the place. The bloody battle of Cold Harbor was fought on 31 May and 3 June. Setting out on 7 June, Sheridan made a raid toward Charlottesville, where he expected to meet the National force under General Hunter. This movement, it was thought, would force Lee to detach his cavalry. Unexpectedly, however. Hunter made a detour to Lynchburg, and Sheridan, unable to join him, returned to Jordan's point, on James River. Thence, after again cutting the Virginia Central and Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroads and capturing 500 prisoners, he rejoined for a brief space the Army of the Potomac. In quick succession came the cavalry actions of Trevillian station, fought between Wade Hampton and Torbert. 11 and 12 June, and Tunstall station, 21 June, in which the movements were feints to cover the railroad-crossings of the Chickahominy and the James. There was also a cavalry affair of a similar nature at St. Mary's Church on 24 June. Pressed by Grant, Lee fell back on 28 July, 1864. The vigor, judgment, and dash of Sheridan had now marked him in the eyes of Grant as fit for a far more important station. Early in August, 1864, he was placed in command of the Army of the Shenandoah, formed in part from the army of Hunter, who retired from the command, and from that time till the end of the war Sheridan seems never to have encountered a military problem too difficult for his solution. His new army consisted at first of the 6th Corps, two divisions of the 8th, and two cavalry divisions, commanded by Generals Torbert and Wilson, which he took with him from the Army of the Potomac. Pour days later, 7 August, the scope of his command was constituted the Middle Military Division. He had an arduous and difficult task before him to clear the enemy out of the valley of Virginia, break up his magazines, and relieve Washington from chronic terror. Sheridan grasped the situation at once. He posted his forces in front of Berryville, while the enemy under Early occupied the west bank of Opequan Creek and covered Winchester. In his division, besides the 6th Corps under Wright and the 8th under Crook, Sheridan had received the addition of the 19th, commanded by Emory. Torbert was placed in command of all the cavalry. Having great confidence in Sheridan, Grant yet acted with a proper caution before giving him the final order to advance. He went from City Point to Harper's Ferry to meet Sheridan, and told him he must not move till Lee had withdrawn a portion of the Confederate force in the valley. As soon as that was done he gave Sheridan the laconic direction, “ Go in." He says in his report: " He was off promptly on time, and I may add that I have never since deemed it necessary to visit General Sheridan before giving him orders." On the morning of 19 September, Sheridan attacked Early at the crossing of the Opequan, fought him all day, drove him through Winchester, and sent him "whirling up the valley," having captured 5,000 prisoners and five guns. The enemy did not stop to reorganize until he had reached Fisher's hill, thirty miles south of Winchester. Here Sheridan again came up and dislodged him, driving him through Harrisonburg and Staunton, and in scattered portions through the passes of the Blue Ridge. For these successes he was made a brigadier-general in the regular army on 10 September Returning leisurely to Strasburg, he posted his army for a brief repose behind Cedar creek, while Torbert was despatched on a raid to Staunton, with orders to devastate the country, so that, should the enemy return, he could find no subsistence, and this was effectually done. To clear the way for an advance, the enemy now sent "a new cavalry general," Thomas L. Rosser, down the valley; but he was soon driven back in confusion. Early's army, being re-enforced by a part of Longstreet's command, again moved forward with celerity and secrecy, and, fording the north fork of the Shenandoah, on 18 October approached rapidly and unobserved, under favor of fog and darkness, to within 600 yards of Sheridan's left flank, which was formed by Crook's corps. When, on the early morning of the 19th, they leaped upon the surprised National force, there was an immediate retreat and the appearance of an appalling disaster. The 8th Corps was rolled up, the exposed centre in turn gave way, and soon the whole army was in retreat. Sheridan had been absent in Washington, and at this juncture had just returned to Winchester, twenty miles from the field. Hearing the sound of the battle, he rode rapidly, and arrived on the field at ten o'clock. As he rode up he shouted to the retreating troops: "Face the other way, boys; we are going back!" Many of the Confederates had left their ranks for plunder, and the attack was made upon their disorganized battalions, and was successful. A portion of their army, ignorant of the swiftly coming danger, was intact, and had determined to give a finishing blow to the disorganized National force. This was caught and hurled back by an attack in two columns with cavalry supports. The enemy's left was soon routed; the rest followed, never to return, and the valley was thus finally rendered impossible of occupancy by Confederate troops. They did not stop till they had reached Staunton, and pursuit was made as far as Mount Jackson. They had lost in the campaign 16,952 killed or wounded and 13,000 prisoners. Under orders from Grant, Sheridan devastated the valley. He has been censured for this, as if it were wanton destruction and cruelty. He destroyed the barns and the crops, mills, factories, farming-utensils, etc., and drove oft5 all the cattle, sheep, and horses. But, as in similar cases in European history, although there must have been much suffering and some uncalled-for rigor, this was necessary to destroy the resources of the enemy in the valley, by means of which they could continually menace Washington and Pennsylvania. The illustration is a representation of "Sheridan's Ride," a statuette, by James E. Kelly. The steel portrait is taken from a photograph made in 1884. The terms of the president's order making Sheridan a major-general in the army were: "For personal gallantry, military skill, and just confidence in the courage and patriotism of his troops, displayed by Philip H. Sheridan on the 19th of October at Cedar Run, where, under the blessing of Providence, his routed army was reorganized, a great national disaster averted, and a brilliant victory achieved over the rebels for the third time in pitched battle within thirty days, Philip H. Sheridan is appointed major-general in the United States Army, to rank as such from the 8th day of November, 1864." The immediate tribute of Grant was also very strong. In an order that each of the armies under his command should fire a salute of one hundred guns in honor of these victories, he says of the last battle that "it stamps Sheridan, what I have always thought him, one of the ablest of generals." On 9 February, 1865, Sheridan received the thanks of Congress for " the gallantry, military skill, and courage displayed in the brilliant series of victories achieved by his army in the valley of the Shenandoah, especially at Cedar Run." During the remainder of the war Sheridan fought under the direct command of Grant, and always with unabated vigor and consummate skill. In the days between 27 February and 24 March, 1865, he conducted, with 10,000 cavalry, a colossal raid from Winchester to Petersburg, destroying the James River and Kanawha Canal, and cutting the Gordonsville and Lynchburg, the Virginia Central, and the Richmond and Fredericksburg Railroads. During this movement, on 1 March, he secured the bridge over the middle fork of the Shenandoah, and on the 2d he again routed Early at Waynesboro, pursuing him toward Charlottesville. He joined the Army of the Potomac and shared in all its battles. From Grant's general orders, sent in circular to Meade, Ord, and Sheridan, on 24 March, 1865, we learn that a portion of the army was to be moved along its left to turn the enemy out of Petersburg, that the rest of the army was to be ready to repel and take advantage of attacks in front, while General Sheridan, with his cavalry, should go out to destroy the Southside and Danville Railroad and take measures to intercept the enemy should he evacuate the defences of Richmond. On the morning of 29 March the movement began. Two corps of the Army of the Potomac were moved toward Dinwiddie Court-House, which was in a measure the key of the position to be cleared by Sheridan's troops. The court-house lies in the fork of the Southside and Weldon Railroads, which meet in Petersburg. A severe action took place at Dinwiddie, after which Sheridan advanced to Five Forks on 31 March. Here he was strongly resisted by the bulk of Lee's column, but, dismounting his cavalry and deploying, he checked the enemy's progress, retiring slowly upon Dinwiddie. Of this General Grant says: "Here he displayed great generalship. Instead of retreating with his whole command, to tell the story of superior forces encountered, he deployed his cavalry on foot, ... he despatched to me what had taken place, and that he was dropping back slowly on Dinwiddie." There re-enforced, and assuming additional command of the 5th Corps, 12,000 strong, he returned on 1 April with it and 9,000 cavalry to Five Forks and ordered Merritt. to make a feint of turning the enemy's right, while the 5th struck their left flank. The Confederates were driven from their strong line and routed, fleeing westward and leaving 0,000 prisoners in his hands. Sheridan immediately pursued. Five Forks was one of the most brilliant and decisive of the engagements of the war. and compelled Lee's evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond. Sheridan was engaged at Sailor's Creek, 6 April, where he captured sixteen guns, and in many minor actions, 8-9 April, harassing and pursuing the Army of Northern Virginia, and aiding largely to compel the final surrender. He was present at the surrender at Appomattox Court House on 9 April. He made a raid to South Boston. North Carolina, on the river Dan on 24 April, returning to Petersburg on 3 May, 1865. After the war Sheridan was in charge of the Military Division of the Gulf from 17 July to 15 August, 1866, which was then created the Department of the Gulf, and remained there until 11 March, 1867. From 12 September to 16 March he was in command of the Department of the Missouri, with headquarters at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Thence he conducted a winter campaign against the Indians, after which he took charge of the Military Division of the Mississippi, with headquarters at Chicago. When General Ulysses S. Grant became president. 4 March, 1869. General William T. Sherman was made general-in-chief and Sheridan was promoted to lieutenant-general, with the understanding that both these titles should disappear with the men holding them. In 1870 Sheridan visited Europe to witness the conduct of the Franco-Prussian War. He was with the German staff during the battle of Gravelotte, and presented some judicious criticisms of the campaign. He commanded the western and southwestern Military Divisions in 1878. On the retirement of Sherman in 1883, the lieutenant-general became general-in-chief. In May, 1888, he became ill from exposure in western travel, and, in recognition of his claims, a bill was passed by both houses of Congress, and was promptly signed by President Cleveland, restoring for him and during his lifetime the full rank and emoluments of general. He was the nineteenth general-in-chief of the United States army. Sheridan never was defeated, and often plucked victory out of the jaws of defeat. He was thoroughly trusted, admired, and loved by his officers and men. He bore the nickname of "Little Phil," a term of endearment due to his size, like the "petit corporal" of Napoleon I. He was below the middle height, but powerfully built, with a strong countenance indicative of valor and resolution. Trustful to a remarkable degree, modest and reticent, he was a model soldier and general, a good citizen in all the relations of public and private life, thoroughly deserving the esteem and admiration of all who knew him. In 1879 Sheridan married Miss Rucker, the daughter of General Daniel H. Rucker, of the U. S. army. He was a Roman Catholic, and devoted to his duties as such. He was the author of " Personal Memoirs" (2 vols., New York, 1888).

Source: Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Vol. V, p. 497-500.