America250: Army Veteran Philip Sheridan

Philip H. Sheridan was born in March 1831. “Little Phil,” as he was known, was educated in Somerset County, Ohio. He lied about his age to enter the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1848. Known for both his short stature and temper—he was suspended for one year after assaulting an upperclassman. In 1852, he graduated 34th in a class of 49 and was commissioned as second lieutenant in the 1st Infantry.

Sheridan joined the 4th Infantry in March 1856 and led 40 dragoons in Oregon against the Cascade Indians, who had captured a blockhouse near Dallas. He then spent the next five years at Fort Yamhill on the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation until the outbreak of the Civil War.

During the Civil War, Sheridan served in the 13th Infantry in southwest Missouri, and in late May 1862 he was appointed colonel of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry. After a successful raid at Booneville, Mississippi, he was appointed to brigadier general and commander of an infantry division in Buell’s Army of the Ohio, and then to major general of volunteers. He campaigned in central Tennessee with Gen. William S. Rosecrans throughout 1863 before Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant appointed him as chief of cavalry to the Army of the Potomac.

Sheridan transitioned this Army of 10,000 horsemen from its mission of battlefield support into a strike force. Grant sent Sheridan and his men on a mission to make a “barren waste” of the Shenandoah Valley, a vital area for the Confederacy. They destroyed mills, railroads, factories and other resources while defeating Confederate forces. In October 1864, his troops were caught off guard by an attack at Cedar Creek, but Sheridan’s speedy arrival halted a retreat and prevented further harm to the Union troops.

Sheridan was promoted to major general in the regular Army for his actions at Cedar Creek and received a letter of gratitude from President Abraham Lincoln. In the spring of 1865, he pushed Lee’s army until the point of surrender at Appomattox. After the war, he continued climbing the ranks from the military governor of Texas to the general in chief of the Army of the United States.

Sheridan died in August 1888 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

We honor his service.

Writer: Mary Margaret Brennan

Editors: Cate Manning, Ashley Shaut

Researcher: Christopher Rosenquist

Graphic Designer: Saul Leon