north in disarray. Sheridan, who was on his way back
from Washington and had reached Winchester, heard
the distant gunfire, mounted his horse, and galloped
to meet his troops fleeing in disarray. In a remarkable
display of personal leadership, he rallied them, took
them back the way they had come, made contact with
his subordinate commanders, gave out his orders, and
swept down on Early’s troops, who had paused to loot
the Union camp, driving them from the field. It was the
last major engagement in the Shenandoah Valley, and
Sheridan’s gallop from Winchester to rally his troops was
immortalized in the poem ‘Sheridan’s Ride’ by Thomas
Buchanan Read.
During the next few months, Sheridan tightened
his hold on the Shenandoah Valley, destroying crops and
confiscating cattle and any supplies of use to the South.
He mopped up the remainder of Early’s forces in Febru-
ary 1865 and then took his troops east to join Grant in
the final push on Lee. In March, Grant sent Sheridan
south and west to cover any chance of Lee’s army escap-
ing. When Lee’s army at last marched west from Rich-
mond, they met Sheridan’s strong cavalry formation in
front of them and, behind Sheridan, advancing columns
of Union infantry. The next day, Lee surrendered at Ap-
pomattox Court House.
After the Civil War, Sheridan served as military
governor of Texas and Louisiana, where his harsh mea-
sures led to charges of brutality. From 1867 to 1870, he
commanded the Department of the Missouri and was
engaged in the Indian Wars. In 1870, he went to Europe
to observe the Franco-Prussian war. In 1883, he was
made commander in chief, replacing William Tecumseh
sherman and serving in that post until his death. He
was promoted to full general on 1 June 1888, only the
third officer to hold that rank, after Grant and Sherman.
He died on 5 August 1888 and was buried in Arlington
National Cemetery.
While he may not have been the master tactician
that Lee was or a master strategist like Grant, Philip
Sheridan was a superb field commander who knew his
duty and whose gift of leadership and courage played a
major part in the Union victory.
References: Wittenberg, Eric J., Little Phil: A Reassess-
ment of the Civil War Leadership of General Philip H.
Sheridan (Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s 2002); Morris,
Roy, Jr., Sheridan: The Life and Wars of General Phil
Sheridan (New York: Vintage Books, 1993); Hutton,
Paul Andrew, Phil Sheridan and His Army (Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1985); Bichens, Hugh,
“Sheridan, Gen Philip H.,” in The Oxford Companion
to Military History, edited by Richard Holmes (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 828–829; Wind-
row, Martin, and Francis K. Mason, “Sheridan, Philip
Henry,” in The Wordsworth Dictionary of Military Biog-
raphy (Hertfordshire, U.K.: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.,
1997), 269–270; Sheridan, P. H., Personal Memoirs of P.
H. Sheridan, General United States Army (New York: Da
Capo Press, 1992).Sherman, William Tecumseh (1820–1891)
American general
William Tecumseh Sherman—initially named Tecumseh
Sherman after the Shawnee chieftain Tecumseh—was
born in Lancaster, Ohio, on 8 February 1820, one of
eight children born to Judge Charles R. Sherman, who
died when his son was nine. Judge Sherman’s widow
could not provide for all her children, and Tecumseh
was sent to live with Thomas Ewing, a friend of the
family who served as a U.S. senator from Ohio. Ewing
later adopted the boy, who kept his own name, although
he also retained the name of William that his adoptive
mother had given him. When William was 16, Ewing
used his political connections to gain him an appoint-
ment to the United States Military Academy at West
Point, New York; Sherman graduated in 1840 near the
top of his class.
When Sherman left West Point, the war against
the Seminole Indians in what is now the state of Flor-
ida was in progress. Sherman was sent south and saw
action against the Seminole for a short period before
being sent to Fort Moultrie in South Carolina. He saw
no action during the Mexican War (1846–48), spend-
ing his service as an administrative officer in California.
In 1850, he married his adoptive sister, Ellen Ewing,
Thomas Ewing’s natural daughter, and three years later,
he resigned from the army and took a position with a
St. Louis banking firm at its San Francisco branch. The
economic crash of 1857 left him bankrupt, and he only
survived with the help of two old West Point friends,
Braxton Bragg and Pierre Beauregard, who secured him
a position as superintendent of a military academy in
Louisiana in 1859. Ironically, Bragg and Beauregard
later joined the Confederacy in the Civil War, and Sher-
man fought against them.SheRmAn, williAm tecumSeh