CHAPTER IX

PHILIP H. SHERIDAN

It was not my fortune to serve under General Sheridan, but I saw something of him, and came to esteem him very highly. He also was a West Pointer, and an Ohioan like Sherman; but was too young to have served in Mexico. He had distinguished himself, however, in our Indian troubles in Texas, Oregon, and Washington prior to the

war.

In the autumn of 1861 he was ordered East from the Pacific coast at his own request for active duty against the Rebellion. In December, 1861 (being then captain of the Thirteenth United States Infantry), he reported to General Halleck at St. Louis, and was assigned to duty as chief quartermaster and chief commissary of the Army of Southwest Missouri. Of course, this did not last long. He was too "gamey" and mettlesome a man for such routine staff duties, though he knew much about horses, mules, wagons, rations, etc., and in due time-as naturally as water runs or grass grows-became colonel of the Second Michigan Cavalry, and was ordered to the Army of the Tennessee (May, 1862), then before Corinth, Miss.

Here, by changes and promotions incident to active service, he soon became commander of a brigade of cavalry, and handled it so well that in July, 1862, he was appointed brigadier general on the recommendation of his associate and superior officers, and in September, 1862, was transferred to the Army of the Cumberland, then operating in Kentucky, and assigned to an infantry division there. By steady drill and discipline he soon got this into excellent shape, and at the battle of Stone River or

Murfreesboro, Tenn. (December, 1862), he fought it with gallantry and skill, and certainly shared with Thomas and Hazen the honors of that bloody field-such as they were. For his good conduct here he was presently and rightly appointed major general of volunteers.

From Murfreesboro to Chickamauga (September, 1863) he served ably and creditably. But at Chickamauga, in the whirl and confusion of the chaotic conflict there at best a dubious battle, which just escaped being an awful Union defeat-he lost his head, like Rosecrans and others, and fell back when he ought to have advanced, or at least have held his ground like the sturdy Thomas. However, this was amply atoned for by his general good conduct there and elsewhere, and in the titanic conflict at Chattanooga (November 25, 1863) he led in the grand assault on Missionary Ridge, under the immediate eye of Thomas and Grant, and conducted his attack so skillfully and spiritedly-with such alacrity and celerity—that Grant at once marked him for his own.

Hence, in the spring of 1864, when Grant assumed general charge of the Army of the Potomac, and was casting about for a new chief of cavalry there, his mind settled down on Sheridan, and "Little Phil" was promptly ordered East. He was then in East Tennessee, but he hastened to Washington by way of Chattanooga and Nashville, and while elated to go East and serve with Grant, was full of regret at parting with Thomas and Sherman-and especially with his old division. His officers and men spontaneously assembled at the station to see him off, and as his train rolled out they waved him farewell with every demonstration of sorrow and affection.1

He was then, I think, the youngest and certainly the smallest major general in the service. He had just passed

1 Sheridan's Memoirs, vol. i, p. 340.

thirty-three years of age, was five feet five inches high, and weighed only a hundred and fifteen pounds. He was thin even to emaciation, and on first glance looked more like a lieutenant or a cadet than a major general.

But a second glance gave better and more assurance. He had dark grayish-blue eyes, that looked right through you; a fighting nose and face; short neck, dark hair; was quick and energetic in his movements, full of confidence and conceit -in short, was the beau ideal of a fighting Irish-American of the better sort. He impressed you as an officer who would charge a square, or storm a battery, or shoot a deserter, or drink a cup of coffee (or something stronger) with equal sang-froid. But withal, there was little of the braggadocio or swashbuckler about him. He could be stern and dignified, as well as jolly and vivacious, and while everybody called him "Little Phil" (and he liked the patronymic,) his friends West, in bidding him good-by and Godspeed, confidently predicted that before the war closed he would "make a spoon or spoil a horn" somewhere East.

He assumed command of the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac May 5, 1864, and immediately began to reorganize and consolidate it. Heretofore it had been largely dispersed in outpost, picket, and guard duty; but he aimed to hold it in hand as one body, and swing it as a saber or a thunderbolt when needed.

With the opening of the Wilderness campaign events moved rapidly, and he soon began to show what stuff there was in him. Jeb Stuart, Lee's crack cavalry commander (and a splendid one he was), had been making trouble, as usual, the previous two years, when he rode around the Army of the Potomac and raided pretty much ad libitum (vide the Antietam and Gettysburg campaigns); and Meade and Sheridan were in consultation about him and his doings.

"Suppose you let me try my hand on him,” suggested Sheridan.

Meade, tall and gray-bearded, from his greater height looked down on "Little Phil," and answered in his cautious way:

"You had better let Jeb Stuart alone! He is a dangerous man to fool with!"

This nettled Sheridan, and he hotly replied:

"O, bother Jeb Stuart! I know him well, and can whip him to pieces, if you will only let me!"

Meade reported this to Grant, and that great com- I mander wisely and characteristically decided instantly: "Did Sheridan say that? Well, then, let him go out and do it!"

And the very next day Sheridan was off, and rode around Lee's right, and rode straight after Stuart until he found him in the environs of Richmond, and in less than a week smashed his redoubtable horsemen and killed Stuart himself, destroying the prestige of the Confederate cavalry forever. Then, shrewdly avoiding Richmond and eluding the forces sent in pursuit of him, he made a wide detour to the White House, crossed the Pamunkey on a broken-down railroad bridge there, which he had quickly repaired, and in a fortnight after leaving was back again by the side of Grant, ready for another blow, having severed most of Lee's important railroads and destroyed a vast amount of materiel and supplies. Doubtless Grant keenly enjoyed this as an object lesson to the Army of the Potomac as well as to Lee, and as an example to our Eastern cavalry chiefs especially.

Subsequently, early in June, Sheridan rode around Lee's left, and fought his cavalry and infantry at Trevillian, on the Virginia Central Railroad; breaking the road and seriously damaging Lee's communications and sup

1 Sheridan's Memoirs, vol. i, pp. 368, 369.