Terrible Swift Sword (63 page)

Brigadier General Horace Porter, the former Grant aide who had observed Sheridan's leadership firsthand at Five Forks, told the crowd that Sheridan was “gifted with the ingenuity of a Hannibal, the dash of a Murat, the courage of a Ney. . . . . The magnetism of his presence forged weaklings into giants, transformed routed squadrons into charging columns, and snatched victory from defeat.”
²³

1
George Forsyth,
Thrilling Days in Army Life
(New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1900), 139.

2
Jeffry D. Wert,
From Winchester to Cedar Creek: The Shenandoah Campaign of 1864
(Carlisle, PA: South Mountain Press, 1987), 221–222; Philip H. Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, General, United States Army
(New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1888), 2:74–76; William F. Drake,
Little Phil: The Story of General Philip Henry Sheridan
(Prospect, CT: Biographical Publishing Company, 2005), 314; Forsyth,
Thrilling Days
, 136.

3
Forsyth,
Thrilling Days
, 137; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 2:74–77.

4
Stephen Z. Starr,
The Union Cavalry in the Civil War
, vol. 2:
The War in the East from Gettysburg to Appomattox, 1863–1865
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981), 2:312. In his memoirs, Sheridan implausibly claims that he urged on his men with these words: “If I had been with you this morning this disaster would not have happened. We must face the other way; we will go back and recover our camp.” Of course, this would not inspire a retreating soldier to turn around and fight. Sheridan undoubtedly was attempting to tamp down his reputation for colorful profanity. Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 2:81.

5
Frank Flinn,
Campaigning with Banks in Louisiana, '63 and '64, and with Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley in '64 and '65
(Lynn, MA: Press of Thomas P. Nichols, 1887), 225–226.

6
Forsyth,
Thrilling Days
, 140–142.

7
George Frisbie Hoar,
Autobiography of Seventy Years
, vol. 1 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1903), 1:208–209.

1
Papers of Philip Henry Sheridan, Reel 1, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC (henceforth Sheridan Papers).

2
New York Times,
February 18, 1888; Eric J. Wittenberg,
Little Phil: A Reassessment of the Civil War Leadership of Gen. Philip H. Sheridan
(Washington, DC: Brassey's, 2002), 142–144, 147; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:1–2; Joseph Hergesheimer,
Sheridan: A Military Narrative
(Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1934), 8–10;
Richard O'Connor,
Sheridan the Inevitable
(Indianapolis and New York: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1953), 19.

3
Historical Statistics of the United States
(Washington, DC: Bureau of the Census, 1975), 1:106.

4
Roy Morris Jr.,
Sheridan: The Life and Wars of General Phil Sheridan
(New York: Crown Publishers, 1992), 11; Richard B. Morris, ed.,
Encyclopedia of American History
. 6th ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1982), 603; Sheridan Papers, Reel 101.

5
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:3.

6
Henry Greiner,
General Phil Sheridan as I Knew Him, Playmate-Comrade-Friend
(Chicago: J. S. Hyland and Company, 1908), 24–27.

7
Morris,
Sheridan,
12–15; Greiner,
General Phil Sheridan
, 50–53; Hergesheimer,
Sheridan
, 18–22.

8
O'Connor,
Sheridan the Inevitable
, 29; Morris,
Sheridan,
12–14; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:7; Hergesheimer,
Sheridan
, 18–22.

9
Greiner,
General Phil Sheridan
, 56; Morris,
Sheridan,
15–17; Ezra J. Warner,
Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964), 451–453; Hergesheimer,
Sheridan
, 26; James L. Morrison Jr.,
“The Best School in the World”: West Point, the Pre–Civil War Years, 1833–1866
(Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1986), 2, 15, 19, 23, 71.

10
Morrison,
“The Best School in the World,”
77.

11
O'Connor,
Sheridan the Inevitable
, 31–32.

12
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:11–12; Morris,
Sheridan,
21–22.

13
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:12–14; Morrison,
“The Best School in the World,”
88–90, 94–97; Morris,
Sheridan,
20, 22.

14
Morrison,
“The Best School in the World,”
5–8, 16; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:14.

15
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:15–34.

16
J. P. Dunn,
Massacres of the Mountains: A History of the Indian Wars of the Far West
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1886), 204; Thomas Stern,
Chiefs and Change in the Oregon Country
(Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1992), 2:318–319, 321–324, 335–345; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:69, 73–74; Morris,
Sheridan,
28–29, 32–34.

17
Morris,
Sheridan,
32–34.

18
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:35–52; Morris,
Sheridan,
22.

19
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:59–60.

20
Dunn,
Massacres of the Mountains
, 211–212.

21
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:75–80.

22
Ibid., 80–83; Dunn,
Massacres of the Mountains
, 211–212; Morris,
Sheridan,
34.

23
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:85–88.

24
Ibid., 90.

25
Dunn,
Massacres of the Mountains
, 217.

26
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:106–119.

27
Ibid., 100–101.

28
Morris,
Sheridan,
37.

29
Bruce Catton,
The Civil War
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1988), 24; Morris,
Sheridan,
41; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:121–123; Sheridan Papers, Reel 1.

30
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:123; Morris,
Sheridan,
43.

31
William E. Parrish, “Fremont in Missouri,”
Civil War Times Illustrated
17, no. 1 (April 1978): 8–10, 40–44; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:124, 126.

32
Morris,
Sheridan,
44–46; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:126; Edward G. Longacre, “Justus McKinstry: A Rogue's Profile,”
Civil War Times Illustrated
17, no. 4 (July 1978): 15–19.

33
O'Connor,
Sheridan the Inevitable
, 57; Grenville Dodge,
The Battle of Atlanta and Other Campaigns
(Council Bluffs, IA: Monarch Printing Company, 1910), 139.

34
Sheridan Papers, Reel 1; O'Connor,
Sheridan the Inevitable
, 60; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:131–135.

35
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:136.

36
Shelby Foote,
The Civil War: A Narrative
. 3 vols. (New York: Vintage Books, 1958–1974), 1:372; David Coffey,
Sheridan's Lieutenants: Phil Sheridan, His Generals, and the Final Year of the Civil War
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005), xv.

37
Foote,
The Civil War
, 1:373; Morris,
Sheridan,
55; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:136–137.

38
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:138–139; Greiner,
General Phil Sheridan
, 235–236; Hergesheimer,
Sheridan
, 35–36; Foote,
The Civil War
, 1:374.

39
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:139; Morris,
Sheridan,
58; Warner,
Generals in Blue,
442–443.

40
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:139–143.

41
Warner,
Generals in Blue
, 195–197; Foote,
The Civil War
, 1:384; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:156–157.

42
O'Connor,
Sheridan the Inevitable
, 62; Morris,
Sheridan,
65; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:145–152; Sheridan Papers, Reel 1.

43
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:153–154.

44
War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
(henceforth O.R.), V. 17, Part II, 61.

45
Ibid., 155, 159–160; O.R., V. 17, Part I, 19–20; Part II, 62; Sheridan Papers, Reel 101.

46
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:160–161; Sheridan Papers, Reel 101.

47
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:162.

48
Ibid., 162–165; O.R., V. 17, Part I, 19–20; Part II, 62–63; David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler,
Encyclopedia of the Civil War
(Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2000), 249–250.

49
O.R., V. 17, Part II, 66.

50
Sheridan Papers, Reel 1.

51
Morris,
Sheridan,
72–73; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:166; Sheridan Papers, Reel 101.

52
Morris,
Sheridan,
76–77; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:177–180; Greiner,
General Phil Sheridan
, 399.

53
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:181–182; Ulysses S. Grant,
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant,
ed. E. B. Long (Boston: Da Capo, 1982), 210.

1
O.R., V. 20, Part I, 350–351.

2
Earl J. Hess,
Banners to the Breeze: The Kentucky Campaign, Corinth, and Stones River
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000), 193; Foote,
The Civil War
, 2:86.

3
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:214–220.

4
Foote,
The Civil War
, 2:87.

5
Peter Cozzens,
No Better Place to Die: The Battle of Stones River
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990), 79–80; Morris,
Sheridan
, 99.

6
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:220–222.

7
Ibid., 222.

8
Foote,
The Civil War
, 2:87–88; James Lee McDonough,
Stones River: Bloody Winter in Tennessee
(Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1980), 85–87; Colonel Francis T. Sherman,
Quest for a Star: The Civil War Letters and Diaries of Colonel Francis T. Sherman of the 88th Illinois,
ed. C. Knight Aldrich (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1999), 21–22; Morris,
Sheridan
, 105–109; Cozzens,
No Better Place
, 82–83.

9
O.R., V. 20, Part I, 348; Foote,
The Civil War
, 2:88; Sherman,
Quest
, 22–24; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:222–224; Cozzens,
No Better Place
, 109; O'Connor,
Sheridan the Inevitable
, 21–22, 84; Morris,
Sheridan
, 297; Frederick C. Newhall,
With General Sheridan in Lee's Last Campaign
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Company, 1866), 17–19, 233; Greiner,
General Phil Sheridan
, 232, from J. W. Miller, Cincinnati
Commercial
; Wittenberg,
Little Phil
, 164.

10
Foote,
The Civil War
, 2:87; McDonough,
Stones River
, 86–87.

11
David R. Logsdon, ed.,
Eyewitnesses at the Battle of Stones River
(Nashville, TN: Kettle Mills Press, 2002), 18–19.

12
O.R., V. 20, Part I, 348–349; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:243.

13
McDonough,
Stones River
, 111–112.

14
O.R., V. 20, Part I, 349; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:227–230; Morris,
Sheridan
, 109.

15
Foote,
The Civil War
, 2:90; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:227–230; McDonough,
Stones River
, 107–110.

16
Hess,
Banners to the Breeze
, 207–212.

17
Cozzens,
No Better Place
, 127.

18
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:226–232; McDonough,
Stones River
, 122.

19
William M. Lamers,
The Edge of Glory: A Biography of General William S. Rosecrans, U.S.A.
(New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1961), 227; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:244.

20
O.R., V. 20, Part I, 350–351; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:233–234.

21
Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:234–235; Lamers,
The Edge of Glory
, 232–234.

22
Logsdon,
Eyewitnesses
, 57; Hess,
Banners to the Breeze
, 212; Foote,
The Civil War
, 2:91–93; McDonough,
Stones River
, 131–141; Sheridan,
Personal Memoirs
, 1:235.

23
Foote,
The Civil War
, 2:94–96, 726; Lamers,
The Edge of Glory
, 234–236; Hess,
Banners to the Breeze
, 216; Logsdon,
Eyewitnesses
, 63, 66–67, 77.