76 Facts About Philip Sheridan

1.

General of the Army Philip Henry Sheridan was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War.

2.

Philip Sheridan's career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close association with General-in-chief Ulysses S Grant, who transferred Sheridan from command of an infantry division in the Western Theater to lead the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac in the East.

3.

Philip Sheridan was instrumental in the development and protection of Yellowstone National Park, both as a soldier and a private citizen.

4.

In 1883, Philip Sheridan was appointed general-in-chief of the US Army, and in 1888 he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army during the term of President Grover Cleveland.

5.

Philip Sheridan was born in Albany, New York, the third child of six of John and Mary Meenagh Philip Sheridan, Irish Catholic immigrants from the parish of Killinkere in County Cavan, Ireland.

6.

The previous day, Philip Sheridan had threatened to run him through with a fixed bayonet in reaction to a perceived insult on the parade ground.

7.

Philip Sheridan graduated in 1853,34th in his class of 52 cadets.

8.

Philip Sheridan was commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant and was assigned to the 1st US Infantry Regiment at Fort Duncan, Texas, then to the 4th US Infantry Regiment at Fort Reading, California.

9.

Philip Sheridan was promoted to first lieutenant in March 1861, just before the Civil War, and to captain in May, just weeks after the attack on Fort Sumter.

10.

Philip Sheridan departed from his command of Fort Yamhill, Oregon, by way of San Francisco, across the Isthmus of Panama, and through New York City to home in Somerset for a brief leave.

11.

Philip Sheridan sorted out the mess, impressing Halleck in the process.

12.

Nevertheless, Philip Sheridan performed the task assigned to him and entrenched himself as an excellent staff officer in Halleck's view.

13.

Philip Sheridan refused to pay for the stolen property and confiscated the horses for the use of Curtis's army.

14.

Philip Sheridan performed aptly in his role under Curtis and, now returned to Halleck's headquarters, he accompanied the army on the Siege of Corinth and served as an assistant to the department's topographical engineer, but made the acquaintance of Brig.

15.

Philip Sheridan was appointed colonel of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry on May 27,1862, despite having no experience in the mounted arm.

16.

Philip Sheridan was assigned to command the 11th Division, III Corps, in Maj.

17.

On October 8,1862, Philip Sheridan led his division in the Battle of Perryville.

18.

Philip Sheridan heard the gunfire and came to the front with another brigade.

19.

Philip Sheridan's troops repelled Confederate attacks later that day, but did not participate in the heaviest fighting of the day, which occurred on the Union left.

20.

On December 31,1862, the first day of the Battle of Stones River, Philip Sheridan anticipated a Confederate assault and positioned his division in preparation for it.

21.

Philip Sheridan's division held back the Confederate onslaught on his front until their ammunition ran out and they were forced to withdraw.

22.

Philip Sheridan's division participated in the advance against Bragg in Rosecrans's brilliant Tullahoma Campaign, and was the lead division to enter the town of Tullahoma.

23.

Philip Sheridan's division made a gallant stand on Lytle Hill against an attack by the Confederate corps of Lt.

24.

Philip Sheridan gathered as many men as he could and withdrew toward Chattanooga, rallying troops along the way.

25.

George H Thomas's XIV Corps stand on Snodgrass Hill, Sheridan ordered his division back to the fighting, but they took a circuitous route and did not participate in the fighting as some histories claim.

26.

Just before his men stepped off, Philip Sheridan told them, "Remember Chickamauga," and many shouted its name as they advanced as ordered to a line of rifle pits in their front.

27.

Philip Sheridan impulsively ordered his men to pursue Bragg to the Confederate supply depot at Chickamauga Station, but called them back when he realized that his was the only command so far forward.

28.

Unbeknownst to Philip Sheridan, he was actually Grant's second choice, after Maj.

29.

Philip Sheridan's Richmond Raid, including the Battles of Yellow Tavern and Meadow Bridge.

30.

Philip Sheridan was intercepted by the Confederate cavalry under Maj.

31.

Philip Sheridan considered various candidates for command, including George Meade, William B Franklin, and David Hunter, with the latter two intended for the military division while Sheridan would command the army.

32.

All of these choices were rejected by either Grant or the War Department and, over the objection of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who believed him to be too young for such a high post, Philip Sheridan took command in both roles at Harpers Ferry on August 7,1864.

33.

Philip Sheridan's mission was not only to defeat Early's army and to close off the Northern invasion route, but to deny the Shenandoah Valley as a productive agricultural region to the Confederacy.

34.

Philip Sheridan received a personal letter of thanks from Abraham Lincoln and a promotion to major general in the regular army as of November 8,1864, making him the fourth ranking general in the Army, after Grant, Sherman, and Meade.

35.

Philip Sheridan was occupied with light skirmishing and fighting guerrillas.

36.

Philip Sheridan's remaining men, primarily cavalry and artillery, finally moved out of their winter quarters on February 27,1865, and headed east.

37.

Philip Sheridan interpreted Grant's orders liberally and instead of heading to North Carolina in March 1865, he moved to rejoin the Army of the Potomac at Petersburg.

38.

Philip Sheridan says 'If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender.

39.

Philip Sheridan was supposed to lead troops in the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington, DC, but Grant appointed him commander of the Military District of the Southwest on May 17,1865, six days before the parade, with orders to defeat Smith without delay and restore Texas and Louisiana to Union control.

40.

Philip Sheridan gave Sheridan permission to gather a large Texas occupation force.

41.

On July 30,1866, while Philip Sheridan was in Texas, a white mob broke up the state constitutional convention in New Orleans.

42.

Furthermore, an inquiry into the deadly New Orleans riot of 1866 implicated numerous local officials; Philip Sheridan dismissed the mayor of New Orleans, the Louisiana attorney general, and a district judge.

43.

Philip Sheridan later removed Louisiana Governor James M Wells, accusing him of being "a political trickster and a dishonest man".

44.

Philip Sheridan dismissed Texas Governor James W Throckmorton, a former Confederate, for being an "impediment to the reconstruction of the State", replacing him with the Republican who had lost to him in the previous election Elisha M Pease.

45.

Philip Sheridan had been feuding with President Andrew Johnson for months over interpretations of the Military Reconstruction Acts and voting rights issues, and within a month of the second firing, the president removed Philip Sheridan, stating to an outraged Gen.

46.

In September 1866, Philip Sheridan was assigned to Fort Martin Scott near Fredericksburg, Texas, to administer the formerly Confederate area.

47.

When Sherman was promoted to General of the Army following Grant's election as President of the United States, Philip Sheridan was appointed to senior command of the Military Division of the Missouri, with all the Great Plains under his command.

48.

The Indian raids subsided during the 1870s and were almost over by the early 1880s, as Philip Sheridan became the commanding general of the entire US Army.

49.

Philip Sheridan has been accused of being unnecessarily cruel; bent on exterminating the Indian.

50.

Philip Sheridan was promoted to lieutenant general on March 4,1869.

51.

In 1870, President Grant, at Philip Sheridan's request, sent him to observe and report on the Franco-Prussian War.

52.

In 1871, Philip Sheridan was present in Chicago during the Great Chicago Fire and coordinated military relief efforts.

53.

On November 1,1883, Sheridan succeeded General William T Sherman as Commanding General of the US Army, and held that position until his death.

54.

Philip Sheridan was promoted on June 1,1888, shortly before his death, to the rank of General in the Regular Army.

55.

Philip Sheridan served as commander in chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, a military society of officers who served in the Union armed forces and their descendants, from 1886 until his death in 1888.

56.

Philip Sheridan was the first president of the Society of the Army of the Potomac when it was founded in 1869 and as the ninth president of the National Rifle Association in 1885.

57.

Philip Sheridan authorized Lieutenant Gustavus Doane to escort the Washburn Expedition in 1870 and for Major John W Barlow to escort the Hayden Expedition in 1871.

58.

Philip Sheridan personally organized opposition to the plan and lobbied Congress for protection of the park; including expansion, military control, reducing the development to 10 acres, and prohibiting leases near park attractions.

59.

In 1886, after a string of ineffectual and sometimes criminal superintendents, Philip Sheridan ordered the 1st US Cavalry into the park.

60.

Philip Sheridan is mentioned favorably in The National Parks: America's Best Idea, Episode I, for his work saving Yellowstone National Park:.

61.

Philip Sheridan even suggested that Yellowstone should be expanded to provide greater protection for the elk and buffalo.

62.

On June 3,1875, Sheridan married Irene Rucker, a daughter of Army Quartermaster General Daniel H Rucker.

63.

In 1888 Philip Sheridan suffered a series of massive heart attacks two months after sending his memoirs to the publisher.

64.

Philip Sheridan's family moved him from the heat of Washington to his summer cottage in the Nonquitt enclave of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where he died of heart failure on August 5,1888.

65.

Philip Sheridan's body was returned to Washington and he was buried on a hillside facing the capital city near Arlington House in Arlington National Cemetery.

66.

Philip Sheridan is the only person to be featured on a US ten-dollar bill who was strictly associated with the military and not politics.

67.

Philip Sheridan appeared on $10 US Treasury notes issued in 1890 and 1891.

68.

The Philip Sheridan Prize is a yacht-racing perpetual trophy awarded to the winner of an annual race on Geneva Lake.

69.

Philip Sheridan Boulevard is a major north-south thoroughfare in Denver, Colorado.

70.

Philip Sheridan Drive in Arlington National Cemetery partially encircles the area that contains the general's gravesite.

71.

The Philip Sheridan Gate, constructed in 1879 and dismantled and placed in storage in 1971, was once the Cemetery's main entrance.

72.

John Philip Sousa wrote a descriptive piece for band memorializing Sheridan.

73.

The building commemorates Philip Sheridan's time stationed at the Fort Hays military post.

74.

The present-day Sheridan Elementary School in Chicago is a magnet school located at 533 W 27th Street, in the city's Bridgeport neighborhood.

75.

Philip Sheridan has been portrayed in films and television over the years:.

76.

Philip Sheridan is described in the PBS documentary The West as "a ruthless warrior" who "played a decisive role in the army's long campaign against the native peoples of the plains".