Philip Henry Sheridan was an American general. He was born in 1831 at Albany, New York of Irish parents and died in 1888. Educated at West Point he graduated in 1853. In the first stages of the American Civil War he was quartermaster, but in 1862 he received a cavalry command. At the battle of Perryville he led a division, and on the bloody field of Murfreesboro he especially distinguished himself.
Appointed major-general of volunteers, he fought at Chickamauga, and at Missionary Ridge he shared with Hooker and others the honours of the day. The great period of his career was now approaching. In 1864 Grant gave him the charge of the cavalry corps in the Army of the Potomac; he was present at the Wilderness, fought the battle of Todd's Tavern, conducted an extended raid in May and June, and was in August placed in charge of the Army of the Shenandoah. He defeated Early at Winchester and Fisher's Hill, and was absent at Winchester, when, on October the 19th, 1864, the enemy made a sudden attack on his army at Cedar Creek.
His ride from Winchester, twenty miles away, to the battle-field, his reforming the army and turning defeat into a brilliant victory, is the theme of story and poetry. He was made a major-general in the regular army. In the operations of 1865 he took the leading part, won the Battle of Five Forks, on April the 1st, and helped materially in the denouement at Appomattox. In 1869 he was promoted to be lieutenant-general and in 1888 general. In 1883 he succeeded General Sherman as commander-in-chief of the army. Research Philip Sheridan
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