The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1910-12-23
TRUTH ABOUT
GENERAL SHERIDAN
Brother Of Little PHIL Dispenses
of Famous Historical Myths;
Ride From Winchester.
.(Washington Letter in st. Louis
Globe-Democrat.


The apple tree at Appomattox is
a myth-the word swindle of a
camp scribbler and nothing more.
And Winchester was fifteen miles
away, not twenty.
Rienz, the black war horse, was
not trembling as with palsy, nor
were his nostrils blowing like pair
of bellows, nor were his heaving
sides fecked with foam. There had
been several stops on the way to
Cedar creek, and the road was dam
med up with an army in retreat and
many baggage wagons drawn by
mules.
Face the other way boys, we are
going back" thrilled nation when
the words were put into type, but a
professional soldier would never
have used such familiar language A
militia officer might have said
boys" to the soldiers he knew at
home as farmers mechanics and
clerks. A graduate of West Point
would have said "men," granting
that he was not mad enough to say
"old women" or something worse.
Thus two cherised pictures of the
Civil War fall from the walls of
fancy and are broken with crash on
the hard and unsentimental floor of
fact. Furthermore, "PhiP' Sheridan
was not swearing man. Neither
was he drinking man. The sun and
weather Redeemed his face, and a
normal heart of 106 beats deepened
the color of his cheeks.
Also the "dashing dragon" of
careless belief must be put away
with the other rubbish that has dis
torted history and novelized the
truth. Sheridan was an infantry
man, a foot soldier, transferred by
Grant. who sought a man of action
to lead his cavalry away from picket
duty and wagon trains into a col
lision with the enemy
With Sheridan in all of his more
than forty engagements and his elev-
en- big battles, went Michael Vim
cent, his brother, ten years his junior
and an aide de camp attached to his
personal staff. Now, at the age of
II, Michael, in height. countenance
and manner, is Philip Henry as he
would have been in the twilight of
his life, awaiting the taps of dark
ness and slumberer. The mustache
and imperial beard are white instead
of brown. The head, long from brow
to crown, is the same. So are the
eyes deep gray ordinarily, but blue
RS gunmetal at times.
II can talk about my brother"
General Michael said, in the low,
neutral voice of General "Phil," but
] beg to be excused from talking
about myself
Thrice brevetted 'for gallant and
meritorious services" in pitched bat.
ties. the bearer of orders through
bullets and shells at Bonneville, Per-
ryville, Stone River, Missionary
Ridge, Chickamauga and Lookout
Mountain; present and active during
the spectacular and decisive CAM
paign in the Shenandoah valley, as
we'll as In the pursuit of Lee to Ap-
nomattox Courthouse; chief of staff
to General Brook during the Spanish
war, and forty years a soldier. from
first to last. beginning as a second
of Missouri volunteers fin
ally to be retired as brigadier gem
eral in the army of the United States,
Michael v. Sheridan links the past
to the present with dramatic inter-
est, and in himself is we'll worthy of
a formal biography or a slashing
book of memoirs. But for the rigid
ity of his shoulders and his tight
buttoned coat, he might be taken
for q business man living on his divi-
dends and interest.
Illuminating the exaggeration of
poetry, !" said, what is the story Of
the Winchester ride"
The Shenandoah valley. as an
easy route to the North for the Con-
federate army, was a constant men,
ace to Washington and the state Of
Pennsylvania. General Sheridan ar
rived in this city on the morning Of
October II, 1864. with his chief of
stan and these aides, including my
self, to suggest that line of de-
Tense be built across the valley to
keep the Confederates back.
& & at the end OF his conference with
Secretary stanton and General Hal
leck, exactly at noon, I remember.
vs. left Washington on special train
tor Martinsburg. Va. which we rea-
ched 1t dark, and were met BY an
escort 81 800 men. We spent the
night at Martinsburg. 2s miles from
winchester.
a commissioners had come from
Ohio to take the vote Of the soldiers
il the neld for state officers. ! was