Philip Sheridan, died August 5, 1888

Comanche Chief Tosawi reputedly told Sheridan in 1869, "Me, Tosawi; me good Injun," to which Sheridan supposedly replied, "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead." Sheridan denied he had ever made the statement. Biographer Roy Morris Jr. states that, nevertheless, popular history credits Sheridan with saying "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

Tosawi

At two conferences in 1867 and 1868, the federal government demanded that the Plains Indians give up their lands and move to reservations. In return for supplies and annuities, the southern Plains Indians were told to move to poor, unproductive lands in Oklahoma and the northern tribes to the Black Hills of the Dakotas. The alternative to acceptance was warfare. The commissioner of Indian Affairs, Ely S. Parker, himself a Seneca Indian, declared that any Indian who refused to "locate in permanent abodes provided for them, would be subject wholly to the control and supervision of military authorities." Many whites regarded the Plains Indians as an intolerable obstacle to westward expansion. 

In the Winter Campaign of 1868–69, Sheridan attacked the Cheyenne, Kiowa and Comanche tribes in their winter quarters, taking their supplies and livestock, and killing those who resisted. Professional hunters, trespassing on Indian land, killed over 4 million bison by 1874, and Sheridan applauded: "Let them kill, skin and sell until the buffalo is exterminated". When the Texas legislature considered outlawing bison poaching on tribal lands, Sheridan personally testified against it, suggesting that the legislature should give each of the hunters a medal, engraved with a dead buffalo on one side and a discouraged-looking Indian on the other. In 1860, about 13 million roamed the Plains. By 1890, only about 1,000 bison remained alive.  Eventually the Indians returned to their designated reservations.

Sheridan was unconcerned about the high casualties among non-combatants, once remarking that "If a village is attacked and women and children killed, the responsibility is not with the soldiers; but, with the people whose crimes necessitated the attack." 

In 1870, President Grant, at Sheridan's request, sent him to observe and report on the Franco-Prussian War.  As a guest of the King of Prussia, he was present when Napoleon III surrendered to the Germans, which was gratifying to Sheridan following his experiences with the French in Mexico. He later toured  Europe. 

In 1871, Sheridan was present in Chicago during the Great Chicago Fire, and coordinated military relief efforts. The mayor, to calm the panic, placed the city under martial law, and issued a proclamation putting Sheridan in charge.

The protection of the Yellowstone area was Sheridan's personal crusade. He authorized Lieutenant Gustavus Doane to escort the Washburn Expedition in 1870, and for Captain John Barlow to escort the Hayden Expedition in 1871.  Barlow named a peak in Yellowstone overlooking Heart Lake as "Mount Sheridan" for the general in 1871. As early as 1875, Sheridan promoted military control of the area to prevent the destruction of natural formations and wildlife.

On June 3, 1875, Philip Sheridan married Irene Rucker, the youngest daughter of Army Quartermaster General Daniel Rucker.  She was 22, and he was 44.  In 1874 she had been a bridesmaid at a wedding in Chicago, where Sheridan, who was also in attendance, had his headquarters. Though seemingly a confirmed bachelor, he was smitten. A whirlwind courtship ensued, and the couple were married a year later in a ceremony performed by Bishop Foley of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. 

Irene Rucker Sheridan

After the wedding, Sheridan and his wife moved to Washington, D.C. They lived in a house given to them by Chicago citizens in appreciation for Sheridan's protection of the city after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871.  During their happy marriage, she was admired for both her beauty and her charm as a society hostess.

Sheridan returned to Oregon in 1875 with his wife and his brother, Michael Sheridan.   In Salem, he stayed at the Chemeketa Hotel and met with Oregon Governor Lafayette Grover, an old friend. He then visited the Grand Ronde Reservation and the former site of Fort Yamhill, which had been decommissioned in 1866.

Sheridan and his wife had four children: Mary, born in 1876; twin daughters, Irene and Louise, in 1877; and Philip, Jr., in 1880. 

Late in 1876, Sheridan was sent to New Orleans to command troops keeping the peace in the aftermath of the disputed presidential election.

Thomas Nast Cartoon
Harper's Weekly, December 21, 1878An unhappy-looking Native American, with a sign hanging around his neck saying “THIS IS THE NOBLE RED MAN.” stands on a bureau. On either side of him are doors: the left door is labeled “INTERIOR DEPARTMENT” and in front of it stands U.S. Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz, hands in pocket, with a serious expression on his face. On the right is a door labeled ”WAR DEPARTMENT“ with an equally serious looking General Philip Sheridan standing in front of it.  In back of the door, General William Tecumseh Sherman peers out. Schurz and Sheridan eye each other resolutely

Sheridan's department conducted the Red River War, the Ute War, and the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877, which resulted in the death of  Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer. 

George Armstrong Custer

The Indian raids subsided during the 1870s and were almost over by the early 1880s, as Sheridan became the commanding general of the U.S. Army. The Apache War did not end until 1886, when their leader, Geronimo was captured.

Sheridan served as the ninth president of the National Rifle Association, which was founded in 1871.  

Sheridan with Party at Yellowstone, 1881

In 1882, the Department of the Interior granted rights to the Yellowstone Park Improvement Company to develop 4,000 acres in the park. Their plan was to build a railroad into the park and sell the land to developers. 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. In addition, he arranged an expedition to the park for President Chester Arthur and other influential men.  His lobbying soon paid off. A rider was added to the Sundry Civil Bill of 1883, giving Sheridan and his supporters almost everything for which they had asked. In 1886, after a string of ineffectual and sometimes criminal superintendents, Sheridan ordered the 1st U.S. Cavalry into the park. The military operated the park until the National Park Service took it over in 1916.

On November 1, 1883, Sheridan succeeded William Sherman as Commanding General, U.S. Army.

Mark Twain urged Sheridan to write his memoirs, believing they would equal General Grant’s in historical importance and interest. Sheridan completed Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan just a few months before his death. 

Sheridan suffered a major heart attack May 22, 1888 just after returning from an inspection for the site of Fort Sheridan, in Chicago. At 57 years old, hard living and hard campaigning and a lifelong love of good food and drink had taken their toll. Thin in his youth, he had reached over 200 pounds. 

On May 30, a reporter for The Hartford Daily Courant  visited Twain at his home in Hartford, Connecticut, and asked him about his relationship with Sheridan. Twain said he had known the general for twenty years or more, having first met him in Washington at a reception at General Grant's before the latter was elected president.  

"Mr. Webster and I called on General Sheridan at his office in the war department a couple of years ago, and made a contract with him for his autobiography, upon terms satisfactory to both parties. This was not long after we had published the second volume of General Grant's "Personal Memoirs." General Sheridan was as reluctant to try the untried field of authorship as had been General Grant before him; but the desire to secure a comfortable provision for their families prevailed with both. General Sheridan's procedure, after he has once made up his mind, was characteristic of him. He went at his task with all his might, and never called a halt until it was finished. One can see by his manuscript, that he, like General Grant, found authorship easy after he once got started; authorship is always easy when one has something to say. The first volume has been for some time in the hands of the printers; the manuscript of the second was delivered to us, revised, corrected and completed, a week before the general was taken sick, and is in the safety deposit vaults in New York. The maps and engravings are all finished."

After his first heart attack, the U.S. Congress quickly passed legislation to promote him to general on June 1st, 1888.  He received the news from a congressional delegation with joy, despite his pain. 

His family moved him from the heat of Washington and he died of heart failure in his summer cottage in the Nonquitt section of Dartmouth, Massachusetts on August 5, 1888.

Sheridan Grave

His body was returned to Washington, D.C. and he was buried on a hillside near Arlington House in Arlington National Cemetery, facing the capital city.  

Sheridan Monument, facing Washington, D.C.

The sculpture on the marker was executed by English sculptor Samuel James Kitson.  His burial there helped elevate Arlington to national prominence. 

Sheridan Marker, Arlington Cemetery

Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan was published by Twain's publishing house, Charles L. Webster & Co. in two volumes bound in forest green cloth.  The covers were decorated with a gilt depiction of the general leading a charge.

Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan

Although still youthful and attractive when she was widowed by her husband's fatal heart attack, Mrs. Sheridan never remarried, declaring that she "would rather be the widow of Phil Sheridan than the wife of any man living." Their young children ranged in age from their oldest daughter, Mary, who was 12 years old when he died, to their youngest child, Philip, Jr. who was eight years old.  Irene Sheridan resided with her children at 2551 Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C., near Sheridan Circle, where in 1908 she unveiled Gutzon Borglum's famed equestrian statue of her husband astride his warhorse "Rienzi".  

Sheridan Statue, Washington, D.C.

It was said that the Sheridan daughters started each day by leaning out of their bedroom windows and calling out "Good morning, Papa!" in the direction of the statue.

Philip Sheridan, Jr.

Philip Sheridan, Jr., followed in his father's footsteps and graduated near the bottom of the West Point class of 1902. He served as a cavalry officer, a military aide to President Theodore Roosevelt, and in Washington with the general staff. He was promoted to major in 1917 and was also felled by a heart attack, at age 37, in February 1918.

Sheridan's wife died 50 years after her husband, in 1938 at the age of 82.  Her survivors included the three Sheridan daughters, who all remained single and continued to reside in the family home on Massachusetts Avenue until their own deaths many years later.  She also had two grandchildren, Carolina and Philip H. Sheridan III, children of her son Philip, Jr. 

Philip H. Sheridan III, grandson and namesake of General Sheridan, was a World War II combat flyer who took his own life in on March 11, 1948. by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.  Although stunned by his death, family members revealed that the former pilot, who had flown 76 combat missions over Europe, had been suffering from what is now known as post-combat traumatic stress syndrome.  He was 31 years old when he died.

Sheridan Statue in Somerset, Ohio

The only Civil War equestrian statue in Ohio honors Sheridan. It is in the center traffic circle on US Route 22 in Somerset, Ohio, not far from the house where Sheridan grew up. Sheridan High School is located five miles north of Somerset; the athletic team is nicknamed "The Generals".

In World War II, the United States liberty ship, SS Philip H. Sheridan, was named in his honor.  In the 1960s, the M551 Sheridan tank was named after Sheridan.

M551 Sheridan tank

While stationed in the West before the Civil War, Sheridan took a Native woman (known to the whites as "Frances") as his mistress and lived with her for several years. Their relationship ended when the Civil War broke out, and Sheridan returned to the East.  

The census documents of Fort Simco, Yakima, Washington record a daughter, Emma Sheridan, born in Fort Vancouver, Washington, in 1857, to Philip H. Sheridan.  The mother is listed as "Walopquat" of the Yakima nation.  A photo of Emma Sheridan (1857-1886), has been provided by Emma’s grandson, Daniel Hoptowit Olney (1915 – 1995) author of Who Are You And Who Am I?

Emma Sheridan

The Confederated Tribes of Siletz acknowledge that Sheridan may have courted one of their members, Frances Harney of the Takelma, Rogue River Indians.  Frances had a brother, George Harney, (1835-1900), who traveled to Washington, D.C., evidenced by a 1875 Smithsonian photograph.

Elizabeth Collins Gilliam is quoted in a 1927 interview in Oregon Yesterdays by Fred Lockley as saying that 

“One of the prettiest Indian girls I ever saw was Frances the Indian girl Lt. Phillip Sheridan lived with. She was a Rogue River Indian girl. She was as graceful as a deer and as slender as a fawn. She loved Sheridan devotedly. Her brother was a fine looking Indian too. He was named Harney after an army officer. He was a teamster (drove wagon) for the (reservation) troops.”

In 1844, when she was five years old, Elizabeth Gilliam traveled overland on a wagon train from Missouri, led by her father, Cornelius Gilliam. The family settled in a cabin in Dallas, Oregon. Cornelius died on a excursion in 1848 to avenge the November 1847 massacre of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman at their Walla Walla mission. Mr. Gilliam’s rifle went off, and he accidentally killed himself. But Elizabeth lived to the age of 88.

In an interview in 1927, Elizabeth recounts that she knew Sheridan, because he used to stop over on coastal trips from Fort Hoskins to Fort Yamhill, and spend nights at the Gilliam cabin. She lived a days ride from Grand Ronde and seven miles further from Fort Hoskins. Elizabeth also said she knew Sheridan’s Indian wife, Frances, who was the daughter of Chief Harney of the Rogue River tribe, and who had been at her home quite a few times. She said she was bright, good looking, and quite likable.  She added that Sheridan was good and kind to her, and taught her to read, but they had no children. When he left her, it almost broke her heart.

Frances also told her that Sheridan had invited her and her brother and some other Indians to Washington, D.C., at the expense of the government, and that after the trip, she told Elizabeth all about it.  Afterward, Frances never saw him again.

Frances was the source for Edward Sapir’s classic Takelma Texts published by the Smithsonian in 1926, as well as providing information for the famous linguist and anthropologist John Harrington. Frances was the last fluent speaker of her people’s language. She passed away in 1934.

Frances Harney Johnson in 1934

Between 1934 and 1995, Sheridan, Oregon celebrated "Phil Sheridan Days", named after the general.  After a three-year break in the celebration, the event resumed in 1999 with a new name, "Sheridan Days", which celebrated the town more than the general. References to General Sheridan were dropped at the joint request of the Grand Ronde Tribe and Spirit Mountain Casino.

However, between June 20-23, 2013, "Phil Sheridan Days" returned.  Committee President Bob White said he and Vice President Ted Mayfield made it official when they registered "Phil Sheridan Days" with the Secretary of State’s Corporate Division in April.  White called Sheridan a “great American general” and wore a replica Sheridan uniform during the Days’ grand parade.

In a letter to the editor following the event, White wrote, “The new name and return to our beginnings caused a lot of excitement in some quarters. Our intention was never to offend our good neighbors who are such a dynamic influence in this neck of the woods. Our sincere apologies if we damaged some egos.”  Sheridan Mayor Val Adamson was quoted as saying he supported the return to "Phil Sheridan Days".

Tribal Council Chair Reyn Leno said it was a “sad commentary on the local community.” He said it showed a lack of respect for Sheridan’s neighboring Tribal community and insensitivity to Gen. Sheridan’s well-documented mistreatment of Native Americans.

“We find it disturbing that the organizing committee would want to change the name back to Phil Sheridan Days,” Leno said. “The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde are convinced there is much to celebrate about today’s Sheridan community and the strong people, both Tribal and non-Tribal, who built it and continue to make it thrive today.

“We are happy to support many projects in the community, from Little League to wrestling teams, but Phil Sheridan Days is something we cannot in good conscience endorse. If anyone wants to learn what history has to say about General Phil Sheridan, a simple Internet search will provide countless texts that document his actions against Native Americans.”