United States Army Military History Institute A confident looking Phil Sheridan, taken in late 1863.

By Joseph E. Gannon

Scrappy Phil Sheridan: The U.S. Army's Little Big Man

 'Come on Back, Boys! Give 'em Hell, God Damn 'em! We'll Make Coffee...

On an autumn morn in Washington, in a different time, an incumbent president pondered defeat in the fall election, then three weeks away. He was leading the nation through an increasingly bloody and divisive war, a war his adversaries branded a failure. He faced critics who accused him of indifference to the mounting toll of casualties. His opponent, meanwhile, was a popular commander, while he himself had no combat experience, though he did point to his service in the militia during an earlier war.

The date was Oct. 19, 1864, the president Abraham Lincoln, his opponent Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, nicknamed "The Young Napoleon," a veteran of the Mexican War and former commander of Army of the Potomac, the principle Union force facing the Confederates in Virginia.

If Lincoln felt besieged much of that summer and early fall, who could blame him. His opponents too mild an expression, really, considering their passion lambasted him in an intensely personal way, lampooning his gangly frame and whispering that he was demanding gold for his salary in lieu of greenbacks. Lincoln even came under enemy fire in July, when Confederate Lt. Gen. Jubal Early had moved down the Shenandoah Valley to the outskirts of Washington. Lincoln twice visited nearby Fort Stevens to get a first-hand look at the enemy. Shots directed toward Lincoln's party prompted Capt. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. to tell Lincoln, "Get down, you fool."

By sundown of this October day, however, a stunning and magnificently timed victory engineered by Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan would dramatically boost Lincoln's spirits and prospects.

United States Army Military History Institute Jubal Early, Confederate commander in the Valley.

That morning, a Wednesday, started quietly enough, with Sheridan, commander of the Federal Army of the Shenandoah, sleeping soundly in a comfortable bed in Winchester, Va. Sheridan was a pugnacious Irish-American, or possibly even Irish-born, depending on which story one believes. He had left his command five days earlier, and traveled to Washington to meet with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. With the enemy near his army, Sheridan was uneasy, and hurried back Tuesday by train and horse.

On his return, Gen. Horatio Wright, commander of the VI Corps, had reported all was quiet. But as Sheridan slumbered Tuesday, 17 miles south Early was preparing a very rude awakening for Sheridan's force.

The sounds of singing birds in the Valley were masked that morning by a fierce, pre-dawn attack on troops of the VII and XIX Corps, in the advance of the rest of Sheridan's army. Two veteran Confederate division commanders, Joseph Kershaw and John Gordon, commanded the Confederate spearhead. As more and more Confederates splashed across Cedar Creek, reposing soldiers heard some scattered firing, but no general alarm was sounded; when the attack hit most Federal soldiers were still snug in their beds.

A Union officer who escaped the rout that followed said the fight in the foggy gloom "was a blind, confused, feeble scuffle."

Gordon's Division struck about 20 minutes after Kershaw's, just as the sun was coming up, and with it the rout of the advanced Federal forces was complete. By about 10 a.m., the Federal troops had been driven several miles through Middletown, where the VI Corps formed a line.

At that point Early called a halt, feeling sure the Federals were in full retreat. Hundreds of Confederate soldiers, unable to avoid the tempting plunder of the Union camps, had left their units, and those in the ranks were exhausted, having marched most of the previous night. They had now fought for five hours.

This halt marked a turning point, along with the boost that the Federals were about to receive. WGT

Read Part 2, 'This Retreat Must Be Stopped.'

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

• "The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil WarNew York: American Heritage Publishing Co., 1960.
  Starr, Louis M., "Bohemian Brigade: Civil War Newsmen in Action,", Alfred A. Knopf, 1954.
• Andrews, J. Cutler, "The North Reports The Civil War,"University of Pittsburgh Press, 1955.
• Morris, Roy, "Sheridan: The Life and Wars of General Phil Sheridan." Vintage Books, 1993.
• Wert, Jeffry D., "From Winchester to Cedar Creek: The Shenandoah Campaign of 1864," 1st Edition, Stackpole Book, 1997.

RELATED RESOURCES

• Sheridan's Memoirs
• 'Sheridan's Ride': The Complete Poem
• Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation
• Belle Grove Plantation
• Shenandoah at War: Campaign Year 1864
• Scrappy Phil Sheridan: The U.S. Army's Little Big Man
• Self-Guided Tour to the Battle of Cedar Creek, assembled by historian Joseph W. A. Whitehorne, of the U.S. Army's Center of Military History

This feature was edited by Gerry Regan, and produced by Joseph E. Gannon and Gerry Regan.