Good-looking image (engravature) of Union General Philip Sheridan. Carte has a minor trim across the top and some minimal age toning, none of which impacts the subject. The view is the classic shoulders-up picture of the controversial but militarily astute man. It would look fantastic in a frame with a Sheridan autograph.

Phil Sheridan saw his first combat before the Civil War in the Indian Wars of the Northwest. He was wounded in action during the Yakima War in 1857, but the injury was a minor one. By the time the Civil War rolled around, Sheridan was a Captain and he first served as a staff officer to General Halleck. He saw battle at Pea Ridge and Corinth and was then appointed Colonel of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry. At the small, but important, battle of Booneville, Mississippi, Sheridan performed brilliantly and was the subject of an urgent communique from several commanders urging General Halleck to promote him to Brigadier. This, he received. He took command of the 11th Division of the 3rd Corps at Perryville, where he and his men gave a good accounting of themselves. At Murfreesboro, Sheridan repulsed several furious Confederate attacks and only withdrew from the field when ammunition was exhausted. He was then promoted to Major General...a rank unheard of for someone who had been a mere captain six months earlier. The General would see further combat at Tullahoma, Chickamauga and Chattanooga, where he would prove instrumental in the Missionary Ridge victory.

Realizing Sheridan's genius, General Ulysses S. Grant ordered the subordinate to come east with him when he took command of the Army of the Potomac. From then on, Sheridan would have charge of Cavalry operations for the AOP. After a couple of defeats which Sheridan blamed on restrictions from higher-ups, General Grant released him to engage the enemy when and where Sheridan saw fit. His men would mortally wound J.E.B. Stuart at Yellow Tavern and notch a few other minor victories. But many other battles of the so-called "Overland Campaign" were either inconclusive or outright defeats. He would go on to adopt a scorched earth policy in the Shenandoah Valley that residents remembered bitterly for many decades after the war. Whatever the relative merits or flaws in Sheridan's service to this point, he would be rightly credited with the tactical moves at Sayler's Creek and Five Forks that would force General Robert E. Lee to Appomattox. There, Sheridan's men would block Lee's escape and effectively force the surrender. No less than General Grant himself said there was no general, living or dead, who could be regarded as better than "Little Phil" Sheridan.

The General's service continued in the later Indian Wars. Sheridan is often quoted as having said, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian". That attribution is now widely disputed by historians. Having established a home in Chicago, Sheridan lost all his personal papers in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 even though his house was largely spared damage. Ironically, he would be placed in command of relief efforts for the city. He also served America in advocating tirelessly for the preservation of Yellowstone National Park.

General Sheridan died in 1888.

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