Sheridan’s Namesake, General Phil Sheridan

In 1882 John Loucks looked down from a hill above Big Goose Creek and envisioned a town laid out in the Goose Creek Valley. He sketched out the town site, and gave it the name, “Sheridan” in honor of General Phil Sheridan, the Union general that Loucks served under in the civil war.

In this piece we will look briefly into Phillip Henry Sheridan’s life, and his role, not only in the Civil War, but also in the Plains Indian wars in Wyoming, and the establishment of Yellowstone National Park.

Sheridan was of Irish descent. His parents came to the United States shortly before Sheridan was born, and they came from Killinkere in County Cavan, Ireland.

This from Sheridan’s obituary in the Cheyenne Daily Sun, Wyoming Territory, August 7, 1888. His biography stated – Phillip Henry Sheridan was born, in accordance with the recorded statements in Somerset, Perry county, Ohio, March 6. 1831. His mother was quoted as stating a few mouths ago, when the discussion of her distinguished son’s candidacy for the presidency caused inquiry, that he was born at Albany, New York. His parents were both of Irish nativity and came to America but a few months previous to his birth. He was given a few years tuition at the villages school, and afterwards was a clerk in a store. In 1848 the congressman of his district named him for a Went Point cadet-ship.

He should have graduated in 1852, but a year’s suspension, the result of a quarrel with a fellow-student, transferred him to the class of 1853. He graduated with the rank of thirty-fourth in a class of fifty-two members. He was then appointed a brevet second lieutenant of infantry; assigned the following year to the First Infantry in Texas, and on Nov. 22. 1854, received his commission as second lieutenant of the Fourth Infantry….

He was a player in the Plains Indian Wars in Wyoming as well. This from The Sweetwater Mines December 23, 1868 – A letter from Gen. Sheridan to Gen. Sherman gives some interesting information in regard to the Indians lately defeated by Custer. The trails were of war party, who had been committing depredations, and were traced directly to Black Kettle’s camp, much plunder taken from the houses robbed in Kansas last fall, and other property taken from trains was found in the camp. Thirteen Cheyenne. Two Sioux and one Arapahoe chiefs were killed. Sheridan thinks the fight is pretty well knocked out of the Cheyennes. He thinks the Government makes mistake in giving these Indians quantities of food, as the country is literary covered with game.

From the Laramie Weekly Sentinel, June 1, 1878, the M.V. Sheridan mentioned was Phil’s younger brother. – Military in the North. Deadwood dispatch received last night states that Colonel M. V. Sheridan, of General Phil Sheridan’s staff, has arrived at that city, for the purpose of selecting suitable locations for encampments for the troops now en route for the north. Three camps will be established, one in the vicinity of Bear Buttes, ten miles from Deadwood, another in the vicinity of Rapid City, forty miles distant, and the third on the Little Missouri river, eighty or ninety miles distant. It is thought these encampments, in connection with the troops at Fort McKinney, will afford sufficient protection from Indians for the Black Hills towns and routes during the approaching summer.

Sheridan came to Wyoming in 1883, and later he helped to establish Yellowstone National Park. From the Cheyenne Daily Leader – Aug 2, 1883 – The President’s Trip: The trip of President Arthur to the northwest and the Yellowstone country will be unlike any other ever made by a presidential party in several particulars. In this case the president has so arranged bis plans as to cut off opportunity for demonstration of any kind on the part of the public. After his visit to Louisville and Chicago will proceed as rapidly as railway trains can carry him toward the frontier, and in a few days at the furthest will be in a region where popular demonstrations are unknown and out of the question.

The president will reverse the old order, and, entering the park from the south, travel over a route almost entirely new, and will goat the north. The president and his party will leave the Union Pacific railroad at Rawlins and drive in wagons to Fort Washakie, 140 miles. From this point they will proceed on horseback over tbe same route that General Sheridan explored last year, to the Yellowstone park. They will probably spend three or four days visiting the special curiosities and points of wonder in the park, and then proceed almost due north from the Upper Geyser to Livingston, on the Northern Pacific railroad.

The party will consist of the president, Secretary Lincoln, Senator Vest and son General Sheridan, Colonel Sheridan, and four others, including a surgeon. The escort will consist of sixty-five men. They expect to travel at the rate of sixteen to twenty miles a day, and to leave at each camp three couriers, so as to enable the president or any of the party to communicate with the outside world. Messages will be sent regularly by three couriers each day both ways, thus enabling the president to keep in communication with the government officials at Washington each day. No newspaper reporter or anybody else connected with the press of the country has been invited or will be allowed on the excursion, but regular reports will be made to the Associated press of the progress of the party by a gentleman duly authorized to act in that capacity….

General Sheridan expects that the trip from Fort Washakie to Livingston, where they strike the Northern Pacific Road on their return, will occupy about twenty days. The country through which they pass is said to excel anything in the United States in wilderness and grandeur. Colonel Sheridan, who has been over the route and is also familiar with the Yellowstone Park, says that the latter place is insignificant in comparison with a large portion of the country covered in this route. The party will reach Fort Washakie August 7, and expect to be at the Upper Geyser basin about August 20. The president will visit the grand canyon but will leave the park by way of White Mountain hot springs.

Sheridan was not a tall man, he was only 5’5” tall, which earned him the nickname of “Little Phil.”

He was stern but fair in his dealings with his men. This in The Wyoming Farmer, May 8, 1889 – A graduate of West Point related an anecdote of General Sheridan. The general was making an inspection of the academy and lingered awhile in the quarters of a cadet whose father was a long time friend of the general. Before leaving, “Little Phil” stepped to the open fireplace and, bending, looked up the chimney, making a thrust with his sword worthy of a professional sweep. Rattle-bang-crash— came a whole assortment of bottles, flasks and cigar boxes. The cadet stood aghast with the death sweat on him. General Sheridan “froze” him with a stern glance and then, turning to the inspector said, “Do not report this case; I have taken an unfair advantage. I well remember the old hiding place of my own cadet-ship,”

Sheridan also had a sense of humor, as seen in this piece in The Rock Springs Adviser-News, December 31, 1914 – The Army Mule. General Phil Sheridan was at one time asked at what little incident he had laughed the must. “Well,” he said, “I do not know; but I always laugh when I think of the Irishman and the army mule. I was riding down the line one day when I saw an Irishman mounted on a mule, which was kicking its legs rather freely. The mule finally gut its hoof caught in the stirrup, when, in the excitement, the Irishman remarked: Well, begorra, if you’re goin’ to git on I’ll get off.’ “

Sheridan’s namesake General Phil Sheridan was a military hero and helped to preserve the wonders of Yellowstone as well. Sheridan should be proud of her namesake.