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[37]
What sort of a man is he who has the charge of eight free States and six great Territories, and who may at any moment on his own mere motion, and without consulting a single native, add ten more States to his overgrown command?
As a companion by the way, I like General Sheridan, and if I paint him somewhat darkly it is because the facts of history leave me no choice of tints.
Nature has not drawn Philip Sheridan in sepia, nor need one pay him the poor compliment of softening a grand and sombre figure.
To feel the situation you must see the man.
A soldier, short in stature, squat in form, and plain of face, with head of bullet-shape, and eyes lit up with sullen fire, is “Little Phil,” the wild Irish devil, who has fought his way to one of the highest seats within a soldier's reach.
Five names emerge from the confusion of the war, and that of Sheridan is one of these five.
If Lee and Jackson leave a brighter record, who among the Northern men, excepting Grant and Sherman, have a greater name than Sheridan?
These captains are immortals, and Sheridan is youngest of the five.
Alert as Mosby, he is hot as Hood and cool as Bragg.
Think of poor Early in his grasp!
Few strokes of war
1875.
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