Sheridan, Philip H

Sheridan, Philip H(enry)

(born March 6, 1831, Albany, N.Y., U.S.—died Aug. 5, 1888, Nonquitt, Mass.) U.S. army officer. He graduated from West Point and served at frontier posts. In the American Civil War he led a Union division in Tennessee and helped win the Battle of Chattanooga with his cavalry charge up Missionary Ridge. In the East he became commander of the cavalry (1864) and led raids on Confederate forces around Richmond, Va. As commander of the Army of the Shenandoah, he drove Confederate forces under Jubal Early from the Shenandoah Valley. He joined Ulysses S. Grant to help secure Union victories in the Petersburg Campaign. After the war he became general of the army (1883).