Philip Sheridan

Early life and education

Sheridan was born in Albany, New York, on March 6, 1831, the third of six children of John and Mary Meenagh Sheridan, Irish Catholic immigrants from Killinkere parish in County Cavan, Ireland. He grew up in Somerset, Ohio. Small in stature, he reached only 5 feet 5 inches (165 cm) tall, earning him the nickname, "Little Phil". Abraham Lincoln described his appearance in a famous anecdote: "A brown, chunky little chap, with a long body, short legs, not enough neck to hang him, and such long arms that if his ankles itch he can scratch them without stooping."

As a boy, Sheridan worked in a general store and later as head clerk and bookkeeper at a dry goods store. In 1848, he obtained an appointment to the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, from a nomination from one of his customers, U.S. Congressman Thomas Ritchey, whose first candidate was disqualified after failing a mathematics examination and reportedly displayed a "poor attitude". In his fourth year at West Point, Sheridan was suspended for a year for fighting with classmate William R. Terrill. The previous day, Sheridan had threatened to run him through with a fixed bayonet in reaction to a perceived insult on the parade ground. He graduated in 1853, 34th in his class of 52 cadets.

Sheridan was commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant and was assigned to the 1st U.S. Infantry Regiment at Fort Duncan in Eagle Pass, Texas, then to the 4th U.S. Infantry Regiment at Fort Reading in Anderson, California. Most of his service with the 4th Infantry was in the Pacific Northwest, starting with a topographical survey mission to the Willamette Valley in 1855, during which he became involved with the Yakima War and Rogue River Wars, gaining experience in leading small combat teams and some diplomatic skills in his negotiations with Indian tribes. On March 28, 1857, he was wounded when a bullet grazed his nose at Middle Cascade, Oregon Territory. He and an Indian woman from Rogue River lived together during part of his tour of duty. Named Frances by her white friends, she was the daughter of Takelma Chief Harney.

In March 1861, just before the beginning the American Civil War, Sheridan was promoted to first lieutenant, and then to captain in May, just weeks after the war commenced following the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter.

Civil War

Western Theater

In the fall of 1861, Sheridan was ordered to travel to Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, Missouri, for assignment to the 13th U.S. Infantry. He departed from his command of Fort Yamhill in Oregon by way of San Francisco, across the Isthmus of Panama, and through New York City to home in Somerset for a brief leave. On the way to his new post, he made a courtesy call to Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck in St. Louis, who commandeered his services to audit the financial records of his immediate predecessor, Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont, whose administration of the Department of the Missouri was tainted by charges of wasteful expenditures and fraud that left the status of $12 million in debt. Sheridan sorted out the mess, impressing Halleck in the process. Much to Sheridan's dismay, Halleck's vision for Sheridan consisted of a continuing role as a staff officer. Nevertheless, Sheridan performed the task assigned to him and entrenched himself as an excellent staff officer in Halleck's view.

In December, Sheridan was appointed chief commissary officer of the Army of Southwest Missouri, but convinced the department commander, Halleck, to also give him the position of quartermaster general. In January 1862, he reported for duty to Maj. Gen. Samuel Curtis and served under him at the Battle of Pea Ridge. Sheridan soon discovered that officers were engaged in profiteering, including stealing horses from civilians and demanding payment from Sheridan. He refused to pay for the stolen property and confiscated the horses for the use of Curtis's army. When Curtis ordered him to pay the officers, Sheridan brusquely responded, "No authority can compel me to jayhawk or steal." Curtis had Sheridan arrested for insubordination but Halleck's influence appears to have ended any formal proceedings. Sheridan performed aptly in his role under Curtis, and then returned to Halleck's headquarters to accompany the army on the Siege of Corinth and serve as an assistant to the department's topographical engineer. He made the acquaintance of Brig. Gen. William T. Sherman, who offered him the role of colonel in an Ohio infantry regiment. The appointment fell through, but Sheridan was subsequently aided by friends, including future Secretary of War Russell A. Alger, who petitioned Michigan Governor Austin Blair on his behalf. Sheridan was appointed colonel of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry on May 27, 1862, despite having no experience in the mounted arm.

A month later, Sheridan commanded his first forces in combat, leading a small brigade that included his regiment. At the Battle of Booneville, Mississippi, July 1, 1862, he held back several regiments of Brig. Gen. James R. Chalmers's Confederate cavalry, deflected a large flanking attack with a noisy diversion, and reported critical intelligence about enemy dispositions. His actions so impressed the division commanders, including Brig. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, that they recommended Sheridan's promotion to brigadier general. They wrote to Halleck, "Brigadiers scarce; good ones scarce. ... The undersigned respectfully beg that you will obtain the promotion of Sheridan. He is worth his weight in gold." The promotion was approved in September, but dated effective July 1 as a reward for his actions at Booneville. After Booneville, one of his fellow officers gave him the horse that he named Rienzi after the skirmish of Rienzi, Mississippi, which he rode throughout the Civil War.

Overland Campaign

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, newly promoted to be general-in-chief of all the Union armies, summoned Sheridan to the Eastern Theater to command the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Unbeknownst to Sheridan, he was actually Grant's second choice, after Maj. Gen. William B. Franklin, but Grant agreed to a suggestion about Sheridan from Chief of Staff Henry W. Halleck. After the war, and in his memoirs, Grant claimed that Sheridan was the very man he wanted for the job. Sheridan arrived at the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac on April 5, 1864, less than a month before the start of Grant's massive Overland Campaign against Robert E. Lee.

In the early battles of the campaign, Sheridan's cavalry was relegated by army commander Maj. Gen. George Meade to its traditional role, including screening, reconnaissance, and guarding trains and rear areas, much to Sheridan's frustration. In the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5–6, 1864), the dense forested terrain prevented any significant cavalry role. As the army swung around the Confederate right flank in the direction of Spotsylvania Court House, Sheridan's troopers failed to clear the road from the Wilderness, losing engagements along the Plank Road on May 5 and Todd's Tavern on May 6 through May 8, allowing the Confederates to seize the critical crossroads before the Union infantry could arrive.

When Meade quarreled with Sheridan for not performing his duties of screening and reconnaissance as ordered, Sheridan told Meade that he could "whip Stuart" if Meade let him. Meade reported the conversation to Grant, who replied, "Well, he generally knows what he is talking about. Let him start right out and do it." Meade deferred to Grant's judgment and issued orders to Sheridan to "proceed against the enemy's cavalry" and from May 9 through May 24, sent him on a raid toward Richmond, directly challenging the Confederate cavalry. The raid was less successful than hoped; although his raid managed to mortally wound Confederate cavalry commander Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart at Yellow Tavern on May 11 and beat Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee at Meadow Bridge on May 12, the raid never seriously threatened Richmond and it left Grant without cavalry intelligence for Spotsylvania and North Anna. Historian Gordon C. Rhea wrote, "By taking his cavalry from Spotsylvania Court House, Sheridan severely handicapped Grant in his battles against Lee. The Union Army was deprived of his eyes and ears during a critical juncture in the campaign. And Sheridan's decision to advance boldly to the Richmond defenses smacked of unnecessary showboating that jeopardized his command."

Army of the Shenandoah

Throughout the war, the Confederacy sent armies out of Virginia through the Shenandoah Valley to invade Maryland and Pennsylvania and threaten Washington, D.C. Lt. Gen. Jubal Early, following the same pattern in the Valley Campaigns of 1864, and hoping to distract Grant from the Siege of Petersburg, attacked Union forces near Washington and raided several towns in Pennsylvania. Grant, reacting to the political commotion caused by the invasion, organized the Middle Military Division, whose field troops were known as the Army of the Shenandoah. He considered various candidates for command, including George Meade, William B. Franklin, and David Hunter, with the latter two intended for the military division while Sheridan would command the army. All of these choices were rejected by either Grant or the War Department and, over the objection of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who believed him to be too young for such a high post, Sheridan took command in both roles at Harpers Ferry on August 7, 1864. His mission was not only to defeat Early's army and to close off the Northern invasion route, but to deny the Shenandoah Valley as a productive agricultural region to the Confederacy. Grant told Sheridan, "The people should be informed that so long as an army can subsist among them recurrences of these raids must be expected, and we are determined to stop them at all hazards. ... Give the enemy no rest ... Do all the damage to railroads and crops you can. Carry off stock of all descriptions, and negroes, so as to prevent further planting. If the war is to last another year, we want the Shenandoah Valley to remain a barren waste."

Sheridan got off to a slow start, needing time to organize and to react to reinforcements reaching Early; Grant ordered him not to launch an offensive "with the advantage against you." And yet Grant expressed frustration with Sheridan's lack of progress. The armies remained unengaged for over a month, causing political consternation in the North as the 1864 election drew near. The two generals conferred on September 16 at Charles Town and agreed that Sheridan would begin his attacks within four days.

On September 19, armed with intelligence about the dispositions and strength of Early's forces around Winchester provided by unionist sympathizer and Quaker teacher Rebecca Wright, Sheridan beat Early's much smaller army at Third Winchester and followed up on September 22 with a victory at Fisher's Hill. As Early attempted to regroup, Sheridan began the punitive operations of his mission, sending his cavalry as far south as Waynesboro to seize or destroy livestock and provisions, and to burn barns, mills, factories, and railroads. Sheridan's men did their work relentlessly and thoroughly, rendering over 400 square miles uninhabitable.

Appomattox Campaign

Sheridan interpreted Grant's orders liberally and instead of heading to North Carolina, in March 1865, he moved to rejoin the Army of the Potomac at Petersburg. He wrote in his memoirs, "Feeling that the war was nearing its end, I desired my cavalry to be in at the death." His finest service of the Civil War was demonstrated during his relentless pursuit of Robert E. Lee's Army, effectively managing the most crucial aspects of the Appomattox Campaign for Grant.

On the way to Petersburg, at the Battle of Waynesboro, on March 2, 1865, he trapped the remainder of Early's army and 1,500 soldiers surrendered. On April 1, he cut off General Lee's lines of support at Five Forks, forcing Lee to evacuate Petersburg. During the battle, he ruined the military career of Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren by removing him from command of the V Corps under circumstances that a court of inquiry later determined were unjustified. President Rutherford B. Hayes ordered a court of inquiry that convened in 1879 and, after hearing testimony from dozens of witnesses over 100 days, found that Sheridan's relief of Warren had been unjustified. Unfortunately for Warren, these results were not published until after his death.

Sheridan's aggressive and well-executed performance at the Battle of Sayler's Creek on April 6 effectively sealed the fate of Lee's army, capturing over 20% of his remaining men. President Lincoln sent Grant a telegram on April 7: "Gen. Sheridan says 'If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender.' Let the thing be pressed." At Appomattox Court House, on April 9, 1865, Sheridan blocked Lee's escape, forcing the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia later that day. Grant summed up Little Phil's performance in these final days, saying, "I believe General Sheridan has no superior as a general, either living or dead, and perhaps not an equal."

Reconstruction

After Gen. Lee's surrender, and that of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina, the only significant Confederate field force remaining was in Texas under Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith. Sheridan was supposed to lead troops in the Grand Review of the Armies in Washington, D.C., but Grant appointed him commander of the Military District of the Southwest on May 17, 1865 six days before the parade, with orders to defeat Smith without delay and restore Texas and Louisiana to Union control. However, Smith surrendered before Sheridan reached New Orleans.

Grant was also concerned about the situation in neighboring Mexico, where 40,000 French soldiers propped up the government of Austrian Archduke Maximilian. He gave Sheridan permission to gather a large Texas occupation force. Sheridan assembled 50,000 men in three corps, quickly occupied Texas coastal cities, spread inland, and began to patrol the Mexico–United States border. The Army's presence, U.S. political pressure, and the growing resistance of Benito Juárez induced the French to abandon their claims against Mexico. Napoleon III announced a staged withdrawal of French troops to be completed in November 1867. In light of growing opposition at home and concern with the rise of German military prowess, Napoleon III stepped up the French withdrawal, which was completed by March 12, 1867. By June 19 of that year, Mexico's republican army had captured, tried, and executed Maximilian. Sheridan later admitted in his memoirs that he had supplied arms and ammunition to Juárez's forces: "... which we left at convenient places on our side of the river to fall into their hands".

On July 30, 1866, while Sheridan was in Texas, a white mob broke up the state constitutional convention in New Orleans, killing 34 blacks. Shortly after Sheridan returned, he wired Grant, "The more information I obtain of the affair of the 30th in this city the more revolting it becomes. It was no riot; it was an absolute massacre." In March 1867, with Reconstruction barely started, Sheridan was appointed military governor of the Fifth Military District (Texas and Louisiana). He severely limited voter registration for former Confederates and ruled that only registered voters, including black men, were eligible to serve on juries. Furthermore, an inquiry into the deadly New Orleans riot of 1866 implicated numerous local officials; Sheridan dismissed the mayor of New Orleans, the Louisiana attorney general, and a district judge. Following widespread anti-segregation protests in New Orleans, railroad company leaders met with Sheridan to try to get him to support their efforts to maintain the segregated "star car" system. He rejected their requests, thereby forcing them to desegregate New Orleans street cars. He later removed Louisiana governor James M. Wells, accusing him of being "a political trickster and a dishonest man". He also dismissed Texas governor James W. Throckmorton, a former Confederate, for being an "impediment to the reconstruction of the State", replacing him with the Republican who had lost to him in the previous election Elisha M. Pease. Sheridan had been feuding with President Andrew Johnson for months over interpretations of the Military Reconstruction Acts and voting rights issues, and within a month of the second firing, the president removed Sheridan, stating to an outraged Gen. Grant that, "His rule has, in fact, been one of absolute tyranny, without references to the principles of our government or the nature of our free institutions."

Indian Wars

In September 1866, Sheridan was assigned to Fort Martin Scott near Fredericksburg, Texas, to administer the formerly Confederate area. While there, he spent three months subduing marauding Indians in the Texas Hill Country. At this time, President Johnson was dissatisfied with the way Republican Army Generals were administering Reconstruction in the post-war Southern states and sought to replace them with Democratic ones more in tune with the (formerly Confederate) White populations committed to instituting Jim Crow laws.

Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock had been assigned to the Department of the Missouri, an administrative area of over 1,000,000 square miles, encompassing land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, and from Kansas north, but had mishandled his campaign mistreating the Plains Indians, primarily Sioux and Cheyenne, resulting in retaliatorily raids that attacked mail coaches, burned stations, and killed employees. The Indians also killed and kidnapped a considerable number of settlers on the frontier. In response to state and territorial governors wanting both more competent Army administration and the Indian uprisings suppressed, coupled with pressures from President Johnson to replace Southern Republican administrators, General Grant swapped Hancock and Sheridan, sending the Democratic Hancock to the Texas post-Confederate area, where he immediately ingratiated himself with the local white population by instituting repressive policies favored by President Johnson's administration and other Democratic politicians throughout the Southern territory.

At the same time, Sheridan took up his responsibilities in the Department of the Missouri. According to the Kansas Historical Society:

President Ulysses S. Grant wanted Sheridan to pacify the Plains Indians, primarily [in response to] the mishandling of the white/Indian conflict by such notables as Major John Chivington and General Winfield Scott Hancock. ... Sheridan's ultimate goal was to make the Indians give up their traditional way of life and settle on reservations. His tactic, though bordering on the barbaric, worked.

While Sheridan moved into the Plains area, his troops, supplemented with state militias, were spread too thin to have any real effect on the Indian raids so he conceived a strategy of forced deprivation, similar to the one he used in the Shenandoah Valley. In the Winter Campaign of 1868–69 (of which the Battle of Washita River was part) he attacked the Cheyenne, Kiowa, Arrapaho, Apache, and Comanche tribes in their winter quarters at the Cimmaron and Canadian rivers. He took their supplies and livestock, driving the Indians back on to their reservations, and killing those who resisted. When Sherman was promoted to General of the Army following Grant's election as President of the United States, Sheridan was appointed to senior command of the Military Division of the Missouri, with all the Great Plains under his command. Professional hunters, trespassing on Indian reservations, killed over 4 million bison by 1874. As historian Dan Flores has shown, any quotations attributed to Sheridan that celebrate buffalo hunting or that he ever appeared before the Texas legislature about this matter, are almost certainly apocryphal. As Flores notes, "there is no evidence the nineteenth-century Texas legislature ever considered a bill to outlaw or regulate the hide hunt." These erroneous charges against Sheridan first surfaced in the 1907 memoir of buffalo hunter John Cook.

Postwar career

Sheridan was promoted to lieutenant general on March 4, 1869. In 1870, President Grant, at Sheridan's request, sent him to observe and report on the Franco-Prussian War. As a guest of King Wilhelm I of Prussia, he was present when Emperor Napoléon III surrendered to the Germans, which was gratifying to Sheridan following his experiences with the French in Mexico. He later toured most of Europe and returned to the U.S. to report to Grant that although the Prussians were "very good brave fellows [who] had gone into each battle with the determination to win, ... there is nothing to be learned here professionally." He criticized their handling of cavalry and likened their practices to the manner in which Meade had attempted to supervise him. However, he referred to theirs as a "perfect military system" and had a high opinion of the officer corps. His words on the French were much more harsh; he criticized the French army for not taking numerous opportunities to halt the German advance, for advancing slowly and clumsily themselves, for not taking any of the numerous good opportunities to cut the enemy's unguarded lines of communication, and for being routed frequently. He remarked: "I am disgusted; all my boyhood's fancies of the soldiers of the great Napoleon have been dissipated, or else the soldiers of the "Little Corporal" have lost their elan in the pampered parade soldiers of the 'Man of Destiny'." Nevertheless, Sheridan appears to have made a positive impression on the German elite, with Otto von Bismarck later telling Grant in 1878 that Sheridan "seemed to be a man of great ability ... he had a wonderfully quick eye".

In 1871, Sheridan was present in Chicago during the Great Chicago Fire and coordinated military relief efforts. The mayor, Roswell B. Mason, to calm the panic, placed the city under martial law, and issued a proclamation putting Sheridan in charge. As there were no widespread disturbances, martial law was lifted within a few days. Although Sheridan's personal residence was spared, all of his professional and personal papers were destroyed. When Chicago's Washington Park Race Track organized the American Derby in 1883 he served as its first president.

On November 1, 1883, Sheridan succeeded General William T. Sherman as Commanding General of the U.S. Army, and held that position until his death. He was promoted on June 1, 1888, shortly before his death, to the rank of General in the Regular Army (the rank was titled "General of the Army of the United States", by Act of Congress June 1, 1888, the same rank held earlier by Grant and Sherman, which is generally held to be at least equivalent to a five-star general in the modern U.S. Army).

Yellowstone

The protection of the Yellowstone area was Sheridan's personal crusade. He authorized Lieutenant Gustavus Doane to escort the Washburn Expedition in 1870 and for Major John W. Barlow to escort the Hayden Expedition in 1871. Barlow named Mount Sheridan, a peak overlooking Heart Lake in Yellowstone, for the general in 1871. As early as 1875, Sheridan promoted military control of the area to prevent the destruction of natural formations and wildlife.

In 1882, the Department of the Interior granted rights to the Yellowstone Park Improvement Company to develop 4,000 acres (1,619 ha) in the park. Their plan was to build a railroad into the park and sell the land to developers. Sheridan personally organized opposition to the plan and lobbied Congress for protection of the park; including expansion, military control, reducing the development to 10 acres (4 ha), and prohibiting leases near park attractions. In addition, he arranged an expedition to the park for President Chester A. Arthur and other influential men. His lobbying soon paid off. A rider was added to the Sundry Civil Bill of 1883, giving Sheridan and his supporters almost everything for which they had asked. In 1886, after a string of ineffectual and sometimes criminal superintendents, Sheridan ordered the 1st U.S. Cavalry into the park. The military operated the park until the National Park Service took it over in 1916.

Sheridan is mentioned favorably in The National Parks: America's Best Idea, Episode I, for his work saving Yellowstone National Park:

Grinnell's fight against the railroad interests was soon joined by an unlikely ally—General Philip Sheridan, a cavalry hero of the Civil War and celebrated Indian fighter, who was now commander of the U.S. Army for much of the West. Sheridan even suggested that Yellowstone should be expanded to provide greater protection for the elk and buffalo. The idea was immediately opposed by Western politicians who believed that Yellowstone was already too big.

In Washington, Grinnell, Sheridan and Missouri senator George Vest took on the railroad lobby directly, calling for an investigation into the park contracts, proposing the expansion of Yellowstone, and trying to write park regulations concerning hunting into law. While the bill to expand Yellowstone failed, Congress did appropriate $40,000 for its maintenance; however, funds to maintain the park were stripped away in August 1886. It seemed Yellowstone would have to fend for itself.

Personal life

On June 3, 1875, Sheridan married Irene Rucker, a daughter of Army Quartermaster General Daniel H. Rucker. She was 22, and he was 44. They had four children: Mary, born in 1876; twin daughters, Irene and Louise, in 1877; and Philip Jr., in 1880. After the wedding, Sheridan and his wife moved to Washington, D.C. They lived in a house given to them by Chicago citizens in appreciation for Sheridan's protection of the city after the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. Philip Sheridan Jr. was an army officer who attained the rank of major and was the husband of Isabel McGunnegle. Isabel McGunnegle was the daughter of army officer George K. McGunnegle.

Death and burial

In 1888, Sheridan suffered a series of massive heart attacks two months after sending his memoirs to the publisher. Although thin in his youth, by 57 years of age he had reached a weight of over 200 pounds. After his first heart attack, the U.S. Congress quickly passed legislation to promote him to general of the army on June 1, 1888, and he received the news from a congressional delegation with joy, despite his pain.

His family moved him from the heat of Washington to his summer cottage in the Nonquitt enclave of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where he died of heart failure on August 5, 1888.

His body was returned to Washington and he was buried on a hillside facing the capital city near Arlington House in Arlington National Cemetery. The sculpture on the marker was executed by English sculptor Samuel James Kitson. The burial helped elevate Arlington to national prominence. His wife Irene never remarried, saying, "I would rather be the widow of Phil Sheridan than the wife of any man living."

Honors

Sheridan is the only person to be featured on a U.S. ten-dollar bill who was strictly associated with the military and not politics. He is featured on $5 and $10 bills.

Sheridan appeared on $10 U.S. Treasury notes issued in 1890 and 1891. His bust then reappeared on the $5 silver certificate in 1896. These rare notes are in great demand by collectors today.

Fort Sheridan in Illinois was named to honor General Sheridan's many services to Chicago. An equestrian statue of Sheridan by Gutzon Borglum (sculptor of the figures on Mount Rushmore) at Belmont Avenue and Sheridan Road in Chicago depicts the general on his horse, Rienzi. Sheridan Road begins in Chicago, continues mostly along the shoreline of Lake Michigan for about 60 miles (96 km) through the North Shore suburbs, and leads to the Town of Fort Sheridan and ultimately Racine, Wisconsin. The landmark former U.S. Army base named for the general is now a reserve post and upscale residential community.

The M551 Sheridan tank is named after Sheridan.

Mount Sheridan in Yellowstone National Park was named for Sheridan by Captain John W. Barlow in 1871. Mount Sheridan in Colorado is also named for him.

The Sheridan Prize is a yacht-racing perpetual trophy awarded to the winner of an annual race on Geneva Lake. It was begun on the occasion of the general's visit to Lake Geneva (then, Geneva) in 1874.

In 1937, the U.S. Post Office issued a series of commemorative stamp issues honoring various Army and Navy heroes. Among them was an issue commemorating Generals Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman and Philip H. Sheridan.

Sheridan County, North Dakota; Sheridan County, Nebraska; Sheridan County, Montana; Sheridan County, Wyoming; and Sheridan County, Kansas, are named for him, as are the communities of Sheridan, California; Sheridan, Colorado; Sheridan, Montana (in Madison County); Sheridan, Wyoming; Sheridan, Arkansas; Sheridan, Oregon; Sheridan, Indiana; and Sheridan, Illinois (LaSalle County).

In popular culture

In literature

In the novel series The Brotherhood of War, the Parker family males are named after Philip Sheridan; the two most prominent are Philip Sheridan Parker III and Philip Sheridan Parker IV. The latter's great-great-grandfather supposedly fought with General Sheridan in the Indian Wars as a master sergeant in the 10th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, known as the Buffalo Soldiers.

In Sherman Alexie's novel Reservation Blues, Sheridan is portrayed as a head hunter for a record label responsible for the downfall of the novel's protagonist's band Coyote Springs. The link between the real Sheridan and the character in the book is made explicit in a brutal dream experienced by one of the characters.

Sheridan is featured, and interacts with the characters, in Michael Crichton's novel Dragon Teeth (2017).

Onscreen

Sheridan has been portrayed in films and television over the years:

Abraham Lincoln (1930), portrayed by Frank Campeau.

In Old Chicago (1938), portrayed by Sidney Blackmer.

Santa Fe Trail (1940), portrayed by David Bruce.

They Died with Their Boots On (1941), portrayed by John Litel. The movie inaccurately portrays Sheridan as a colonel and the commandant of the U.S. Military Academy before the start of the Civil War.

Rio Grande (1950), portrayed by J. Carrol Naish.

Tales of Wells Fargo (1957) in the episode "The General", Paul Fix appears as an irascible General Philip Sheridan. He appears much like the real General Sheridan right down to the handlebar mustache.

The Rifleman (1958) features Lawrence Dobkin as Sheridan in an episode "The Sheridan Story", wherein he befriends a wounded Confederate veteran who was severely wounded in the war (Royal Dano), who is staying temporarily on Lucas McCain's ranch in the New Mexico Territory. It is revealed that McCain, played by Chuck Connors, served under Sheridan during the war.

The Rebel (1960) features Andrew J. Fenady in the role of Sheridan in the episode "Johnny Yuma at Appomattox".

Death Valley Days (1961) features H. M. Wynant as Sheridan in the episode, "The Red Petticoat". In the story line, Sheridan's friendship with Indian scout Kahlu (Allen Jaffe) (1928–1989) is questioned after a number of ambushes result in dead troopers. Sheridan sticks to his instincts and defends his ally against the enraged residents of the fort. Stanley Andrews was the host.

Branded (TV series) (1966) featured John Pickard (American actor) as Sheridan in six episodes, including a three-part episode in which Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) assists President Grant in heading off a heedless attack on Indians by General Custer.