Little Phil Sheridan

SHERIDAN -- Joseph Hergesheimer -- Houghton Mifflin ($4).

By & large, best soldiers of the Confederacy were Gentlemen; best soldiers of the Union were not. Philip Henry Sheridan's only articles of gentility were contained in his officer's commission. His Irish immigrant father was a laborer, rose to be foreman and small contractor. Sheridan wanted to be a soldier; when he wangled an appointment to West Point he worked desperately hard to get in, desperately hard to get through. A funny-looking little fellow, with a big head, long arms, short bowlegs, he resented personal remarks and was constantly getting into fights; "on many occasions Sheridan was carried back to barracks on a shutter."

Sheridan saw some active service against Indians in the West, but the Civil War was 15 months old before he did any fighting in it. A capable executive, he was found useful in a quartermaster's job. But when at last he got a command with the Army of the Cumberland he came steadily, quickly to the fore. At Perryville, Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge he won his spurs, came under the notice of Grant. When Grant was put in command of the Army of the Potomac he sent for Sheridan. President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton looked hard at him, were not very impressed with what they saw: Sheridan was short (5 ft. 5 in.), "painfully thin" (115 lb.). In spite of his personal bravery he had the reputation of being a cautious commander. "He never, finally, lost a battle. He was careful--he had been long and carefully trained-- rather than brilliant."

Sheridan had Grant's backing all the way. When Meade and Sheridan quarreled over the function of the cavalry (Meade insisting it should be merely auxiliary to infantry, Sheridan that it should be independent ), Grant upheld Sheridan, let him build up the cavalry as a separate division of the army. Sheridan had two big jobs: policing the Shenandoah Valley and beating Confederate Cavalry General J. E. B. Stuart. He cleared the Valley and on a raid behind Lee's lines Stuart was killed at Yellow Tavern. Many a schoolboy knows of the Battle of Cedar Creek, when Sheridan, supposedly riding hard from Winchester, "20 miles away," rallied his men and turned a rout into victory. Sheridan's famed gallop, says Author Hergesheimer, has been grossly exaggerated: actually he went very slowly, stopping to listen, probably walked his horse a good part of the way.

Unimpressive in civilian clothes, "in battle he was totally different: combat had the effect of creating in him, as though he were a lamp, a strong light. He was, at once, capable of a passionate cursing and a low-voiced impressive tranquillity of confidence. 'Damn you, sir,' he said to an officer who came galloping up, crying out some bad news above the roar of battle, 'don't yell at me!' In such moments of intensity he often leaned forward over his horse's neck and spoke with the utmost softness."

The Author. Joseph Hergesheimer, 51, Pennsylvania Dutchman, wanted to be a painter. When he found he would never be a great one he turned to writing. Twelve years of painstaking effort resulted in his selling a stuffed cabbage recipe to Good Housekeeping. Now one of his country's better-paid authors, he is regarded as superficial by highbrow critics, highbrow by U. S. readers at large. A naturally clumsy writer, he has become so adroit in the manipulation of his bland, trained-elephant style that it does not crush his yarns. Into Sheridan he has packed so many facts, detailed military descriptions that he has left little room for his usual cavortings. Thickset, heavy-eyebrowed, bespectacled, with a quizzical clown's visage, Author Hergesheimer is married, lives fatly, appreciatively in his country house near West Chester, Pa. Other books: Three Black Pennys, Java Head, The Bright Shawl, Cytherea, Balisand, The Limestone Tree (TIME, Jan. 12).

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