Necrology of the Commandery of the District of Columbia, 1888; Philip Henry Sheridan, General, U.S. Army

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1888 Excerpt: ... and moved up the valley. The operations following during the months of December, 1863, and January, February, and March, 1864, are not of sufficient significance to warrant detail. The first half of March, 1864, found Sheridan, with his division, holding the bridge across the Tennessee river at Loudon, when, on the 12th of March, General Grant was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General and assigned to the command of all the armies of the United States and ordered to report at Washington. On the 23d of March following, General Sheridan was summoned to Washington and ordered to take command of the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac. It is said that this selection of General Sheridan to command the cavalry of the army, notwithstanding the fact that he had never commanded a larger body of cavalry than a brigade, was due to a suggestion of General Halleck. When in conversation with General Grant, the latter remarked that he was looking for a man to take command of the Cavalry Corps, General Halleck replied, Why not take Sheridan? to which General Grant responded, The very man, and forthwith ordered him by telegraph to report for duty. With characteristic promptitude, without taking formal leave of his command, on the following day General Sheridan left Loudon, and arriving at Washington on the 4th of April, reported at once to General Halleck. This was their first meeting since, on the 27th of May, 1862, Sheridan had left Halleck's headquarters to take command of the 2d Michigan 20 Cavalry. General Halleck took Sheridan at once to the War Department to introduce him to the Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton. General Sheridan has himself, in his memoirs, graphically described this interview, as follows: During the ceremony of introduction I could feel that M...