Philip Henry Sheridan

Philip Henry Sheridan (1831–1888) was a general of the United States Army, one of the three Union commanders, with Grant and Sherman, credited with winning the Civil War. Born in New York and raised in Ohio, he graduated from West Point in 1853 and served on the frontier before rising rapidly from quartermaster to corps commander, fighting at Perryville, Stones River and Missionary Ridge, laying waste the Shenandoah Valley in 1864 and cutting off Lee's retreat at Appomattox. After the war he governed Louisiana and Texas under Reconstruction, directed the campaigns against the Plains Indians and helped protect Yellowstone, and became commanding general of the army in 1884.