Little Phil: A Reassessment of the Civil War Leadership of Gen. Phillip H. Sheridan

 by Bob Cheeks  

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Columbus, Ohio attorney Eric J. Wittenberg has crafted a splendid study of one of America’s military icons, General Philip Sheridan, late of the Army of the Potomac.

Little Phil: A Reassessment of the Civil War Leadership of Gen. Phillip H. Sheridan
By Eric J. Wittenberg
Potomac Books
Ppbk, 250 pgs., appendix, bibliography, index, maps
ISBN: 1-57488-548-0

Those history books written for popular consumption tend to be of two distinct categories. First, there are those books by authors whose creativity and talents deliver a narrative that is supported by a prose that rivals the finest novelists. Such distinguished authors as David McCullough, Shelby Foote, and Allan Eckert immediately spring to mind, though Mr. Eckert has been criticized for playing a little too loose with the historical data. Â Nevertheless, authors such as these are able to craft their historical narrative in such a way as to not only inform the reader but to entertain as well.

The second category of historical writers is more interested in historical content and/or the re-examination of events. The latter tend to be a little drier and sometimes academic but they do, on many occasions, deliver a literate, incisive, objective, and interesting study.

An author within that second category is Columbus, Ohio attorney Eric J. Wittenberg, who has crafted a splendid study of one of America’s military icons, General Philip Sheridan, late of the Army of the Potomac. Â

To his credit Wittenberg has scoured the available sources and retrieved innumerable gems with which to illustrate a military career much different than the one described in standard histories.

To be sure, Phil Sheridan, who carried the sobriquet, “Little Phil,” because of his diminutive size, was at least at the beginning and the end of his career a fighter, which is no small tribute for a general officer of the Army of the Potomac. But, even in the beginning of the War Between the States his actions were not without controversy. At Perryville he violated orders and brought on an unwanted general engagement. At Missionary Ridge he took unwarranted credit for seizing Confederate artillery.

But, in his defense, at Stones River he had his division fully prepared for the Confederate onslaught and displayed the most efficacious use of artillery by any officer during the war. His efforts, and those of his gallant division, saved The Army of the Cumberland from annihilation.

Regardless of his actions, Phil Sheridan was promoted time and time again. In April of 1864 he was brought east and placed in command of the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac. The author’s analysis of Sheridan’s term of command, his tactics, and his failed leadership leaves little to doubt. “Although history remembers Philip H. Sheridan,” Wittenberg writes, “as the greatest cavalry commander of the Civil War (sic), the evidence simply does not support the conclusion.”

Wittenberg’s description and overview of the 1864 Shenandoah Valley campaign that pitted Sheridan against the irascible Jubal Early is among the best written and a must read for any student of the “late unpleasantness.” The author’s summation sets the record straight, “A truly great general, one with the killer instinct, would have pressed on to destroy his foe. In doing so, Sheridan would have brought the war to a faster conclusion….Many more good men lost their lives as a result.”

Timid, slow, and rarely commanding from the front after ascending to corps then army command (with the exception of the final campaign of the war), Sheridan was also disobedient and his “cruelty and pettiness toward his brother officers” bespoke a small man, indeed. And, his cruelty is best described in his cashiering Maj. Gen. W. W. Averell, perhaps the most competent cavalry officer in his command, his removal of Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, the “hero of Little Round Top,” following the battle of Five Forks, and his betrayal of his oldest and dearest friend, Maj. Gen. George Crook. Wittenberg covers these events closely and provides a powerful rebuttal of the “received” wisdom concerning General Sheridan.

The author warns his readers, in his “introduction,” that there is some redundancy and he is correct; I did find it somewhat annoying. But, the scholarship, research, and manner in which he presented his evidence has produced a work that is easy to read and understand, even for the “beginning” civil war (sic) enthusiast. Wittenberg has eschewed any obligation to “political correctness” found in too many histories. His analysis is always logical and objective. He has researched the military career of Phil Sheridan and found a lesser general, and a mendacious, solipsistic, man.

Eric J. Wittenberg’s Little Phil is a desirable book for any scholar of the “late unpleasantness;” it will be much cited in future works.
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Little Phil is available on Amazon.com.

Bob Cheeks has written for The American Enterprise, Human Events, Southern Partisan, and The Pittsburgh Tribune Review.

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