Soldiers in American History - Page 5

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Philip Henry Sheridan (1831-1888) - The third of six children by John and Mary Meenagh Sheridan, Philip was born in Albany New York, before his family moved to Ohio. As a boy he worked in a general store and in 1848, obtained an appointed to the United States Military Academy from one of his customers. "Little Phil," as he was called due to his short stature of just 5 feet 4 inches, did not do well at West Point, failing in mathematics, described as having a "poor attitude," and once suspended for fighting. However, he graduated in 1853 and was commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant, assigned to the 1st U.S. Infantry at Fort Duncan, Texas. Over the next several years he worked at a number of posts in the West before being promoted to a first lieutenant in March, 1861, just before the Civil War. He was promoted again to Captain in May, just after the war began.

During the war, he fought in a number of battles, primarily in the Western Theater and was quickly promoted to a Major General. Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant then transferred Sheridan to lead the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac in the Eastern Theater and in 1864, his forces defeated the South in the Shenandoah Valley. In 1865, his cavalry pursued General Robert E. Lee and was instrumental in forcing his surrender at Appomattox.

After the Civil War, Grant appointed Sheridan commander of the Military District of the Southwest, where he was avidly involved in Reconstruction, and became became one of the most well known Indian fighters in the West. However, it was during this time that his reputation began to suffer, at least in the eyes of historians, as he is perceived in this role as a tyrant and a racist.

In 1883, he was made commander-in-chief of the army. He died on August 5, 1888 of heart disease.

James Ewell Brown "J.E.B." Stuart (1833-1864) - James was born on a plantation called Laurel Hill in Patrick County, Virginia on February 6, 1833, to Archibald Stuart, a politician and attorney, and Elizabeth Stuart. After attending school in Wytheville, Virginia, he attended Emory & Henry College from 1848 to 1850. In 1854, he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York when Robert E. Lee was its Commandant. When he graduated, he had obtained the rank of cavalry sergeant, the highest rank attainable for these cadets.

In the U.S. Army, he served as a Mounted Rifleman in Texas before joining the 1st Regiment of the U.S. Cavalry, where he was involved in a number of Indian conflicts as well as those involving the Kansas-Missouri border war, more familiarly known as Bleeding Kansas.

In 1859, Stuart carried the orders for Colonel Robert E. Lee to proceed to Harpers Ferry stop John Brown's raid on the U.S. Arsenal. Stuart was promoted to captain in April, 1861, but resigned from the on May 14, 1861 to join the Confederate Army following the secession of Virginia.

He was commissioned as a Lieutenant Colonel of the Infantry in the Confederate Army the next month and quickly received a number of promotions and became the Cavalry Commander. By July, 1862, he received the rank of a Major General, fighting in a number of campaigns including the Peninsula Campaign, the Second Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, before losing his life on May 12, 1864 during the Overland Campaign, at the Battle of Yellow Tavern.

Creed Taylor (1820-1906) - Born to Josiah and Hepzibeth Luker Taylor in Alabama on April 20, 1820, Creed was one of nine children. When he was just four years old, he moved with his family to DeWitt County, Texas in 1824. At the age of just 15, Creed began to fight in the Texas Revolution against Mexico, participating in the Battle of Concepción, led by James Bowie and James Fannin on October 28, 1835. The following month, he fought in the Grass Fight just south of San Antonio de Bexar on November 26, 1835 and in the Siege of Bexar in December. The next month he was with the Texas forces at San Patricio where he was detached duty as a scout, a position he held until March. After the fall of the Alamo in March, 1826, Taylor was sent to join the forces at Buffalo Bayou and on April 21^st, fought in the Battle of San Jacinto.

Taylor married Nancy Matilda Goodbread on April 25, 1840, and they would eventually have two sons and a daughter. Taylor continued his soldiering responsibilities until he joined the Texas Rangers in 1841 and fought Apaches with John Coffee Hays in the Battle of Bandera Pass. The following year, he was again fighting the Mexicans in the Battle of Salado Creek where he was wounded. After his recovery, he enlisted as a private in the Texas Mounted Rangers and fought in the Mexican-American War, participating in a number of battles. In February, 1854, he enlisted in the Confederate Army. In 1867, his wife Nancy died and the following year, his sons, John and Phillip both got involved in the Sutton-Taylor Feud, the longest and bloodiest of all the feuds in Texas. Both men would be killed in the feud.

Creed later moved to Kimball County, Texas and married Lurvenia Spencer in February, 1873. The couple would eventually have five children. In his later years he dictated his recollections to James T. DeShields, but they wouldn’t be published until 1935 in Tall Men with Long Rifles. Taylor died on December 26, 1906, and was buried in the Noxville Cemetery in Kimball County.

Alfred Howe Terry (1827-1890) - Born in 1827 in Hartford, Connecticut to a prosperous family, they soon moved to New Haven, where Terry grew up. Having a good education he became a lawyer and was appointed as the clerk of the Superior Court of New Haven County in the 1850s. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Terry raised a regiment of Connecticut volunteers and led them into battle at First Bull Run, as well as other engagements in Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. His success on the battlefield earned him a promotion to brigadier general during the war.

Afterwards, he became the military commander of Dakota Territory, where he played an important role in the army's long, often ruthless campaign to gain control of the northern plains. Terry became George Armstrong Custer's commanding officer in 1873, when the Seventh Cavalry was posted to the Dakotas, and the following year he found himself caught up in controversy when Custer's well-publicized expedition into the Black Hills triggered a gold rush onto land that had been set aside for the Lakota under the Fort Laramie Treaty, Terry himself had helped negotiate. After the massacre at the Little Bighorn, Terry accepted unmerited criticism rather than tarnish Custer's reputation. He ordered the court-marshal of Major Marcus Reno, Custer's second-in-command. Terry never fought again, serving on numerous army Indian commissions and commanding the Department of the Missouri. Terry became seriously ill in 1888, retired from the army, and died two years later.

Santa Anna ordered the shelling of the Alamo but the Texans refused to surrender. On March 6th, the Mexican army stormed the fortress and during the battle 189 Texans, including Travis, Bowie, and Davy Crockett, were killed, but not without a valiant fight. It is estimated that 1,500 Mexicans died during the battle.

© Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated September, 2010.

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