General Philip Henry Sheridan - Albany, NY
Posted by: 
sagefemme
N 42° 39.113 W 073° 45.366
18T E 601959 N 4722907
Union Major General Philip Henry Sheridan riding Rienzi, to be renamed Winchester after the Battle of Cedar Creek.
Waymark Code: WMGH7F
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 03/06/2013
Views: 19
Sheridan is purported born in Albany (1831) and was trained at the United States Military Academy at West Point. His military career included rise to the rank of Major General under Ulysses S. Grant during the American CIvil War, where he led the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac, pursued General Lee through the Shenandoah Valley, where he was among the first to deploy the "scorched earth" policy of economic destruction of territory held by the confederate forces, and his relentless pursuit led to The confederate surrender at Appomattox. After the war, he prosecuted the Indian Wars, eventually rising to the position of general-in-chief of the army (1883) and General of the Army in 1888 by President Grover Cleveland.
Sheridan had only one mount from 1862 through the remainder of the Civil War. It was a black Morgan, named "Rienzi" when it was presented to him in Rienzi, Mississippi. This horse is the subject of the poem "Sheridan's Ride" by Thomas Buchanan Read, describing from Winchester to Cedar Creek, Virginia. After the Battle of Cedar Creek, General Sheridan changed the horse's name to Winchester.
The horse died in 1878, and his body was stuffed and put on display at the US First Army Museum in New York City. That museum burned in 1922, but Rienzi was saved and given an Army escort to the Smithsonian, where it is now on display, behind glass, at the Hall of Armed Forces History, in Washington, DC.
Sheridan, in his turn, died of heart failure in 1888, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Identity of Rider: General Philip Henry Sheridan
Identity of Horse: Rienzi, later renamed Winchester
Name of artist: John Quincy Adams Ward
Date of Dedication: October 7, 1916
Material: Bronze
Position: One Hoof Raised
Unusual Features: Not listed
|
Visit Instructions:
Enjoy your visit, tell your story and post a picture.