s lieutenant on the frontier, in Texas, California, and
Oregon, until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he was promoted
captain and ordered east, can be quickly told. His history until the
fall of the Confederacy would need many long chapters. His military
genius included all the requirements of a great captain, and his
opportunties of exhibiting all his qualities in action came in rapid
succession. In every service from quartermaster to army commander his
talents shone. His tremendous vigor, incredible mental alertness, and
genius for detail, added to his skill and outreach, continually set
him forward. He stood 5 feet 5 inches high, but somehow looked
taller, owing to his erect, splendid bearing. There was something in
the full chest, the thick muscular neck, the heavy head, the dark
blazing eyes, and the quick bodily movements that arrested attention.
His name has come down to this generation mainly as a great cavalry
leader, but he was a natural commander of all arms, a great
tactician, a born strategist. His campaign of the Shenandoah Valley
was a whirlwind of success. His great battles around Richmond were
wonderful. General Grant's opinion of Sheridan, given thirteen years
after the war, sums up the man. It is here quoted from J.R. Young's
book, _Around the World with General Grant_. It runs, in part, as
follows:

"As a soldier, as a commander of troops, as a man capable of doing
all that is possible with any number of men, there is no man living
greater than Sheridan. He belongs to the very first rank of soldiers,
not only of our country but of the world. I rank Sheridan with
Napoleon and Frederick and the great commanders in history. No man
ever had such a faculty of finding things out as Sheridan, of knowing
all about the enemy. He was always the best informed of his command
as to the enemy. Then he had that magnetic quality of swaying men,
which I wish I had, a rare quality in a general. I don't think anyone
can give Sheridan too high praise."

Praise from U.S. Grant is praise indeed. A peculiar feature of the
Civil War was the growth of the generals: Grant, Sherman, Sheridan,
Thomas, Meade, all conspicuously experienced it. With Sheridan,
however, one point is notable, namely, that He triumphed in every
branch in each successive extension of the field of his duties, and
he went from captain to major-general in three years of the regular
army. His care for his men was constant. His troops were always the