Scope and Content Note
The papers of Philip Henry Sheridan (1831-1888) span the years 1853 to 1896, with the bulk of the material originating between 1862 and 1887. The collection includes correspondence, reports, orders, memorabilia, scrapbooks, commissions, financial records, and speeches organized in the following series: General Correspondence , Autograph Letters , Letterbooks , Field Dispatches and Telegrams , Military Papers , Subject File , Book and Speech File , Miscellany , Scrapbooks , and Oversize .
The papers relate chiefly to the Civil War, Reconstruction, Mexican border disputes, Indian wars, and military administration. There is very little material concerning Sheridan's family and personal life. Dominated by correspondence and reports, the papers document Sheridan's service as an army commander in the Civil War and his postwar commands up to and including that of commanding general of the United States Army. The papers also include material relating to George A. Forsyth's Europe-Asia observation tour; the Piegan expedition; Gouverneur K. Warren's court of inquiry; Rebecca Wright, a Federal spy at Winchester, Virginia; reconnaissance of Bighorn Mountain and the valleys of the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers; and Henry Page's letterbooks as quartermaster for the Army of the Potomac. Correspondents include George A. Forsyth (aide and secretary), James W. Forsyth, Ulysses S. Grant, Michael V. Sheridan (his brother), and William T. Sherman. There are two letters from Abraham Lincoln to Sheridan, September 20 and October 22, 1864.
Included also is a draft of Sheridan's published memoirs. Following the destruction of some of Sheridan's papers in the Chicago fire of 1871, a large number of transcripts were made from the records of the War Department by his secretaries. These transcripts have been interfiled with the surviving original papers.