Phil Sheridan and His Army

"Paul Hutton’s study of Phil Sheridan in the West is authoritative, readable, and an important contribution to the literature of westward expansion. Although headquartered in Chicago, Sheridan played a crucial role in the opening of the West. His command stretched from the Missouri to the Rockies and from Mexico to Canada, and all the Indian Wars of the Great Plains fell under his direction. Hutton ably narrates and interprets Sheridan’s western career from the perspective of the top command rather than the battlefield leader. His book is good history and good reading."–Robert M. Utley

Philip H. Sheridan's reputation in the Civil War often overshadows his longer and more significant roles as the nation's chief Indian fighter and commander of the army. Phil Sheridan and His Army is the first comprehensive biography and study of that later career. Formed by his experience in the Civil War and Reconstruction era, Sheridan came to see himself as the instrument of the United States' social and political destiny to open the West for white settlement and development. Paul Hutton analyzes Sheridan's relations with his subordinates, the institutional nature of his army, his campaigns, the logistics of them, and the special circumstances of defeating, pacifying, relocating, and negotiating with the Indians. At the same time, Gilded Age politics and laissez-faire capitalism shaped the grim future of the Indian—and of Sheridan's beleagured quasi-peacetime army. This definitive, abundantly illustrated history also fills out other sides of General Sheridan, who commanded Chicago after its great fire, quelled its labor riots, launched Buffalo Bill Cody on his career, served as an observed in the Franco-Prussian War, played a key role in the 1876 election crisis, and championed a national park system free from commercial exploitation.

Paul Andrew Hutton is an associate professor of history at the University of New Mexico.