Terrible Swift Sword

The Life of General Philip H. Sheridan

By: Joseph Wheelan

Narrated by: R.C. Bray

Alongside Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip H. Sheridan is the least known of the triumvirate of generals most responsible for winning the Civil War. Yet, before Sherman's famous march through Georgia, it was General Sheridan who introduced scorched-earth warfare to the South, and it was his Cavalry Corps that compelled Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse. Sheridan's innovative cavalry tactics and "total war" strategy became staples of 20th-century warfare.

After the war, Sheridan ruthlessly suppressed the raiding Plains Indians much as he had the Confederates - by killing warriors and burning villages - but he also defended reservation Indians from corrupt agents and contractors. Sheridan, an enthusiastic hunter and conservationist, later ordered the U.S. cavalry to occupy and operate Yellowstone National Park to safeguard it from commercial exploitation.

©2012 Joseph Wheelan (P)2013 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Wheelan has delivered an exciting and crisply written biography that, especially in his accounts of battles, fairly gallops across the page in the company of a personality who seemed to his own contemporaries like a god of war incarnated in the body of a pint-size Irish immigrant." ( Wall Street Journal)

Story of his life after Civil War was better

The Civil War part lacked personal details, Indian wars and Yellowstone conservation parts were better

Stellar account of Little Phil!

This is an excellent book about the life of Phillip Sheridan. Of all those who are attributed with the Union's Victory, Phillip Sheridan is often understated. The combination of Grant, Sherman and Sheridan proved most effective. His Life was quite impressive and every Civil War Buff should read up on him. The Narration was done very well and I thoroughly enjoyed this rendition.

great read

well written and interesting book on one of out greatest generals. narrative was well spoken

Very good history lesson!

Excellent insight to a historical giant...from the civi war to a founder of Yellowstone. Big book of a "little" man who changed the world as well as America.

Much more focused on the military career than a comprehensive biography

It does a good job with military matters, but definitely does not do too much to reveal the human being