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sional district had no representative at
West Point. He immediately wrote
General Ritchey, the Representative in
Congress, calling attention to the
friendship existing between them.
General Ritchey remembered his
youthful applicant as his favorite clerk
in the Finck & Dittoe store, and his
reply contained the necessary creden-
tials for admission to the military acad-
emy. To General Ritchey alone be-
longs the credit of placing the young
man in a position whereby innate gen-
ius found an unlimited field for ex-
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pansion. The name of General Ritchey
will be saved from oblivion by this one
act, and in his declining years, during
the stirring Civil War days, when re-
sults hung in the balance, none watched
with more anxiety the various cam-
paigns, and when Sheridan struck the
decisive blow at Cedar Creek General
Ritchey was overjoyed and kept re-
peating, "My boy did it, my boy did it!"
There are a number of traditions
about his preparation for the entrance
examination, some of which are more
fanciful than true, but he was wont to
retire to the chestnut woods north of
town with P. H. Binckley, a local
wizard in knowledge, and receive coach-
ing of much value. Sheridan was
pleased to give the credit of his prep-
aration to a Mr. William Clark.
Sheridan was suspended for a period
at the opening of his junior year, and
returned home. This dismissal was
caused by an attack on a higher class-
man who had personally insulted him.
At the end of the period of suspension
General Ritchey re-appointed him, be-
lieving more than ever that he had the
elements of a good fighter.
With the class completing the course
in 1853, General Sheridan was gradu-
ated number thirty-four in a class of
fifty-two members, and on July 1 re-
ceived the commission of a brevet sec-
ond lieutenant in the First Regiment
of United States Infantry. The com-
pany to which he was assigned was at
that time stationed in Texas. He did
not join his company until the follow-
ing March, being engaged meanwhile
at recruiting stations. From the time
of joining his company until the open-
ing year of "the war" his life was
crowded with a career of intense activ-
ity, exposure and danger: protecting
frontier settlements, escorting survey-
ing parties and fighting savage Indians
prepared him for greater fields of
greater moment.
When the first shot of the Civil War
in America crashed against the wall of
Fort Sumter, Phil H. Sheridan was a
lieutenant in a fort in the Oregon
country. The intense patriotism of his
nature brooked no restraint and he
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"Human portraits faithfully drawn
are of all pictures the welcomest on
the human wall," wrote Carlyle.
The influence of the life of a truly
great man seems to grow as we recede
from it. The test of worth is measured
very accurately by the tenacity with
which posterity holds on to the life
and works of an individual. That Gen-
eral P. H. Sheridan possessed those
elements of character which not only
endeared his memory to the coterie of
personal friends, but to succeeding
generations and the world, is evinced
by the contribution of the State and
the interest of the nation, that an ap-
propriate memorial should be placed
in his native town.
Sheridan as a boy belonged to Som-
erset, as a citizen to Ohio, as a pa-
triot to the United States, and as a mil-
itary genius to the world. Personal
effort and unaided genius furnish in
him a most illustrious example of
ability to reach the highest position in
military achievements from the hum-
blest walks of life.
Philip Henry Sheridan was born at
Albany, N. Y., March 6, 1831. His
parents belonged to that wave of Irish
immigrants which swept to the shores
of America when the Government had
declared for "internal improvements
at public expense." The father found
employment on these public works and
manifesting characteristic energy he
was induced to take a contract, in
which line of operation he proved emi-
nently successful. Young Sheridan re-
ceived some elementary education in
the schools of Somerset, but he was
not marked by any precocity of mind
or devotion to his studies. He carried
water for the workmen and afterwards
drove a cart in the construction of the
Zanesville and Maysville pike, the line
of which passed through the town of
his boyhood home and on which his
father had a contract. The youth in
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patched overalls, driving a mule to a
cart, is a fitting contrast in a country
"Where a man is a man for a' that,"
to the hero in the uniform of the army
of his country recklessly galloping
across the field of battle on his foam-
covered steed.
Young Sheridan learned through a
newspaper notice that his congres-
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GENERAL SHERIDAN'S BOYHOOD HOME AND THE HOUSE HE BUILT FOR HIS PARENTS |
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