JO'Co what do you think of Gen Phillip Sheridan? He was another character in an episode of Wells Fargo. In this one they made a big deal of him saying the only good indian is a dead indian then in this episode he's saved by a group of Indians from bad guys who are trying to prevent him from attending some peace conference...it changes him and the results of the conference are favorable to the Indians.
Phil Sheridan was part of the clique of officers who won the Civil War. It began with Grant and Sherman at Shiloh. As Sherman told a reporter, "I supported Grant when he was drunk, and he supported me when I was crazy. Now we support each other always." They expanded their self-protection group as the war continued until it included such generals as Phil Sheridan, Black Jack Logan, and John Schofield. Logan was a key player in this drama, because he was also a Congressman. In the final year of the war, Grant often tried to time his victories so that HIS clique partners would get credit for the victories and this probably extended the Civil War by several weeks. At the end of the war, he ordered several divisions to stand in place for days, until his friend Sheridan could get in place to ride in and claim the victory with his cavalry. After the war, President Grant put Sheridan in charge of the Indian War with his headquarters at Chicago. Sherman was head of the army; Schofield was Secretary of War. The clique was running the country. At first, the Indians were treated badly; especially by Sherman. He and Sheridan treated the natives the same way they had treated the white southerners: starvation, theft and abuse. Eventually it was Sherman who relented. He forced the Navajo completely out of Arizona for years, but he finally allowed them to return home when it became obvious that they would rather die than live somewhere else. Sheridan didn't have anything against Indians and he denied ever saying, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." He was just a total, little maniac who hated everyone who got in his way. Like his pal George Custer, he graduated near the bottom of his class at West Point. In fact, it took him 5 years to graduate, instead of 4, because he was suspended for one year after attacking a classmate with a bayonet. It was Sheridan who destroyed the Shenandoah Valley creating famine in the Confederacy. He was fired from his job as governor of the Texas/Louisiana Military District for "being an absolute dictator." He sent Custer to attack peaceful Indians on their reservations, flying American flags over their teepees... He wasn't a racist. He was just a thug who took no chances. Like Iron Felix Dzerzhinsky in Lenin's Soviet Union, he believed that killing the innocent would make a greater impression on the people than just arresting the guilty. It wasn't personal.
We look at people and events through the lens of time and tend to assign modern motivations and biases. I have been reading extensively for months on the people and events of the period of 1810-1890 and the expansion through the American west and all the confrontation that brought. The tactics and deeds employed in those times are entirely foreign to modern warfare or law and order scenarios. Today we fight to subdue; then we re-build our enemies and give them money, food , training etc. Law enforcement is in total disarray as the cops are the criminals and the criminals are the victims. Back then it was more traditional; you vanquished you stated enemy and while the lines between good guys and bad guys were frequently blurred, the court systems were not backlogged either. Things were often settled definitively on the spot or swiftly in a court. Duty was duty and orders were orders. Note how JO'Co correctly points out how poorly some of our great Military figures did at West Point. What wasn't on the report card were the qualities of ruthlessness, fearlessness, adaptability and dedication to total victory. Some of our greatest military and law enforcement figures were seemingly in constant conflict with their superiors and one step from court martial or dismissal.
The most important thing when you study history is to uncover the truth. As I used to tell my classes, "If it isn't true, it isn't history." The very first thing that Communists and Nazis do is rewrite the history textbooks. They have to. Their theories are built on lies and they know it.