Monument to a War Criminal - General Philip H. Sheridan

This imposing monument to Union General Philip Henry Sheridan stands in the traffic circle in the center of downtown Somerset, Ohio, Sheridan's home town.

By every civilized standard, General Sheridan was a war criminal of the worst sort who brought shame and disgrace upon the United States of America. Yet, he was highly praised by President Abraham Lincoln and was actually promoted for his unconscionable crimes against innocent, defenseless civilians.

General Philip Sheridan is a celebrated "war hero" in Ohio and in the history books written by the northern victors in the War to Prevent Southern Independence, aka the War Between the States and the American Civil War.

In the autumn of 1864, after the retreating Confederate army had evacuated Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, Sheridan and his 35,000 infantry troops utterly destroyed the once peaceful valley. Sheridan described his atrocities in a letter to commanding General Ulysses S. Grant. In the first few days he of his occupation Sheridan boasted that he "destroyed over 2200 barns . . . over 70 mills . . . have driven in front of the army over 4000 head of stock, and have killed . . . not less than 3000 sheep. . . . Tomorrow I will continue the destruction."

Sheridan's troops told of the wanton attack in their letters home, calling themselves "barn burners" and "destroyers of homes." One soldier wrote to his family that he had personally set 60 private homes on fire and opined that "it was a hard looking sight to see the women and children turned out of doors at this season of the year" (winter). A Sergeant William T. Patterson wrote that "the whole country around is wrapped in flames, the heavens are aglow with the light thereof . . . such mourning, such lamentations, such crying and pleading for mercy [by defenseless women]... I never saw or want to see again."

The innocent victims who lived in the Shenandoah were left utterly destitute - without shelter, without food, and without any means of growing new crops or livestock with which to feed themselves. The area was so completely sacked and devastated that Sheridan boasted "'... a crow flying over must carry it's own provisions."

Instead of being reprimanded for his horrific deeds, President Abraham Lincoln personally conveyed to Sheridan "the thanks of the Nation."

After having his fill of slaughtering Confederates, Sheridan turned his evil lust for blood toward America's western frontier. He was appointed as overseer of the Indian Territory where he supervised the genocide of Native Americans and coined the phrase, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian."

As an American, and a citizen of the State of Ohio, I hang my head in shame and weep for the America that might have been.

Story and photo by J. Stephen Conn