D.H. Mahan. An Elementary Treatise on Advanced-Guard, Out-Post, and Detachment Service of Troops. New York: John Wiley, 1853. 8vo. Original brown cloth.

INSCRIBED BY SHERIDAN AS A CADET in ink to front free endpaper: "P H Sheridan / Cadet U.S.M.A / Sept 1852". PENCIL ANNOTATIONS BY CADET SHERIDAN MARGINALLY THROUGHOUT.

Sheridan was born to Irish Catholic immigrants in Albany, New York, before moving to Somerset, Ohio. He worked as a bookkeeper at a general goods store before securing an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point with a nomination from US Representative Thomas Ritchey (1807-1863). In his Memoirs, Sheridan recalls the encounter with Ritchey: "The Mexican War, then going on, furnished, of course, a never-ending theme for controversy, and although I was too young to enter the military service when volunteers were mustering in our section, yet the stirring events of the times so much impressed and absorbed me that my sole wish was to become a soldier, and my highest aspiration to go to West Point as a Cadet from my Congressional district. My chances for this seemed very remote, however, till one day an opportunity was thrown in my way by the boy who then held the place failing to pass his examination. When I learned that by this occurrence a vacancy existed, I wrote to our representative in Congress, the Hon. Thomas Ritchey, and asked him for the appointment, reminding him that we had often met in Fink & Dittoe's store, and that therefore he must know something of my qualifications. He responded promptly by enclosing my warrant for the class of 1848." After passing his examination successfully, he entered as a cadet on 1 July 1848." (Vol I, p. 7). He endured the traditional hazing and admitted to "many misgivings as to the future" as he felt he "knew so little of Algebra or any of the higher branches of mathematics" and his class would be subjected to "a test much severer than that which had been applied to it on entering" (Vol. I, p. 10). He applied himself dutifully, surreptitiously studying after lights out with his roommate (and future fellow Union general) Henry Warner Slocum (1827-1894).

He did face suspension issued by the Secretary of War after a confrontation with Cadet William R. Terrill (later a Union general, KIA at the Battle of Perryville), when, after a perceived insult, Sheridan "attacked him, and a fisticuff engagement in front of barracks followed" (Vol. I, pp. 11-12). This inscribed book dates from shortly after he returned from his suspension and rejoined the Academy in August 1852. The rest of his cadetship was uneventful, graduating number 34 in a class of 52. Knowing his standing, he made no formal application for assignment, and was pleased when he was appointed a brevet second lieutenant attached to the First Infantry, "well pleased that I had surmounted all the difficulties that confront the student at our national school, and looking forward with pleasant anticipation to the life before me." (Vol. I, p. 15).

A rare book for the nascent military career of one of the greatest generals of the Civil War.

Condition: brown stain affecting preliminaries including title page, wear to spine caps.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, West Point, United States Military Academy, Militaria, Books, Signatures, Ephemera]