ALS signed “Phil. H. Sheridan,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 5 x 8, Headquarters Department of the Missouri letterhead, December 22, 1868. Sheridan writes from Indian Territory to his aide Craig Wadsworth. In part: “Enclosed please find the desired autograph…. My kindest regards to Miss Peters…. I had the pleasure of meeting her in Washington last winter. I congratulate you in the happy future before you…. I have the opportunity to-day of sending Indian Couriers back to Fort Hays distant nearly six hundred miles. We hoped to close this Indian War very soon. Custer’s battle of November 27th has taken most of the starch out of them.” After signing, Sheridan adds a brief postscript, which he signs “P.H.S.” The battle in question took place on November 27, 1868, at a Cheyenne encampment on the Washita River in present-day Oklahoma. In a charge at daybreak, then-Lieutenant Custer led Sheridan’s troops in a charge that resulted in the slaughter of more than a hundred Cheyenne men, women, and children (including the chiefs Black Kettle and Little Rock); eight hundred of the Cheyennes’ horses were shot, and the village was completely destroyed. In fine condition, with faint show-through, a touch of mild soiling, and small stain to last page. R&R COA.
