On October 19, 1864, hearing that his troops were faltering badly at the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia, General Philip H. Sheridan leaped on his favorite horse, Rienzi, and galloped some twenty miles to rally them. His arrival on the field saved the day, and almost certain defeat soon turned into victory. Poet, painter, and sculptor Thomas Buchanan Read, who had spent much of the 1850s in Europe but had returned to serve in the Union army, wrote his most famous poem, "Sheridan's Ride," within two weeks of the event. An expression of idealized heroism and support for the Union cause, the poem became a sensation across the North. After the war, the Union League of Philadelphia commissioned Read to paint a life-size image of Sheridan on his galloping horse. Returning in 1867 to Rome, Read executed a number of versions of the painting over the next four years, including several in this smaller size. The popular painting was also reproduced in a chromolithograph.

Thomas Buchanan Read (1822-1872)
Oil on canvas, 1871
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Transfer from the National Museum of American History; gift of Ulysses S. Grant III, 1939
NPG.68.51

Enlarged image

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