THOMAS BUCHANAN READ AND THE CIVIL WAR
The Story of "Sheridan's
Ride"
by HARVEY S. FORD
Head Librarian, TOLEDO BLADE
The phenomenal popularity of
"Sheridan's Ride" lasted a
long time. Few poems have taken such a
hold on the American
people, nor have there been many so well
liked. It is true that
its popularity today is not what it once
was; and "Sheridan's
Ride" does not appear as often as
it used to in the textbooks for
high school literature courses. No
longer is it declaimed from
the platform at the graduation
exercises. But it lingers yet in
the minds of thousands who, as
rebellious boys compelled to com-
mit a poem to memory, turned to its
martial stanzas in relief,
thankful to be saved from the awful
alternatives of Longfellow's
or Tennyson's "sissy" verses.
Up from the South at break of day,
Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay,
The affrighted air with a shudder bore,
Like a herald in haste to the
chieftain's door,
The terrible grumble, and rumble, and
roar,
Telling the battle was on once more,
And Sheridan twenty miles away.
So the familiar lines begin. When, six
stanzas later, Sheridan
at last arrives at Cedar Creek and saves
the day, the audiences of
the past always responded with
thunderous applause.
Thomas Buchanan Read, the author of
"Sheridan's Ride," was
born in Chester County, Pennsylvania,
March 12, 1822. His
family being poor, he had almost no
formal education. He was
bound out to a tailor at an early age,
but eventually ran away and
found employment with a cigar maker in
Philadelphia. Tiring of
this, at fifteen he set out for
Cincinnati, the home of a married
sister. Here he supported himself by
cigar making, sign painting.
215
216.
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
and, for some months, as an apprentice
tombstone carver in the
employ of Shobal Vail Clevenger, the
sculptor.1
When Clevenger left for the East, Read
set up shop for him-
self as a painter. But because little
business came his way, he
soon moved to Dayton. It was no better
in Dayton; consequently
for some time Read made a living by
playing female parts with
a local stock company.2 Read soon returned to Cincinnati,
where
his luck took a turn for the better.
Clevenger was then in Europe
traveling on funds provided by
Cincinnati's first millionaire,
Nicholas Longworth. Read went to
Longworth with some por-
traits he had done and persuaded him to
finance a studio in town.
Longworth was an influential Whig, a
presidential campaign was
under way, and the Whig Party candidate,
General William Henry
Harrison, lived near Cincinnati. The
result of this combination
of circumstances was that Harrison sat
to Read for his portrait.
The painting of this picture is
generally considered to be the first
major step forward in Read's career.3
About this time Read began to contribute
poems to the Cin-
cinnati newspapers, but his interest in
painting did not fade, and
to the end of his life he considered
himself as much a painter as a
poet.4 Having received some
notice in the West, Read, like many
others before and since, wished to
display his talents in the East.
In Boston Read made the acquaintance of
Longfellow and Wash-
ington Allston, the painter, both of
whom gave him encourage-
ment and aid. In 1850 he took a trip
abroad, the first of four
such trips before the war. The largest
part of the rest of his life
was to be spent in Europe. In a
remarkably short time Read be-
came a famous figure in the world of
arts and letters.
Meanwhile the political situation in the
United States was
steadily worsening, and despite his
aesthetic preoccupations, Read
was not indifferent to the growing
crisis. When the war broke
out Read was in Italy. On the Fourth of
July following the at-
1 Lewis R. Harley, Confessions of a
Schoolmaster (Philadelphia, 1914), 106-110;
J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope, History
of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with
Genealogical and Biographical
Sketches (Philadelphia, 1881),
706-708.
2 John
R. Tait, "Reminiscences of a Poet-Painter," in Lippincott's
Magazine,
XIX (1877), 308.
3 Alice E. Smith, ed., "Letters of
Thomas Buchanan Read," in Ohio State Archae-
ological and Historical Quarterly, XLVI (1937), 68-69.
4 R. H. Stoddard, "Thomas Buchanan
Read," in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine,
XLVII (February, 1891), 234.
SHERIDAN'S RIDE 217
tack on Ft. Sumter the American minister
in Rome gave a dinner
at which Read read a new patriotic poem
entitled "The De-
fenders." It seems to have moved
the diners, and it may have
suggested to Read the part he could play
in the war.5 If up until
this time Read had been known, somewhat
slightingly, as a "lady's
poet," the war was to prove that
his verses could be as virile as
the most robust critic could desire. In
November 1861 Read
started for home. He brought with him
the manuscript of a
patriotic poem dealing with the
Revolution which was to be one
of his principal contributions to the
Civil War. It was a very
long poem--it takes up 67 pages of
double-column, small print in
his collected poetical works, and when
first published during the
war formed the contents of a 276-page
book. It was called The
Wagoner of the Alleghanies, A Poem of
the Days of Seventy-Six.
In the United States once more, Read
returned to Cincinnati,
one of the two cities in the country
(the other being Philadelphia)
which he regarded as home. Here he fell
in with an actor and
lecturer of some note named James E.
Murdoch. Born in Phila-
delphia in 1811, Murdoch had enjoyed a
career full of honors on
the stage, and at this period was
spending much of his time on a
farm near Cincinnati. Aroused by the war
and by the enlistment
of his two sons in the Union army,
Murdoch planned to tour the
country with a program of patriotic
readings and recitations for
the double purpose of stimulating public
patriotism and raising
funds for war relief. The manuscript of The
Wagoner looked
like just the thing to Murdoch, so he
and Read retired to the
farm
for rehearsals. It was the
beginning of an association
which was maintained throughout the war.
From the beginning this combination
appears to have been
popular.6 Naturally Murdoch
recited selections from the works
of many other writers besides Read, but
Read's ability to turn
the headlines of the moment into verse
drew great applause. On
August 6, 1862, the Union General Robert
Latimer McCook was
murdered by Confederate guerrillas while
traveling in an am-
bulance (he was convalescing from a
wound) in northern Ala-
bama. This incident of course aroused
considerable indignation
5 James E. Murdoch, Patriotism In Poetry and Prose (Philadelphia,
1865), 81.
6 Charles Leonard Moore, "A
Neglected American Poet," in The Dial, LVI
(1914), 7.
218 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
in the North, and almost at once Read
was out with a poem--
"The Oath"--which called upon
the people to swear "by the blood
of our murdered McCook" to maintain
the Union. Murdoch re-
cords that when this poem was read at
the headquarters of Gen-
eral Alexander McDowell McCook, a
brother of the deceased
general, it moved "the gallant and
impulsive soldier to shed tears."7
Until it was supplanted by
"Sheridan's Ride," "The Oath"
was Read's most popular war poem, and
the opening paragraph is
worth quoting as an illustration of the
kind of work he did:
Ye freemen, how will ye stifle
The vengeance that justice inspires?
With treason how long will ye trifle
And shame the proud names of your sires?
Out, out with the sword and the rifle,
In defense of your homes and your fires!
The flag of the old Revolution
Swear firmly to serve and uphold,
That no treasonous breath of pollution
Shall tarnish one star of its fold
Swear!
And hark! the deep voices replying
From graves where your fathers are
lying,
Swear! Oh, swear!
Among those who thought highly of
"The Oath" was no less
a person than President Lincoln. One
night Murdoch gave a
reading to an audience in Washington
which included the Presi-
dent, and "The Oath" was a
part of the program. The next night,
at a second performance, Murdoch omitted
the poem. Lincoln,
who was again present, sent up a request
for "The Oath," and
when Murdoch replied that he regretted
that he did not have a
copy of the poem with him, the President
answered, "Oh, that is
easily remedied: I have 'The Swear' in
my pocket."8
At least once during the war Read came
to fairly close quar-
ters with the enemy. The occasion was
Bragg's dramatic inva-
sion of Kentucky in 1862. While Bragg
operated in central Ken-
7 Murdoch, op. cit., 114-115.
8 Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, The
Literary History of Philadelphia (Philadelphia,
1906), 395.
x
SHERIDAN'S RIDE 219
tucky and occupied himself with Buell's
army, an infantry division
and a cavalry brigade under Heth was
sent north to menace de-
fenseless Cincinnati and its environs.
Heth was ordered to create
a diversion and gather supplies and
recruits but not to attack the
city. Naturally the people of Cincinnati
did not know this, so
that there was much consternation among
them. General Lew
Wallace was put in command of the Ohio
metropolis. Wallace,
who years later was to earn real fame as
the author of Ben Hur,
was an energetic if not quite
professional soldier. He immedi-
ately issued an order suspending all
business and civil authority
in Cincinnati and in Covington and
Newport across the river in
Kentucky, and commandeered the services
of the citizenry. "Every
able-bodied man to work or fight,"
Wallace told the Mayor of
Cincinnati. "I give him his choice.
Those who say fight we will
organize into companies and regiments;
to the others we will give
spades and picks and set them to digging
on the hills in front of
Covington and Newport."9 With
the great force of labor thus
made available fast work was possible;
in thirty hours a large
pontoon bridge was thrown over the Ohio,
and in a very few days
ten miles of trenches and rifle pits
were dug in the Kentucky hills.
Meanwhile the governors of Ohio and
Indiana were arousing
their states, and in a short time
volunteers were pouring into the
city. Although many of these were armed
only with souvenirs of
the Revolution, in numbers at least they
were impressive. At one
time Wallace commanded no less than 72,000 men. On
September
6 there was a small skirmish between
some Confederate cavalry
and the Union outposts, and three of the
defenders were wounded.
This proved to be the only bloodshed of
the campaign, and a few
days later the Confederates withdrew
from the suburbs of Cov-
ington and turned their attention
elsewhere. Wallace naturally
considered himself the savior of
Cincinnati, and laid its salvation
to the strength of his fortifications
and the valor of his troops, but
it seems clear that if Heth's veteran
troops had made a serious
attack they must have won, and won
easily. Cincinnati was really
saved by Buell, who defeated Bragg at
Perryville on October 18,
and put an end to the invasion.
At Cincinnati Wallace accumulated a
staff of such size that
9 Lew Wallace, An Autobiography (2
vols., New York, 1906), II, 608.
220
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
one must turn to present-day armies for
an equivalent. It num-
bered 150 men, most of them volunteers
recruited from among
the leading citizens of Cincinnati. Each
prospective aide was
required only to provide himself a horse
and report to Wallace
every morning for orders. Read was one
of the aides, all of whom
seem to have enjoyed themselves
thoroughly. Once Wallace as-
sembled the entire conglomeration, as he
called it, on horseback,
led them across the river into open
country, and then, with a
shouted "Come on!," put his
horse to the gallop. After a mile or
so Wallace drew rein and looked back.
"Of the whole array there
were but two within call," he
wrote, "Buchanan Read and Leslie
Combs of Kentucky, the latter said to
have been old at the close
of the Revolutionary War. The rest,
scattered singly and in
groups back as far as the edge of the
town, were coming slowly
and painfully on. Of some it was
reported they never got out of
town. Be that as it may, I never saw my
staff together again."10
Wallace and Read appear to have got on
excellently.
Read wrote an article for the Atlantic
Monthly on the excitement
at Cincinnati (he dignified it with the
title "The Siege of Cincin-
nati") in which he compared Wallace
to Anthony Wayne, to the
advantage of Wallace.11 Wallace
described Read as "the most
lovable of men," and Mrs. Wallace
touchingly added: "Read used
to say in a boyish way that was
charming, 'I have fallen in love
with many a woman, never with but one
man--Lew Wallace!'"12
Early in 1863 Read went off to join the
Army of the Cumber-
land in Tennessee. He attached himself
to the headquarters of the
commanding general, Rosecrans, to whom
he dedicated a new poem
entitled "The Roll of Honor."
The army was between battles,
waiting for the end of the spring rains,
and Read undertook to
dispel camp boredom with recitations
from his own works. The
officers assembled one evening in a
courthouse, and the poet was
introduced by General James A. Garfield,
chief of staff of the
army. General John Beatty recorded his
impression of that occa-
sion in his diary:
Mr. Read is a small man, and has not
sufficient voice to make himself
heard distinctly in so large a hall. In
a parlor his recitations would be
10 Ibid., 616-617.
11 T. B. Read, "The Siege of Cincinnati," in Atlantic
Monthly, XI (1863), 229.
12 Wallace, op. cit., II, 617.
SHERIDAN'S RIDE 221
capital. He read from his own poem,
"The Wagoner," a description of the
battle of Brandywine. It is possibly a
very good representation of that
battle; but, if so, the battle of
Brandywine was very unlike that of Stone
River. At Brandywine, it appears, the
generals slashed around among the
enemy's infantry with drawn swords,
doing most of the hard fighting and
most of the killing themselves. I did
not discover anything of that kind at
Stone River. It is possible the style
went out of fashion before the rebellion
began. It would, however, be very
satisfactory to the rank and file to see
it restored. Mr. Read said some good
things in his lecture, and was well
applauded; but, in the main, he was too
ethereal, vapory, and fanciful for the
most of us leather-heads. When he puts a
soldier-boy on the top of a high
mountain to sing patriotic songs, and
bid defiance to King George because
"Eagle is King," we are,
impressed with the idea that that soldier could
have been put to better use; that, in
fact, he is entirely out of the line of
duty. The position assigned him is
unnatural, and the modern soldier-boy
will be apt to conclude that nobody but
a simpleton would be likely to wander
about in solitary places, extemporizing
in measured sentences.13
For obvious reasons, Read, and
especially Murdoch--whose voice
could penetrate the farthest reaches of
any hall--always went over
better with civilian audiences.
More than a year and a half elapsed
before the event occurred
which furnished the inspiration for
Read's greatest success. Like
Bunker Hill and Valley Forge, Sheridan's
ride has become a sen-
timental highlight in American history,
and we are likely, there-
fore, to discount it too easily as of
small consequence. To do so
would be an error, for Sheridan's ride
was an outstanding military
feat which made a deep impression upon
the country. It is worth
while briefly to recount the
circumstances.
The episode had its origins in an
inexplicable lapse from
caution on Sheridan's part. Although he
had beaten Early at
Opequan and Fisher's Hill and had
devastated the Shenandoah,
the Confederate leader still had an army
in the Valley, and there-
fore, as Sheridan well knew, vigilance
should not have been re-
laxed.
Nevertheless on October 17, 1864, Sheridan went to
Washington for a conference with
Secretary Stanton. He returned
by special train the same day, detraining
at Martinsburg, less than
forty miles from his army along Cedar
Creek. Here, unaccount-
ably, Sheridan dawdled. He spent the
night at Martinsburg, and
13 John Beatty, Memoirs of a
Volunteer, edited by Harvey S. Ford (New York,
1946), 169-170.
222
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
by the next night he had gotten only as
far as Winchester. At dawn
on the following morning (October 19),
Early's troops burst out
of the heavy fog which lay along Cedar
Creek and completely sur-
prised the federal army encamped there.
Within a very short
time the Army of the Shenandoah had been
defeated, and large
numbers of Union soldiers were streaming
northward in panic-
stricken flight.
Meanwhile Sheridan was sound asleep in
Winchester. At
six o'clock he was awakened by an
officer who reported artillery
firing from the direction of Cedar
Creek. Sheridan, however, de-
cided that it was only skirmishing
incident to a routine recon-
naissance, dismissed the officer, and
turned over to go back to sleep.
But sleep would not come, and after
tossing restlessly for a while,
Sheridan arose and dressed. About this
time the orderly officer
returned with the news that firing could
still be heard, and although
Sheridan continued to believe that
nothing serious was under way,
he nevertheless ordered preparations for
departure to be speeded.
Before nine o'clock Sheridan was in the
saddle riding through
the streets of Winchester, and as he
rode he noticed many women
abroad "who kept shaking their
skirts at us and who were other-
wise markedly insolent in their
demeanor." But he attached "no
unusual significance" to this
phenomenon.14 At the end of the
town he halted to listen. The steady
roar of artillery was now
unmistakable, and Sheridan needed no
further proof, for he could
tell a battle when he heard it.
Misgivings now beset him. Reflect-
ing upon the conduct of the women, he
decided that they must have
had good news by the grapevine or they
would not have acted so.
As he rode he lowered his head to the
saddle in an attempt to in-
terpret the noise of the battle. The
sound was increasing too rap-
idly, Sheridan thought, to be accounted
for by the speed of his own
progress. The army must be falling back.
At Mill Creek Sheridan's escort joined
him, and they crossed
the stream. As they reached the rising
ground on the other side
they were confronted by a scene which
was still vividly clear to
Sheridan many years later. "There
burst upon our view," he
wrote, "the appalling spectacle of
a panic-stricken army--hundreds
14 P. H. Sheridan, Personal Memoirs (2
vols., New York, 1888), II, 72.
SHERIDAN'S RIDE 223
of slightly wounded men, throngs of
others unhurt but utterly de-
moralized, and baggage-waggons by the
score, all pressing to the
rear in hopeless confusion, telling only
too plainly that a disaster
had occurred at the front."
Sheridan stopped some of these fu-
gitives, and was assured that "the
army was broken up, in full re-
treat, and that all was lost." His
course, therefore, was clear: "I
felt that I ought to try now to restore
their ranks," Sheridan wrote,
"or, failing in that, to share
their fate because of what they had
done hitherto."15
What followed is still well known, even
after 82 years.
And the wave of retreat checked its
course there, because
The sight of the master compelled it to
pause.
The appearance of Sheridan changed a mob
of dejected fugitives
back into a military force of
frantically cheering men. Everywhere
the news that he had returned caused men
to turn back to fight
again. Sheridan did not have far to go,
for Early had driven the
Army of the Shenandoah from Cedar Creek
right through Middle-
town, and the organized Union force
which was still facing the
enemy occupied some rising ground north
of the village. From
Sheridan's headquarters in
Winchester--the Logan residence, now
the local Elks Club--to this position
was only eleven and a half
miles, and not twenty, as Read had it.
At ten-thirty Sheridan was
on the field, and General Torbert
expressed the feelings of everyone
with his greeting, "My God! I am
glad you've come."16
Sheridan at once put his staff to work
to reorganize the army
and reform its lines. He himself set
about to raise their morale
by showing himself to the men. It soon
became apparent that the
Confederates were about to make their
last attempt to complete
their victory. Putting his horse over
the fence rail barricade be-
hind which the troops were sheltered,
Sheridan rode in front of
the entire length of the infantry line,
hat in hand. When the Con-
federate assault came, it was easily
repulsed. At last, about four
o'clock in the afternoon, Sheridan
delivered his counter-attack.
The Confederates were swept from the
field, and as night fell,
Early's army was dissolving in flight,
streaming southward in the
15 Ibid., 75-79.
16 Ibid., 82.
224
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
dusk with the Union cavalry in hot
pursuit. The Valley cam-
paigns were over forever.
Cedar Creek was a great victory, and the
news of it electrified
the country. To Sheridan President
Lincoln wrote of his "per-
sonal admiration and gratitude for the
months in the Shenandoah
Valley; and especially for the splendid
work of October 19,
1864."17 Grant ordered a
hundred-gun salute of shotted guns to
be fired into Petersburg, and added:
"Turning what bade fair to
be a disaster into a glorious victory,
stamps Sheridan what I always
thought him, one of the ablest of
generals." And among the minor
tributes paid to Sheridan was a picture
of him as he rode up the
Valley which appeared on the front page
of Harper's Weekly,
drawn by that popular journal's chief
artist, Thomas Nast.
On Monday morning, October 31, 1864, a
copy of this
Harper's Weekly came to the notice of Cyrus Garrett, Read's
brother-in-law in Cincinnati. Garrett
showed Nast's drawing to
Read, with the remark, "Buck, there
is a poem in that picture."
Murdoch was present, and Garrett
elaborated his remarks by sug-
gesting that Read turn out a poem for
the actor to read as his
performance that night. Naturally the
artiste protested: Murdoch,
"I shall not have time to look it
over and catch its inner meaning
and beauties, and besides I am not in
the habit of reading a poem
at night written in the morning";
and Read, "Do you suppose I
can write a poem to order--just as you
would go to Sprague's and
order a coat." Nevertheless, and
fortunately for both of them,
Garrett's very practical idea
prevailed.18
Read retired to his room, with
instructions that he was not to
be disturbed "even if the house
takes fire," and set to work. By
noon it was finished and in Murdoch's
hands. Afterwards a friend
asked Read if it was true that he took
"nothing but a pot of black
tea" into his room with him when he
"evoked the muse for 'Sher-
idan's Ride.' " Read denied that he
took anything stronger, and
added, "Let me confess to you a
fact: I can do nothing with a pen
unless I am clear-headed. I know that
poem, with its faults, came
from no inspiration of the bottle. I
would like however, to have
corrected some of those faults, but
Bayard Taylor advised me not
17 Ibid., 91.
18 Oberholtzer, op. cit.,
395.
SHERIDAN'S RIDE 225
to allow the least change or emendation,
but to let it stand as writ-
ten."19
Monday evening was a special occasion, a
benefit for Murdoch
in recognition of his efforts for the
cause. "Pike's Opera-house
was radiant," wrote the Cincinnati
Commercial reporter, "with the
intellect and fashion of Cincinnati. . .
. The stage, parquets, dress-
circle, and balcony, were filled with an
audience whose composition
shed honor upon the occasion. . . . The
beautiful interior of the
house was rendered still more beautiful
by a tasteful display of
flags, each pilaster being gracefully
enveloped in one, and clusters
decking the proscenium and drooping from
the flies." At 8 p. m.
the mayor arose to introduce the star of
the evening. Murdoch
had given two sons to the Union
army--one killed in action, and
one invalided out of the service--and
the actor himself had re-
sponded to the call for volunteers at
the time of Morgan's raid.
But most important, the mayor concluded,
there was "not a Sani-
tary Commission in the West but has had
its stores increased by
the labors of Mr. Murdoch."
Murdoch responded with a poem of
Byron's, Read's "Drift-
ing," a couple of other well-known
pieces, and then announced that
he would read a new work, written that
morning. "Sheridan's
Ride, a ringing thrilling dramatic
production, was then recited,
as only Murdoch could recite it."
Thus the poem was first offered
to the public from a stage, which seems
quite fitting, seeing that it
was to be declaimed from countless
platforms throughout the land
in the years to come.
The reception must have been most
satisfying to Read. Be-
fore the poem was half recited, the
audience "could no longer con-
tain itself, and burst into rapturous
applause. Peal after peal of
enthusiasm punctuated the last three
glowing verses." When it
was over there were insistent demands
for the author, but Read did
not come forward. There were more
recitations that evening at
Pike's Opera House, and from the hands
of General Joe Hooker,
Murdoch received a fancy silk flag as a
token of admiration. But
the climax of the evening clearly had
passed and "Mr. Read never
had a more unequivocal success."20
19 Henry Dudley Teetor, "Origin of
'Sheridan's Ride,' " in Magazine of Western
History, XI (1890), 567-568.
20 Cincinnati Commercial, November
1, 1864.
226 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
That same evening the Cincinnati
Commercial reporter tried
to get a copy of "Sheridan's
Ride" for publication in the morning
paper, but Read told him "it was in
the rough," and refused. A
week later "Sheridan's Ride"
was printed for the first time in the
New York Tribune of November 8, 1864, and immediately copied
by other papers, including the Commercial. The following letter
accompanied the poem:
To the editor of the New York Tribune:
Sir: The following magnificient lyric
was written by Thomas Buchanan
Read, to be recited by Mr. Murdoch at a
complimentary festival given to
the latter in Cincinnati on Monday
evening, October 31, in acknowledgment
of his noble contributions for the aid
of our sick and wounded soldiers. I
am endebted to the poet for permission
to give to the public through the
Tribune a poem which deserves to rank
with "Young Lochinvar" and
Browning's "How They Brought the
Good News from Ghent to Aix."
Bayard Taylor
New York, Nov. 5, 186421
"Sheridan's Ride" soon
outdistanced all the war poems in
popularity although it had many rivals
including at least one on the
same episode. The latter was written by
no less a person than
Herman Melville and is called
"Sheridan at Cedar Creek." It was
first published in 1866 in a collection
of Melville's works entitled
Battle Pieces.22 Although shorter than "Sheridan's Ride," Mel-
ville's poem is similar to it in that it
also celebrates Rienzi, the
horse that Sheridan rode from Winchester
to Cedar Creek. But
there the similarity ends, for in so far
as the public was concerned
"Sheridan's Ride" never had
serious competition.
"Sheridan's Ride" brought
author and subject together, and a
friendship developed which was
strengthened by additional artistic
endeavor. From the outset Read was
convinced that the "Ride"
would make as good a subject for
painting as for verse, and the
Union League Club of Philadelphia agreed
to purchase such a
picture if produced. The war having
ended, Sheridan and Rienzi
were free to pose, and Read spent a
month at Sheridan's headquar-
ters in New Orleans to make his studies.
The picture was finished
21 New York Tribune, November 8,
1864.
22 Meade Minnegerode, Some Personal
Letters of Herman Melville and a Bibliog-
raphy (New York, 1922), 177-179.
SHERIDAN'S RIDE 227
in Italy in 1869, and Read considered
that "it 'takes the shine' out
of anything I have done on
canvas."23 Read also did a bust of
Sheridan which Crown Prince Humbert of
Italy considered so good
that the royal critic was moved to
exclaim "a poet--a painter--a
sculptor! Ah, gentlemen, I find we have
a Michaelangelo in Signor
Read."24
In 1867 Read returned to Italy, and
there remained until near
the end of his life. In his last years
he was often ill, and it is
hinted that he drank more than was good
for him. His final meet-
ing with Sheridan was in 1870, when the
General, after having
been the American observer with the
German armies in the war
with France, made a tour of Europe and
joined Read in Naples.
An accident in Rome in the fall of 1871,
when a carriage in which
Read was driving upset, left him in a
weakened condition, and he
was ill all winter. In the spring of 1872 he started for
home by
way of Liverpool. While waiting there
for a boat to America he
caught a cold. After he sailed on April 21 his cold quickly devel-
oped into pneumonia. When his ship made
port at New York,
Read was taken at once to the Astor
House, where he died at eleven
o'clock on Saturday night, May 11, 1872.
Excepting only "Sheridan's
Ride" nothing Read ever wrote
survives today, and when literary
historians remember him at all,
their comments are far from favorable.
But Read himself, to
judge from a letter he wrote shortly
before his death, would have
been indifferent to such criticism:
I want to tell you now and solemnly that
a deep sense of my duty to
my God, as well as to my fellow man, has
gradually been descending upon
me, and it is to me a source of infinite
pleasure that I can look back upon
all the poetry I have ever written and
find it contains no line breathing a
doubt upon the blessed Trinity and the
great redemption of man. When
I have written my verses I have been
alone with my soul and with God,
and not only dared not lie, but the
inspiration of the truth was to me so
beautiful that unworthy thought dared
not obtrude itself upon the page. This
was entirely owing to the goodness of
God, who saw what it was to be, and
saved me from subsequent mortification
and regret.25
23 Henry C. Townsend, A Memoir of T.
Buchanan Read (Philadelphia, 1889),
127.
24 Ibid., 21.
25 Teetor, op. cit., 568.