He respected the general’s reputed ability to swear and his genius for making his men understand tirades that must have sounded like jabberwocky.
“A great general!” declared Borglum. “And unusual!”
Unfortunately, the United States government had already placed the commission for this memorial and the field was now open to all because the original artist had not yet produced a model satisfactory to the committee. He had been at it thirteen years.
A second misfortune lay in the fact that this sculptor was J. Q. A. Ward, president of the National Sculpture Society, who had failed to see eye to eye with Gutzon on many subjects, chief of which was the controversy over reorganizing the society. In spite of this he and Gutzon had exchanged letters expressing sorrow that there had been any bad feeling. The last thing Borglum wanted to do was to give further offense to the distinguished leader of the New York sculptors ... but he did make the memorial. Art was art, and he got it done on schedule.
Gutzon found it easy to open correspondence with the committee in charge of the memorial. He had long been acquainted with President Theodore Roosevelt, and he had met some of his military aides through their common love for horses. It was arranged to have Mrs. Sheridan and her son visit the Thirty-eighth Street studio. They came and reported that they liked what they had seen—the model for the Grant monument with its three horses, the dashing horses of the “Mares of Diomedes” group, the marble head of Lincoln.
There was still some delay about the granting of a new contract. Gutzon was interviewed. He sent photographs of his work to the committee. Presently, however, he was contemplating his old annoyance. The committee suggested a competition. Gutzon Borglum refused.
“I shall be happy to make a sketch model for the committee’s consideration,” he said, “but only after I have received a contract.”
After much discussion the committee gave in. The contract was awarded, and Gutzon made the sketch model as he had agreed. The sketch was eventually cast in bronze and presented to the Officers’ Club of Rio de Janeiro as a gift from the Officers’ Club of Washington.
The uncovering of the general’s life brought contacts with many of his old comrades in arms, including a close friend, General George Forsyth. Colonel Royal E. Whitman, an old Indian fighter who had ridden with Sheridan in the Civil War, wrote Gutzon dozens of letters covering all sorts of details. He even declared he could produce the actual accouterments of Sheridan’s horse.
Sheridan’s horse, as is well known, is preserved stuffed and mounted on Governor’s Island. Borglum wasn’t much interested in it. It was unthinkable to him that a dead horse could pose for the one that carried Sheridan on his wild ride to Winchester. Through Colonel Whitman he had bought a Virginia hunter named “Smoke” who had the run of the studio and was a tractable pet. In due course “Smoke” qualified as Sheridan’s mount.