On this day in Texas history, in 1873, animosity between Texans and Major General Philip H. Sheridan was greatly diffused during an event at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio, when Sheridan apologized for an earlier statement demonizing the state, saying he had “made the statement at the close of a particularly hot and tiresome day and I have regretted it ever since.” Sheridan, who had been military commander of Texas after the Civil War, had said, “If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent out Texas and live in Hell.”