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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Joseph Wheeler Biography WHEELER,
Joseph (1836-1906). An American soldier, born at Augusta, Ga. He graduated
at West Point in 1859, was commissioned a second lieutenant of dragoons, and
served at the cavalry school at Carlisle, Pa., until April, 1861, when he
resigned his commission and entered the Confederate service. In the following
September he was appointed colonel of the Nineteenth Alabama Infantry, and was
actively engaged in the earlier campaigns in Kentucky and Tennessee. At Shiloh,
in April, 1862, he commanded a brigade, and later in the year was transferred to
the cavalry and participated in the battle of Perryville and other engagements
of General Bragg's Kentucky campaign. On Oct. 30, 1862, he was promoted to the
rank of brigadier general, and covered the retreat of Bragg's army to the
southward. In January, 1863, he was commissioned major general. He commanded the
Confederate cavalry at Chattanooga and at Chickamauga, and covered Bragg's rear
after the defeat at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. He harassed Sherman's
flank during the march to Atlanta. In August, 1864, be led a successful raid in
Sherman's rear northward as far as the Kentucky line. Subsequently he opposed
Sherman's advance on Savannah, and in February, 1865, was promoted to the rank
of lieutenant general, and continued in command of the cavalry division of
General Johnston's dwindling army until its surrender. After the war he became a
lawyer and cotton planter, In 1880 he was elected to Congress as a Democrat and
was a member continuously until 1899. In May, 1898, he was appointed by
President McKinley a major general of volunteers, and was assigned to the
command of the cavalry division of the Army of Santiago in the Spanish-American
War. He commanded the troops in the engagement of Las Guasimas, was senior field
officer in the battle of San Juan Hill, and subsequently was one of the American
commissioners to arrange for the surrender of Santiago. In 1899-1900 he
commanded a brigade in the Philippine Islands, was commissioned a brigadier
general in the Regular Army in June, 1900, and retired in the September
following. He published The Santiago
Campaign, 1898 (1899). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 510. |