CHAPTER XXXIV.

Joseph Wheeler, the Hero of Two Flags.

T

HE fundamental love of the American Union which characterized the soldiers of the Southern armies, who, even under the banners of the new Confederacy fought to maintain the constitutional liberties of the old republic, is strikingly exemplified in the career of General Joseph Wheeler, and his biography when fully written and properly labeled, "Under Two Flags," will contain more of the elements of real romance than all the exciting pages of Ouida's great novel. It is universally conceded that General Wheeler did as much to make the foe uncomfortable during the four years of the war as any commanding officer in the Confederate ranks; but when the Spanish-American war broke out in 1898 he found it quite an easy matter to don the uniform which he had once been anxious to mutilate. And not satisfied with the double distinction which he had now derived from two flags, he proceeded to extend the area of his operations over two hemispheres.

But the spirit which General Wheeler evinced in so readily donning the blue after he had once so gallantly worn the gray was only typical. It was the spirit of the whole militant Southland; the spirit which produced Richmond Hobson and Worth Bagley and Victor Blue

and Tom Brumby and Emory Winship. Those who were inclined to lift the eyebrow in unaffected astonishment to find the South enlisting when the call was made for volunteers must have forgotten what the South was doing. when the Carthaginian was at the gates on former occasions; but, witnessing anew the love of Old Glory which animated the Dixie Volunteer, they were perhaps better prepared to appreciate the sacrifice which the South was willing to make in 1861 when she gathered up her sacred heirlooms, including the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States and left the Union which she had largely helped to fashion. Nothing but principle could have made her quit the Union which Washington and Henry and Jefferson and Madison, and Marshall, and Monroe, and Jackson, and Taney and Scott had done so much to establish; but since Appomattox had settled the issues which Fort Sumter had raised the South was back again in the old allegiance, ready once more to lift the flag which she had been the first to unfurl.

Nor was it an incident without impressive significance that when General Wheeler, attended one of the great Confederate reunions after the Spanish-American war he should have appeared in the uniform of the United States soldier; and if the act itself told of the sturdy Americanism which characterized General Wheeler, the applause which greeted the old cavalry hero proved that he was none the less welcome for wearing the uniform which was once worn by the enemy, but which was now the uniform of all.

Even the most superficial glance at the record made by General Wheeler during the war between the States will

suffice to show that his military genius was of the very highest order. He was a cadet at seventeen, a first lieutenant at twenty-three, a colonel at twenty-four, a brigadier-general at twenty-five, a major-general at twenty-six and a lieutenant-general at twenty-eight. He commanded in more than two hundred engagements, some of which, considering the unequal number engaged, were the most successful to be found in the whole history of cavalry exploits. He is said to have disabled in the Carolinas alone over five thousand of the enemy with only the barest minimum of loss to his own men. Besides sustaining several wounds he had sixteen horses shot down underneath him, and experienced numerous hairbreadth escapes. He had not been in the service six months before his name had become electrical in both Northern and Southern armies, and his capture at any time before the surrender would have filled all Yankeeland with hallelujahs. Throughout the entire struggle "Joe Wheeler's Cavalry" was the very

besom of destruction.

Perhaps the distinguishing characteristics of General Wheeler in the saddle were the celerity of his movements and the suddenness of his surprises. He seems to have mastered the whole science of strategics; but these two traits, in summarizing the results of his brilliant campaigns, appear to stand out with the most commanding prominence. It was the habit of General Wheeler to lose as little time as possible in getting over ground, especially when moving toward the enemy, and also to be constantly turning up in unexpected places. He kept the Federal officers guessing as to his whereabouts all during the war,

and also as to his forces; but somehow he always managed to make it appear that he had ample reinforcements in the background which seldom happened to be the case. The fact is that General Wheeler fought comparatively few engagements in which he was not outnumbered, but this slight disadvantage could hardly be said to have affected the results.

An indirect compliment to General Wheeler was paid by General Buell, who it will be remembered was relieved of his command in Kentucky for letting General Bragg get over the border-line. He fully explained the situation in his official report by saying that cavalry forces covered the Confederate rear "which were handled with greater skill than had ever been known under similar circumstances." He mentioned no names; but the cavalry officer who was operating at this particular time in the Confederate rear and making the climate of Kentucky warm for the Federal troops under General Buell was none other than Colonel Joseph Wheeler. He had not yet become even a brigadier.

But General Wheeler was also distinguished for the wide area of territory over which he ranged. There were perhaps several respects in which he resembled the great Macedonian; but one point of resemblance lay in his marked distaste for cramped quarters. He wanted large elbow-room. It will be found on consulting the records that his cavalry operations during the war covered not less than eight States: Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi; and his swing around the globe from San Juan to Manilla during the Spanish-American war is quite in keeping with the meek spirit with which he sought to inherit the earth during the war between the States.

Until such generals as Wheeler and Forrest made the contrary truth appear, it was commonly supposed that the cavalry branch of the service was more ornamental than useful. But they completely revolutionized and reconstructed this old impression. General Marion in the swamps of the Carolinas never struck more terror into the bones of the British than took possession of the Federals wherever General Wheeler happened to bob up; and he was the man of all others when the war was over to write "Cavalry Tactics."

Though General Wheeler spent most of his life in Alabama and represented the State of his adoption continuously in Congress after the war, it was in Augusta, Georgia, that he first saw the light of day, on September 10, 1836; and twenty-eight years afterwards when General Sherman was moving toward Augusta with the devastating sweep of Attilla, it was General Wheeler who entertained him along the roadside until Augusta could prepare more suitably for his reception.

Entering West Point in 1854, General Wheeler was one of the first cadets to graduate under the five-year rule. He went directly to New Mexico, where he served his apprenticeship in scouting the Indians. But he had not been long in the West when the Southern States began to secede from the Union; and relinquishing his commission in the United States army he began to retrace his steps across the plains.

The first engagement of the war in which General Wheeler participated was the battle of Shiloh, but he gallantly led the Nineteenth Alabama Regiment on this hot