ly-contested field. Three months later he was placed in command of the cavalry of the Army of Mississippi. At this time the cavalry had dwindled to the merest squad, largely through lack of employment, but the ink was hardly dry on his commission before he had penetrated into the enemy's lines and commenced to play wild havoc, destroying bridges and intercepting avenues of communication. There was never another idle moment for the cavalry after Joe Wheeler took charge.

Such was the part which this dashing cavalry officer played in aiding General Bragg to quit Kentucky that he was almost immediately thereafter promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. Generals Polk, Hardee and Buckner united with General Bragg in recommending this promotion. At no time along the retreat from Danville to Loudon did General Wheeler have more than one thousand men, but so effectively was the retreat covered by the cavalry that in no instance was an infantry soldier called. upon to fire his musket.

If General Wheeler had not already abundantly merited his advance in rank he proceeded to do so at once. Two months had hardly elapsed before he could count twenty distinct fights, besides twice as many skirmishes; and what he had done to fret the enemy defies even enumeration. Descending into the Sequatchie Valley in search of prey with some one thousand three hundred men, he caught sight of an immense train of wagons which stretched for miles and miles over the verdant levels. Though heavily guarded, the columns were distributed along the whole length of the train; and by means of quick work he managed to overcome each column before the next could come up, and to capture the whole cara

van. It was one of the richest prizes of the whole war, embracing between two thousand and three thousand. wagons and containing all kinds of supplies, commissary, quartermaster, ordnance and medical.

Without undertaking to epitomize the exploits of General Wheeler during all the four years of the war, it is sufficient to add in conclusion that he participated in the defense of Georgia soil when General Sherman began harrowing the State with his burning plowshares. From Ringgold to Decatur General Wheeler ably supported General Johnston in his masterful campaign which proclaimed him another Roman Fabius; but before the fall of Atlanta he crossed over into Tennessee. However, he was back again before the march upon Augusta began, and was instrumental in protecting the city of his birth from the disastrous fate which overtook Atlanta. Perhaps the discomfiture which he inflicted upon General Sherman in South Carolina exceeded anything else which he had previously administered; but he was unable with his reduced forces to keep the torch from being eventually applied to Columbia.

During the spring of 1865 President Davis formally appointed General Wheeler lieutenant-general of cavalry; but he had been virtually exercising the functions of this command for more than two years. He had proven himself one of the most efficient and thorough officers in the Confederate army. He had been known to go for days without sleep or rest, so profoundly was he impressed with the duty of guarding exposed positions. And take him all in all, he was not only one of the ablest cavalry

commanders in the great struggle between the States, but one of the ablest in the world-wide group.

But General Wheeler was soon to show that his capacities for serving his country were by no means restricted to military operations. In the halls of Congress during the years which followed the war, he proved himself an able statesman, vigilant and patriotic. Ready in debate, there were few questions which he failed to discuss; and without being anything of the politician he was always popular with the masses. But General Wheeler was, above all else, a soldier; and though sixty years had crept over his shoulders when the Spanish-American war broke out, no youth in all the country was more eager to enlist than General Wheeler; and he soon made it evident by his exploits in opposite parts of the globe that Joe Wheeler of the sixties was again in the saddle. Without regretting that he had ever worn the Confederate gray he was glad to don once more the Federal blue. It was the color which he had first loved back in the old days at West Point; and wearing the Federal blue in the ranks of the regular army the old Confederate hero died in New York, while visiting his sister, on January 25, 1906, and went to join his old comrades of the gray.

T

CHAPTER XXXV.

The Lumpkins.

HE great judicial family of Georgia is the austere but appropriate distinction which belongs to the Lumpkins and the tribunal of justice with which this noted Georgia household is most indissolubly associated is the Supreme Court of the State. Not less than three members of the family have worn the ermine of this lofty seat. The great Chief Justice Joseph Henry Lumpkin was called to the bench when the court was first organized in 1846, and almost without interruption until his death in 1867 Judge Lumpkin was the central figure of the judiciary system of Georgia. In 1890 his grandnephew, Samuel Lumpkin, became an associate justice and held the office by successive legislative elections until his death, some twelve years later; while similar honors have now clothed his distinguished grandson, the present incumbent, who inherits not only the name but also much of the genius of his illustrious forebear.

But the Supreme Court of the State has not monopolized the achievements of the Lumpkin family. The famous Wilson Lumpkin who was the nestor of the whole clan was twice Governor, several time Congressman and once United States Senator. John Henry Lumpkin, who was judge of the Cherokee circuit, also attained