Wheeler, Joseph

Wheeler, Joseph, 1836–1906, Confederate general in the American Civil War, b. Augusta, Ga. He resigned from the U.S. army in Apr., 1861, to fight for the Confederacy. He commanded a regiment at Shiloh (Apr., 1862) and became chief of cavalry in the Army of Tennessee (Oct.). Wheeler took part in Braxton Bragg's Kentucky campaign and in the Chattanooga campaign, in which he destroyed William Rosecrans's supplies in a brilliant raid through middle Tennessee (Oct.). Wheeler operated against William T. Sherman in the Atlanta campaign, the march to the sea, and the advance through the Carolinas. He surrendered with Joseph E. Johnston's army in Apr., 1865. After the war Wheeler, a lawyer and planter in Alabama, served in the House of Representatives (1881–82, 1883, 1885–1900). A major general of volunteers in the Spanish-American War, he commanded cavalry in the invasion of Cuba. He also led a brigade in the Philippine insurrection (1899–1900). He was made a brigadier general in the regular army shortly before he retired in Sept., 1900. Wheeler wrote The Santiago Campaign (1899).

Bibliography

See biography by J. P. Dyer (rev. ed. 1961).

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Wheeler, Joseph (1836–1906) Confederate soldier; born in Augusta, Ga. Wheeler's cavalry was practically the sole organized Confederate force that contested Sherman's March to the Sea (1864). He represented Alabama in Congress (1884–1900); appointed to command a volunteer division in 1898, he saw action against the Spanish in Cuba.