The FReeper Foxhole Profiles Fightin' Joe Wheeler - June 30th, 2005

Military History Magazine | June 1998 | David R. Smith

[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
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FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

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General Joseph Wheeler
(1836 - 1906)

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Fightin' Joe Wheeler lived up to his name in two wars and in two uniforms -- one gray, one blue.

Joseph Wheeler first gained the notice of his superiors as a Confederate lieutenant colonel at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862. After fighting all day, he led his men, who were out of ammunition, in a bayonet attack against Union artillerymen defending Pittsburg Landing. The next day, when the army was forced to retreat, Wheeler's regiment was chosen to serve as rear guard. His grit and determination, which had much to do with the safe escape of the Southern army, earned him a promotion to full colonel. Wheeler was then just 25 years old -- so young that he called himself "the War Child."

Born in Augusta, Ga., on September 10, 1836, Joseph Wheeler grew up in the North. He went to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, finishing a low 19th in his class of 1859. His worst grades were in cavalry tactics; nevertheless he was assigned to the Mounted Dragoons and fought Indians on the frontier for almost two years. When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, he joined the Confederacy, and family connections won him an appointment as a lieutenant colonel in the 19th Alabama Infantry.

When General Braxton Bragg took over the Army of Tennessee shortly after Shiloh, he remembered the young colonel's boldness and skill. In spite of his academy grades, Wheeler got the job as Bragg's cavalry commander in July 1862.

After Shiloh, the Union army was spread out all over Tennessee, and Bragg saw a chance to strike. With Maj. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith in support, he cut through Tennessee and drove deep into Kentucky. Wheeler's cavalry screened and scouted for Bragg, fighting more than two dozen battles.



When Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell finally reacted to the threat, Wheeler's worn-out horsemen could not find the main body of the Union Army of the Ohio. In a daze, Bragg sent Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk's corps out to fight the entire Union army at Perryville on October 8, 1862. Wheeler, who was with Polk, bluffed one Union corps out of the fight with just 1,400 horsemen. Polk fought the rest of the army to a draw, but the invasion of Kentucky was over.

Now the question for the Confederates was how to get out of Federal territory. Neither Bragg nor Smith thought they could make the journey with their wagons or cannons. Wheeler again took rear-guard duty. His men fought all day and worked all night, blocking every road the Union army could use. The retirement went on for a long, tense week, but in the end it paid off. The Confederates got out not only their own equipment but also the 30 guns and 400 wagons they had taken from the enemy. Wheeler received the star of a brigadier general.

Major General William Starke Rosecrans took over the Union Army of the Cumberland on October 27, absorbing Buell's former command. On the day after Christmas, he moved against the new Southern base at Murfreesboro, Tenn. Bragg sent Wheeler to slow the Union force while he gathered his own men. Then on December 29, he turned Wheeler loose in the Union rear. Wheeler led his men completely around the Union army, making it back before the battle started. On the way, he took nearly 1,000 prisoners, captured or killed hundreds of horses and mules and burned four Union wagon trains. Wheeler and his tired men rested during most of the two-day battle, getting in only a little fighting on the last day.



Although the South saw the Battle of Murfreesboro as a victory, Rosecrans still had the strongest army, and he stood fast. For two nights Wheeler prodded the Union rear. Hearing wagons moving, he thought Rosecrans was retreating. He was wrong -- the wagons were only hauling away the wounded. Finally, it was Bragg who retreated.

Two weeks later, Wheeler was back behind the Union army. On January 13, 1863, he hit Harpeth Shoals, northwest of Nashville, turning his cannons against the ships on the Cumberland River and stopping traffic for days.

In early February 1863, Wheeler struck Dover, Tenn. Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the "Wizard of the Saddle," was with him on that sortie. The Confederates outnumbered the Union force, but Forrest argued that Union fortifications would give the Federals an edge.


Wheeler's Cavalry Capturing a Federal Supply Train. J. F. E. Hillen.

He was right. The Rebels were badly shot up. Forrest himself had two horses killed under him. Never a good loser, he turned on his youthful commander with such fury that aides barely prevented a duel. As it was, Forrest swore he would resign if forced to serve under Wheeler again.

Wheeler and his troopers next struck a double blow against the Union railroads, shooting up one train and capturing another. Their haul included 70 Union prisoners, 40 freed Confederates and $30,000 in cash. The total human cost for both attacks was one man wounded.

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-Gram.

For you Texas Tech fans, Get Your (spud) Guns Up!

[Professional Engineer]

Snicker

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on June 30:
1470 Charles VIII king of France (1483-98), invaded Italy
1685 John Gay author (Baggars' Opera)
1768 Elizabeth Kortright Monroe 1st lady
1819 William A Wheeler (R) 19th VP (1877-81)
1837 Stephen D Ramseur youngest West Pointer to be Maj Gen
1894 Gavrilo Princip, Bosnian assassin (arch duke Ferdinand)
1898 George Chandler Waukegan Ill, actor (Lassie)
1911 Czeslaw Milosz Polish/American writer (Nobel 1980)
1912 Dan Reeves NFL team owner (Cleveland/LA Rams)
1916 David Wayne actor (Adam's Rib, Andromeda Strain, 3 Faces of Eve)
1917 Buddy Rich Bkln NY, drummer/orch leader (Buddy Rich Band-Away We Go)
1917 Lena Horne Bkln NY, singer (Stormy Weather)
1918 Susan Hayward Flatbush Bkln, actress (I Want to Live, Tulsa)
1934 Harry Blackstone Jr magician (Blackstone Book of Magic & Illusion)
1942 Robert Ballard, explorer/geologist/author/discoverer (Titanic in 1985)
1944 Ron Swoboda baseball outfielder (NY Yankees, NY Mets)
1950 Donna Jean Willmott Akron Ohio, FALN member (FBI most wanted)
1951 Stephen S Oswald Seattle Washington, astronaut (STS 42)
1966 "Iron" Mike Tyson heavyweight boxing champ (1986-90)
1981 Allison Schroeder, Miss Wisconsin Teen USA (1997)

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Deaths which occurred on June 30:
1109 Alfonso VI, (imperator totius Hispaniae), king of Leon, dies
1520 Montezuma II, the last Aztec emperor, killed
1685 Archibald Campbell, Scottish politician, beheaded at about 55
1862 Richard Griffith, US Confederate brig-general, dies in battle at 48
1882 Charles J Guiteau, assassin (Pres Garfield), hanged
1934 Gregor Strasser, German pharmacist/NSDAP-leader, murdered I mean meets with an unfortunate accident at 42
1934 Karl Ernst, German SA-leader, shot while escaping.
1934 Ernst Roehm (46), gay leader of the Nazi SA shoot self
1961 Dr Lee De Forest radio pioneer, dies at 87
1971 3 cosmonauts die as Soyuz XI depressurizes during reentry
1973 Elmer Layden one of Notre Dame's legendary 4-horsemen, died
1974 Mrs Albert King mother of Martin Luther King, murdered in church
1983 Mary Livingstone actress (Jack Benny Show), dies at 75
1984 Lillian Hellman playwright, dies of cardiac arrest at 79
1985 James A. Dewar, creator of the Twinkie (1930), died.
1993 George "Spanky" McFarland, child actor (Our Gang), dies at age 65
2001 Chet Atkins (77), guitarist dies

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GWOT Casualties

Iraq
30-Jun-2004 1 | US: 1 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US Specialist Robert L. DuSang Iraq-Kuwait border (N of) Non-hostile - vehicle accident

Afghanistan / Other
06/30/04 McGee, Robert K. Staff Sergeant 38 Army 2nd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group Non-hostile - non-combat related injuries Manila Martinsville Virginia

http://icasualties.org/oif/
Data research by Pat Kneisler
Designed and maintained by Michael White

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On this day...
0296 St Marcellinus begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1097 Crusaders defeat Turks at Dorylaeum
1294 Jews are expelled from Berne Switzerland
1548 Former Holy Roman (Catholic) Emperor Charles V ordered Catholics to become Lutherans
1607 Annales Ecclesiastici (Scientific History of Catholicism) published
1741 Pope Benedict XIV encyclical forbidding traffic in alms
1755 Philippines closed all non-Catholic Chinese restaurants
1794 Battle of Fort Recovery, Ohio
1815 US naval hero Stephen Decatur ends attacks by Algerian pirates
1834 Congress creates Indian Territory (now Oklahoma)
1859 Charles Blondin is 1st to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope
1861 CSS Sumter slips past USS Brooklyn blockade
1862 Day 6 of the 7 Days battle-Battle of White Oak Swamp Union rearguard under Maj. Gen. William Franklin stops Jackson’s divisions.
1863 Union and Confederate cavalries clashed at Hanover, Pennsylvania
1865 8 alleged conspirators in assassination of Lincoln are found guilty
1870 Ada Kepley becomes 1st female law college graduate
1871 Guatemala revolts for agarian reforms
1893 Excelsior diamond (blue-white 995 carats) discovered
1894 Korea declares independence from China, asks for Japanese aid (REAL bad move)
1900 4 German liners burn at Hobokon Docks NJ, 326 die
1906 John Hope becomes 1st black president of Morehouse College
1906 Pure Food & Drug Act & Meat Inspection Act adopted
1908 Boston's Cy Young's 2nd no-hitter, beats NY Highlanders, 8-0
1908 Giant fireball impacts in Central Siberia (Tunguska Event) knocked down trees in a 30-mile radius and struck people unconscious some 40 miles away.
1913 NY Giants score 10 in 10th to beat Phillies 11-1
1914 Mahatma Gandhi's 1st arrest, campaigning for Indian rights in S Africa
1923 New Zealand claims Ross Dependency in Antarctica
1927 Augusto Cesar Sandino issues his Manifesto Politico
1927 US Assay Office in Deadwood, South Dakota closes
1929 Bobby Jones wins golf's US Open
1930 France pulls troops out of Germany’s Rhineland
1930 1st round-the-world radio broadcast Schenectady NY
1933 Card's Dizzy Dean strikesout 17 Cubs to win 8-2
1934 "Night of the Long Knives," Hitler stages bloody purge of Nazi party
1934 NFL's Portsmouth Spartans become Detroit Lions (rebuilding starts)
1936 "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell, published
1936 40 hour work week law approved (federal)
1936 Haile Selassie asked the League of Nations for sanctions against Italy (futile gesture)
1939 Heinkel He. 176 rocket plane flies for 1st time, at Peenemunde
1940 "Brenda Starr" cartoon strip, by Dale Messick, 1st appears
1940 US Fish & Wildlife Service established
1942 US Mint in New Orleans ceases operation
1943 Gen. MacArthur began Operation Cartwheel (Island-hopping)
1944 Universal strike against nazi terror in Copenhagen
1948 Transistor as a substitute for Radio tubes announced (Bell Labs)
1950 Pres Truman orders US troops into Korea, B-29 ‘Superfortresses’ bomb targets in North Korea.
1952 "The Guiding Light," a popular radio program, made its debut as a television soap opera on CBS.
1951 NAACP begins attack on school segregation & discrimination
1952 "The Guiding Light" soap opera moves from radio to TV

1953 1st Corvette manufactured (sold for $3,250.)

1959 During a game in Wrigley Field, 2 balls were in play at same time
1960 Zaire (then Belgian Congo) gains independence from Belgium
1961 Explorer (12) fails to reach Earth orbit
1962 LA Dodger Sandy Koufax no-hits NY Mets, 5-0
1963 Cardinal Montini elected Pope Paul VI, 262nd head of RC Church
1964 Centaur 3 launch vehicle fails to make Earth orbit
1965 NFL grants Atlanta Falcons a franchise
1966 Beatles land in Tokyo for a concert tour
1967 Maj Robert H Lawrence Jr named 1st black astronaut
1971 Ohio becomes the 38th state to approve of lower the voting age to 18, thus ratifying the 26th admendment
1971 A Soviet space mission ended in tragedy when three cosmonauts (Georgi Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev) aboard Soyuz 11 were found dead inside their spacecraft after it returned to Earth.
1973 Observers aboard Concorde jet observe 72-min solar eclipse
1974 Petty thief Peter Leonard sets fire to cover burglary that torches "Gulliver's" nightclub. 24 die (Port Chester NY)
1975 Bundy victim Shelley Robertson disappears in Colorado
1975 Cher, just 4 days after divorcing Sonny Bono marries Gregg Allman
1977 Jimmy Carter cans B-1A bomber later "B-1's the B-52"
1977 Marvel Comics publish the "Kiss book" tributing the rock group Kiss
1977 US Railway Post Office final train run (NY to Wash DC)
1981 China's Communist Party condemns the late Mao Tse-tung's policy
1982 Federal Equal Rights Amendment fails 3 states short of ratification
1985 39 remaining hostages from Flight 847 are freed in Beirut
1986 Georgia sodomy law upheld by Supreme Court (5-4)
1988 Brooklyn dedicates a bus depot honoring Jackie Gleason
1989 Attorney General Thornburgh orders Joseph Doherty deported to the UK
1989 In Sudan the elected coalition government is overthrown. Omar Hassan al-Bashir and Sheik Hassan al-Turabi, brother-in-law of Sadiq el-Mahdi, seized power.(Imposed strict Muslim Shariah law on the country including the Christian southern Sudan.)
1989 NY State Legislature passes Staten Island seccession bill
1989 General Wojciech Jaruzelski announces he will not run for Poland's new presidency, saying the people view him as the man who imposed martial law (Gee you think that might be because HE DID?)
1998 Linda Tripp, spends six hours testifying before a grand jury in Washington.
1999 Farrah Slad of Brainerd, Minn., (21) won the $150 million Powerball lottery.
2000 The Clinton Administration said Iraq had re- started its missile program and had flight-tested a short-range ballistic missile.
2000 The Presbyterian Church ordered its ministers not to conduct same-sex unions.
2000 An Arkansas Supreme Court committee sues President Clinton to strip him of his law license. Clinton later agreed to pay a fine and give up his law license for five years.
2004 Cassini probe enters Saturn’s orbit for 4 years of explorations. Its 4-year mission included a close approach to Saturn’s 3rd moon Iapetus.

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Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Guatemala : Revolution Day (1871)
Lybia : Troop Withdrawl Day
Mongolia : Constitution Day
Rwanda & Burundi : Independence Day (1962)
Surinam : Lebaran, official holiday
Za‹re : Independence Day (1960)
Iowa : Independence Sunday (1776) (Sunday)
National Honor America Days (thru 7-4)
Amateur Radio Week (Day 4)
Carpenter Ant Awareness Week (Day )
Turkey Lover's Month

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Religious Observances
RC : Commemoration of St Paul
RC : Memorial of the 1st Martyrs of the See of Rome (opt)

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Religious History
1629 The settlers of Salem, Mass. appointed Samuel Skelton as their pastor, by ballot. Their church covenant, afterward composed by Skelton, established Salem as the first non-separating congregational Puritan Church in New England.
1780 Benjamin Randall organized a fellowship of churches known as Free Will Baptists in New Hampshire. It became one of the early branches of the National Association of Free Will Baptists, which was formed in 1935.
1909 In Rome, the Catholic Pontifical Biblical Commission issued a decree interpreting the first 11 chapters of Genesis as history, not myth.
1973 In Korea, the Far Eastern Broadcasting Co. began transmitting the Gospel from HLAZ, its first radio station in this country. FBEC is active today through radio missions outreach, and focuses its work among the islands of Eastern Asia and the Pacific.
1974 Mrs. Martin Luther King, Sr., and a church deacon were slain by a crazed gunman in Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, where her son, the assassinated civil rights leader, once preached.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

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U.S. Dog Sets World Jumping Record
Owner Thinks Nestle Can Beat Personal Best

PENN TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A dog named Nestle recently set a world record. The 3-year-old chocolate Labrador weighs 80 pounds and can jump almost 7 feet high, Lancaster, Pa., television station WGAL reported.

Nestle, who lives outside Hanover, Pa., with owner Angie Jones, set a world record at a jumping competition in Virginia two weekends ago.
Nestle will take part in a nationally televised jump competition in Florida next month.
"It is pretty impressive to see a dog get up to that height, amazing because it is a lot of fun to watch because the dogs love to do it," Jones said.

Nestle's owner thinks the dog can jump higher than 7 feet.

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Thought for the day :
"All the world loves a lover.....unless he's sitting in front of you in the theater."

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.

[w_over_w]

Morning Glory Folks~

Great read on another confederate that was born to be a soldier. During the Civil War he was in more than 500 skirmishes; commanded in 127 full-scale battles; had 18 horses shot from under him; and lost 36 staff officers from his side.

I'm just a few hundred pages into Vol. 3 of Shelby Foot's "Red River to Appomattox" and look forward to reading about the Tennessee raids and defense of Dalton and Kennesaw Mountain.

[Valin]

Shelby Foot. He WILL be missed

[w_over_w]

1934 NFL's Portsmouth Spartans become Detroit Lions (rebuilding starts)

The weather was brutal, so the first "unofficial" NFL Championship Game between the Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans was moved inside Chicago Stadium in 1932.

[Valin]

1934 NFL's Portsmouth Spartans become Detroit Lions (rebuilding starts)
Wait till next year!...or the year after...or the year after...

[w_over_w]

Wait till next year!...or the year after...or the year after...

Well, with continued high draft pics like these . . . who knows! ;^)

[PAR35]

and negligible military value

Don't discount the effect on morale on both sides from such a raid.

[Valin]

LOL!!!

[Professional Engineer]

Hi miss Feather.

BG has learned to open my sock drawer. I'm finding my socks, just mine no one else's, all over the house now.

[Soaring Feather]

LOL
Little Home wrecker!!

[Professional Engineer]

1918 Susan Hayward Flatbush Bkln, actress (I Want to Live, Tulsa)

SpankenTruppenKommandanten

[snippy_about_it]

Hey ct, remember awhile back when you asked if any Westpoint Southern's who joined up after the WBTS? This story is about one of 400+ that did.

[Professional Engineer]

1871 Guatemala revolts for agarian reforms

I had to do a double take. I thought it read, "1871 Guatemala revolts for aquarium reforms". What they need better fish tanks?

[Professional Engineer]

1939 Heinkel He. 176 rocket plane flies for 1st time, at Peenemunde

Bis heute einzig existierendes Originalfoto

Heckteil der He 176 V-1 auf dem Prüfstand

[Professional Engineer]

1948 Transistor as a substitute for Radio tubes announced (Bell Labs)

I Want My Tunnel Diode

[Professional Engineer]

;-)

[Professional Engineer]

I have a complaint.

I was NOT awaken by fresh coffee and cream filled pastries this morning.