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.

[colorado tanker]

Susan Hayward?

Hubba, hubba!

[snippy_about_it]

Oops. My mistake. Here's your doughnuts. I don't 'do' coffee, I buy mine from Starbucks. :-)

[w_over_w]

Shelby Foot. He WILL be missed

Found this on the blogosphere . . . funny . . .

"During a 1991 literary festival in Nashville, Foote encountered one enthusiastic fan as he, Garrett and novelist Fred Chappell stood in the lobby of their hotel.

" A woman rushed up to Shelby and planted a kiss on his cheek. Then she said, 'What was Gettysburg like?' " Garrett recalled. "By that time, Shelby had gotten tired of explaining that he hadn't been there. So he just looked at her and said, 'Madam, it was hell.' "

[colorado tanker]

Thanks, Snippy. General Joe's story is a nice metaphor for how the country came back together after that terrible war.

[Morgan's Raider]

There's a story about Wheeler atttending a 100th anniversary gathering of West Point Alumni circa 1904. As fightin' Joe approached a group of former Confederate officers, he was greeted by none other than General James Longstreet. "Joe, I hope I die before you do, for I want to be at he gates of Hell to hear Jubal Early cuss you for wearing that blue uniform!".

[Colonel_Flagg]

Works for me!

[snippy_about_it]

"Joe, I hope I die before you do, for I want to be at he gates of Hell to hear Jubal Early cuss you for wearing that blue uniform!".

LOL. Thanks for sharing with us.

[snippy_about_it]

Good evening feather.

[snippy_about_it]

Good evening EGC. We'll send up a prayer for your father's surgery tomorrow. ((Hugs))

[Soaring Feather]

Evening, snippy, how you doing these days??

[snippy_about_it]

I'm doing fine thanks. The store is doing well, moving onward and upward, more folks finding out we are here. The weather is wonderful and I never tire of hanging out with Sam. Life is good.

[snippy_about_it]

You're welcome.

[Soaring Feather]

Good news then, here's a happy tune for you and Bitty Girl.

~Roger Miller~Hampster Dance~

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

050629-N-9273C-019 Persian Gulf (June 29, 2005) - An Aviation Structural Mechanic assigned to the "Eightballers" of Anti-Submarine Helicopter Squadron Eight (HS-8), performs a pre-flight check on the tail rotor of an SH-60F Seahawk helicopter aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). The Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group is currently deployed to the Persian Gulf conducting operations in support of multi-national forces in Iraq. Vinson will end its deployment with a homeport shift to Norfolk, Va., and commence a three-year refuel and complex overhaul. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Nicole L. Carter (RELEASED)

050629-N-8213G-246 Pacific Ocean (June 29, 2005) - An EA-6B Prowler, assigned to the "Vikings" of Electronic Attack Squadron One Two Nine (VAQ-129), launches from the flight deck aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76). Reagan is currently underway in the Pacific Ocean conducting carrier qualifications for various West coast Fleet Replacement Squadrons. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class Konstandinos Goumenidis (RELEASED)

050628-N-8772M-003 Kauai, Hawaii (June 28, 2005) - A U.S. Marine assigned to 3rd Assault Amphibious Battalion, 1st Marine Division, fires his M-16 rifle as he simulates a hostile combatant on the beaches of the Pacific Missile Range Facility, on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. The 3rd Assault Amphibious Battalion, 1st Marine Division, is currently embarked aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu (LHA 5). U.S. Navy photo by Journalist 2nd Class Johnny Michael (RELEASED)

[snippy_about_it]

I can just see bitty girl dancing to this and throwing PE's socks all around. LOL.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Howdy all.

[Soaring Feather]

Bitty Girl has struck! LOL

[Valin]

When he was not in the field, Wheeler found time to write a new Confederate cavalry manual. Among the first to recognize that the day of the mounted charge was over, he advised troopers to ride to battle but fight on foot. That was a lesson many officers had still not learned 50 years later.


As I recall John Buford had the same idea.

[Morgan's Raider]

Bedford Forrest was the master of this tactic. In fact, every fourth man in Forrest's Brigade was designated as "horse holder".

[PhilDragoo]

So newspaper editors criticized Wheeler. He told Bragg:

"I hear from many sources it should be said that they did not like you as a commander," Wheeler wrote Bragg. "I have been serenaded twice in the past few days by Pensacola troops who said they had come to hunt up Genl. Bragg's friends . . . They said the only enemies you had were a few bad Generals and some newspaper editors. They might have included a few soldiers who had been misinformed and influenced by designing men."

One of the editors to whom Wheeler referred was L.J. Dupre of the Atlanta Register. On February 25, 1864 Dupre wrote Bragg,

I was influenced, I must confess, in all that I have written of you to a greater extent than I should have been by the whispered slanders of your enemies. I could not escape this influence, General. It filled the very atmosphere of all newspaperdom. All sorts of influences were brought to bear upon the press I control. My opinions of your generalship were fixed by these influences, but I was misled. I have since learned that I did you injustice. I shall find an occasion to make amends worth more than this tendered apology.

~~~

The press is against the current War on Terror as it is against the current president hence it is against the nation.

I had the misfortune to stumble upon Shep Smith on Fox News Channel today and at his fifth iteration of the emetic euphemism "militant" emailed him to quit sucking up to terrorists.

His minions at the keyboard responded with audible shrieks, flailing at me with their purses.

I had then to expound and to include Roger Ailes and a host of others in the CC field:

Per Webster's, a terrorist is one who systematically uses terror, especially as a means of coercion, while a militant is one engaged in combat.

Some journalists persist in labelling car bombers, truck bombers, homicide bombers, and other attackers of civilians with the euphemism militant, when terrorist is the accurate term.

This subjective linguistic propaganda serves to legitimize the enemy who daily murders tens of innocent civilians, and serves to enoble that which declares itself the enemy of civilization. See appropriate fatwas by Osama bin Laden, et al.

The term terrorist is applied by the State Department to such groups as Hamas which is a creation of Iran which provides fighters, training and equipment for the "insurgents" in the current War on Militancy--no, Terrorism.

Iran and Syria are providing terrorists whose modus operandi is not combat per se, but terrorism, e.g., car bombs, truck bombs, bomb vests, improvised explosive devices.

The term insurgent carries the implication of a domestic revolution rather than a foreign-manipulated interference, read aggression.

Militant conjures up images of Mark Rudd and Students for a Democratic Society which morphosized into the terrorist Weathermen organization conducting terror campaigns using bombs, not protests or placards.

Reuters and BBC persist in eschewing terrorist as does CNN which has confessed to covering up the truth of Saddam Hussein's mass murder, ditto Al-Jazeera, the megaphone of terrorists.

We are engaged--at least according to our Commander in Chief--in a War on Terror, not a war on militancy, hence, to all but the aforementioned terrorist enablers, our enemies are terrorists, not militants.

Of course critics on the Left were aghast that Ronald Reagan termed the Soviet Union the Evil Empire, no matter the aptness of the label.

The Left remains adamant that militants are ubiquitous and terrorists exist only in the ravings of their bete noires the neocons, thus granting terrorists legitimacy via linguistic airbrushing, Propaganda 101.

Of course Fox employees gave to Democrats over Republicans by orders of magnitude, which is widely reflected beyond the glow of Brit Hume, Fred Barnes, Sean Hannity.

The aid and comfort from the Left for the current enemy pours without stint from the cornucopia of liberal compassion for perverts and revulsion at virtue. Viz. the Howard: