The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-02-11
Southern Generals.

Most Of the visitors 10 the House of
Representatives notice on the Democratic
side of the chamber a little in the rear of
the center, a small man with very full
beard that shows decided tendency to
become white, and when they ask who
he is are told that it is General Wheeler,
of Alabama.
The gentleman attained the highest
rank ever conferred upon one of his age
upon this himisphere, for he was COM
missioned Lieutenant General in the
Confederate army when be was but twen
ty.eight years of age, and by far the
youngest officer of his rank ever known
to either army or navy on the North
American continent, and younger than
any general officer who has held an
equivalent command on the continent of
Europe in one tine except in the case of
one royal prince in the house of Haps-
burg.
There were twenty-five Lieutenant
Generals in the Confederate army from
beginning to end. General Longstreet
was the senior when the war closed, and
General Ewell was next. OF the twenty.
two there are still living Longstreet,
Hamilton, e. Kirby Smith, Wheeler, A.
P. Steward, D. H. Hill, and Buckner. Of
the five full Generals made late in 1861
none remain but Generals johnson
u. E. and Beauregard. The latter was
the first geaeral officer ever nominated
aud commissioned under the Confederate
government, and should have been its
Senior General Officer under the ordinary
military usages, but the act creating the
military establishment ofthe Confederate
States provided that officers from the
United States army who might accept
Confederate commissions should take
rank according to the grade they held in
the United States army when their
designations were accepted. This made
General Cooper, who was Adjutant Gen.
eral of the United States army wheu he
resigned, the Senior General Officer of
the Confederacy, and placed General
Lee (who only became full colonel
about three months before his resigna-
tion) and General Beauregard (who vas
a Major of Engineers when he went
South) at the bottom of the list. General
Beauregard took the ground that be was
the first Brigadier General the Confeder.
ale States ever. commissioned, and was
holding that position when at last one Of
the officers promoted over his head was
yet in the United States army, and he
should have been the Senior General.
And the persistence with which he una.
vailingly insisted upon what he believed
was his by right induced the first differ
ence of opinion, which soon grew into a
breach that was irreconcilable, between
him and Mr.. Davis.
When General Wheeler attained the
rank of Lieutenant General he was just
the same age as Napoleon Bonaparte was
when he took command of the army of
Italy and commenced q career that in
briliiancy is unequsled in the worlds
history. Wheeler, too, is about the
height of Napoleon, who was five feet
three inches in stature, and in quickness
of movement and the facility with
which he changed bis plans in an emer.
gency he is not unlike the great Corsican
in mental characteristics. The officers
of the United States army will have no
more devoted and 'intelligen friend in
the Congressional ranks than the old
time comrade in the lst dragons,
sPoint" Wheeler Washington Herald.