The Meeker herald., 1898-09-24
GENERAL WHEELER.


one Of the few men who have come out
of this war without anything but
glory in their records. His life has
been somewhat curious mixture of
the most dashing and picturesque ad-
venture and the most uninteresting of
drudgery. A West Point lieutenant
Just entering upon his military caree-
at the beginning Of the civil war, he
unhesitatingly devoted his heart ami
his hand to the fortunes of the Con
federacy and became the most daring
and successful cavalry leader of the
South, possibly OF the whole country.
Wheeler's exploits during those four
years We're told with glee by the Con
federates and with a miXtue of admi-
ration and gnashing of teeth by the
Union officers whom he circumvented.
Davis was prisoner, Wheeler. loyal
as ever TO the cause for which he had
fought for four long years, risked his
life and freedom in an attempt to res
cue Davis. 1t failed, and when the
turmoil of war had little subsided
and the knights of the Lost Cause
gathered themselves together to face
the future, Wheeler, practical, plucky,
and uncomplaining as ever, was to be
found grubbing living out of his farm
in Alabama. They wanted him to be
professor of philosophy in the Louis
-s.:te Seminary, but he declined
that offer and kept on practicing law
and agriculture with equanimity and
success.
The Forty-seventh Congress saw
him in the House, and after that moth
ing except war would have dislodged
him from his seat. Whenever ,aere
has been any development which look
I'd like war he has always been the
first to tender his services to the gov
,rnment. For the last thirty years he
las had what one might call stand
ng determinatio to continue his mill
iay career when he had n chance. Ii
is my belief that if we had an admin
lstration foolish and obstinate enough
to refuse him Il commission he would
have shouldered Il rifle and gone to
the front as a private, and he would
have inevitably come out of the fight
wearing shoulder straps. He - moi
the kind of man to be ignored.
The stories which have clustered
about Wheeler's career in this wal
would make an interesting book all
by themselves. He not only climbed q
tree to reconnoiter the enemy's CAM
and 1t wasn't cactus or cOcoanui
palm. as some of the cnterprising art
lists tried to make us believc-but it is
reported that he climbed the tree un
1er which the capitulation was signed
1t Santiago, and hcnt leaf thereof tC
each of his constituents. am inclin.
ed to doubt this yarn. OF course it is
picturesque thing to think Of-the
slender. active little general sitting in
the crotch of limb busily picking
leaves enough to fill barrels and leav-
ing the tree as bare NJ a barber's pole,
but 1t is my belief that If there really
was a barrelful of leaves picked of
that tree. Wheeler sent some small Gu,
han hoy up to do 1t. He never does
an odd thing for the sake of being
odd. 1t is certain. however, that he
did send a good many of his friends
leaves from that there tree" and that
they prize them most highly.
Wheeler's behavior at Santiago has
furnished the subject for almost the
only real war poem which has appear.
ed during the war. You have all read
it. 1t is called wheeler at Santiago"
and is by James Lindsay Gordon. The
poem has been copied all over the Uni
.,tor 81 %ho% u
has been told everywhere, but 1 am
going to tell it over again. Wheeler,
not being any more acclimated than
the rest of the army, was, like his
men, attacked by the fever of the coun-
try, and was not able to lift his head
for several days. He was carried here
and there and directed operations from
his cot, but when the time came to at
tack Santiago he was so i'll that it
was not thought best to inform him
just when the attack would take place
But he heard the roar of guns from
afar and he was not to be let or him
dered. He told them to put him into
an ambulance and take him to the
front, and there is more power in the
little major generals say SO, even
when he is helpless with fever. than
there is in the blatant roaring of II bi.
slx-foot bully. They put him into that
ambulance and started for the front.
On the way they met the litters with
the wounded. and the newspaper cor
respondents bear witness as to the mis-
erable inadeQuacy with which these
unfortunates were provided for
Wheeler was out Of that ambulance
and In the saddle in about minute
and half, and though almost any man
In his army could have picked him up
and carried him, nobody ventured to
oppose his determination to go to the
front. And then ne rode to the front.
and the sight Of him put new life into
the whole army. Gordon tells 1t in
words which thrill one like the sound
Of drum and fife.
L.