The evening times., 1898-08-13
GEN. WHEELER HArrY.
The Field of Battle Proved to Be
Ms PrOper Place

The Field Of Battle Proved to Bs
/ His Proper Place.
When the first reports Of the advance
at Santiago were received, they gave the
impression that the two men of whom
most was expected had fallen short of
their full duty-Gen. Wheeler and Gen.
Lawton. Subsequent accounts proved
that both had been heroes and had done
what few commanders would have tried
to do. After making an advance that
was never excelled for daring and en-
dnrance. they held their ground with
calm courage when death seemed sure.
A correspondent of the Chicago Journal.
who saw much of Gen Wheeler in the
hardest weeks at Santiago. writes an ap-
preciative letter to his paper on the vet.
eran. saying: .-,T-
Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler stands out
as the most amiabIe, yet the most SOL
dierly, the most dashing. and still the
least assertive the most open and at
the same time the most cautious. From
the start he was the soldiers beau ideal,
respected by the regulars, liked heartily
by the volunteers OF the North, and
adored by those from the South. He
was more and more highly esteemed as
the campaign progressed from days of
| preparation at Tampa to days of fight
ing around Santiago. At the start SOL
diers and civilians used to say of him,
He's no hotel general which meant
good deal. because a great many generals
at that time seemed TO be mere potter
ers who ate course dinners and changed
their clothes and loIled in easy chairs.
But that wasn't so of Wheeler. No
sooner had he reached Tampa than or
ders were given for the locating OF his
divisional headquarters, his tents were
up. his cot set out. and the old man
was settled down to the privations and
the racket of camp life after lapse of
thirty-three years.
'Once / asked him how IL seemed to
be back in a uniform again, and once
more to be spending his days on horse
back.
81 feel he said. 'as II had had about
three weeks leave and was simply re-
turning to my usual duties as general of
cavalry
since last he had performed those duties.
and 1t Is significant of the great impress
army life leaves on a mans character,
that though years and years may pass.
he swings back into the life again with
no shock of surprise and 10 sense of
change.
Gen. Wheeler was happier company in
dusty field under the lea of a rail-
road or in h.tle cleared patch amid the
rain-soaked forests of palms than he ever
was in the great hotel at Tampa TO which
he seldom went unless he had business
with some of the sleek. table dhote war
r1ors- When he was with them he trans
acted his affairs in a nervous hurry and
got out-as if the company tired him.
which, no doubt IL did
III you sought him at the tent toward
evening when the rush of affairs slaek--
ened little, he was ever cordial in his
welcome. but with a certain manifestation
OF bashfulness. as though you had done
MIN quite an honor by dropping in
In the 'iresome days when the foreign
consuis at Santiago had sewed up ey-
erything and were tabbering terms of sur
render. first with Shaf:er and then
with Tora!. and next among themselves.
soldiers used TO say: Well if we don't
move into Santiago pretty soon, Zoe
wheeler will get Chaffee and Lawton and
the three of them will march ineo town
pogether-surrende- or no surrender
1t was about Wheeler that in short
ume innumerable stories began to clus-
Ter. The unusual part Of it was that
the stories always were to his credit.
one Tor instance, telling how he had
chmped tree TO take an observation,
and had remained there until he had
finished with a leisurely examination of
the surrounding country; then, carefully
wiped his field glasses and descended un-
harmed by sharpshooterS and unafraid
of them.
He is a little. delicately-built man,
with white. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. hands,
and. so far as the physical goes, does
not answer at all to ones preconceived
notions of what a general of division
should be-
In neither appearance nor bearing is
he like Sheridan. and his face is not
stern and hard like that of his great an
taSoniSt, Sherman, to whom he was the
source of so many toilsome days and
sleepless nights more than a generation
ago. He hasn't the suggestion in his
thin, small body of the grossness of Shaf-
ter or Fitzhugh Lee. who are usually red
faced. putting. perspiring.
Gen. Wheeler's voice is different from
theirs, too, not hoarse and cultural. but
very mild. though precise and clean-cHt
in its tones
intellectually, he is alert. tireless and
far-seeing. AS to his moral character. 1
only know that he is churchgoer and a
man who instantly convinces even a su-
perficial observer that he is in the pres
ence of a peculiarly pure-minded and
clean-living gentleman. Hence. one did
not hear queer stories or rowdy talk
around his headquarters-not because the
general seemed Puritanical, for no man
Is more suave-but because visitors had
an instant realization that here was a
guileless nature and a self-respecting,
dignified man.
81 don't think the general was offered
anything like complete opportunity in
Cuba for the expression of his genius He
had won his fame and beaten his enc
mics as a great general of cavalry and
in Cuba he was still general of cavalry,
but commanding dismounted trops. Then,
too, he could not direct the campaign in
dependently. Immeasurably greater than
the commanding general, he yet was un-
der him. and so his energies and his tai
ents were applied in circumscribed field.
But upon the whole army he had de-
cided moral effect He was ever in the
line farthest advanced. Men knew that
between them and disaster was Wheeler.
and the thought comforted them and
gave them assurance
.'He should have been the man of the
hour. Chance. or politics. or something
queer. had relegated him to the perfor-
nance of the lesser work. That work he
did nobly. but there was greater work
lying to his eager hand Destiny in an
amazing fit of pique held his arm"
SHOCKED By ELECTRICITY.