The age-herald., 1898-08-11
GENERAL WHEELER
 AS HE REALLY IS

Harry l.. Beach in the Chicago Tlmes-Her- ald
 "There is one thing in this war that gets me, and that is how they ever came to make Joe Wheeler a major-general"
 The speaker was one of several corre- spondents who were lying in the trenches of Camp McCalla at Guantanamo Bay. rWhat's the matter with Joe?" l asked. "Nothing, as a man; and know his rec ord as a soldier in the rebellion was of the finest, but he is too old now-he has not the physical strength or the endurance for &C., tive campaigning. really feel sorry for him, for, in my opinion, he will injure his record as a soldier and, of course, kill him. self politically. It's too bad. for he is a fine gentleman and capable man, but he has made a great mistake in accepting a generals commission, and you fellows will
 say that I am right long before the war is over." s~ Three weeks came and went, and that same correspondent and myself were in the | trenches once more, but now they were on the summit of the San Juan Hill, one thousand yards from the rear of Santiago It was the 2d of July; the fighting was hot. and over where we lay behind a little
 mound of sand the Mauser bullets sang in swarms. To lift your head above the em- bankment was thing of peril, to stand upright was to make of yourself an extra hazardous risk for a life insurance. conn pany, and to remain standing was to of fer a premium for wounds and death. So we kept our heads-these great heads so filled with military science and warlike lore -close to the muddy ground and longed for the moment to come when the Spaniards
 would let up in their fire for moment and we might make a run over the hills without being punctured with rifle ball.
 
 Just then, entirely alone, along the rear | of the trenches, came walking small man, rather stopped in the shoulders and clad in the uniform of a general officer A broad | army hat was drawn down close to his arched eyebrows, which gave him the look | of a man in an eternal state of mild sur prise. Under the gray brows his eyes glanced quickly up and down the trenches, l and then travelled to and from the Spanish | lines, taking in all the points of attack and defense. Across the pretty grass valley l that lay between us and Santiago the ugly | little bullets still hissed as viciously and as l thickly as ever. Occasionally shrapnel she'll, that ugliest of all devilsh devices designed for mangling your fellow men. would burst above the ridge, but the little man moved calmly along. He walked with | the air of a man who wanted something and knew how and where to find it. There was business in every motion. but no hurry lsbecause of danger. The man knew the | chances he was taking and took them as a
 matter of course as part of the business he was in. It was General Joseph Wheeler inspecting his linAs. poked the man next to me, pointed out to him the slight form of the general as he moved away. still in tent upon gathering information for him. self, and still camly indifferent to the fire. l and asked him the question of three weeks | before: What's the matter with Joe?' It was known to us both then, the con- duct of General Wheeler during the battle of San Juan, the indomtable courage he had shown on that day and the day pre- ceding, when he crawled from sick bed to lead the men to battle, and, better than | all, how it was due to him that the Ameri- can army had not after the victory aban-
 doned the hill of San Juan, which it had
 won at the cost of so much blood. These things were known to the other men as well as to me, and his acknowledgment
 was brief and to the point
 ''He knows more than I thought knew
 and can't put it stronger than that"
 There has not been a man In the Ameri-
 can army who has made better fighting record than this small, slender, gray
 bearded, kindly gentleman, Joseph Wheeler
 of Alabama. Even with no record of thir- ty-flve years standing as 0 fighter his conduct during the Santiago campaign
 would have stamped him as an exceptional
 soldier. On the night of June % he was i'll with fever-so i'll that for a time it was difficult for him to raise his head. On the morning of the 30th he was no better, and his attendants and staff were fearful of the result when he announced his inten- tion of going to the front with the army which late in the day poured steadily down | the road toward San Juan. On the morn- | ing of the fight the general announced kG Intention of going 70 the front line, and | the members of his staff, after some argu-
 ment, managed to get him into an ambu- lance, and in this, sorely against hil will
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