The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-28
"FIGHTING JOE WHEELER.
The Little Hero of Santiago Comes
Home 10 Fresh HOnOrs.
From the washington Capital.

the WASHINGTON Ndbibdl'
Gen. Wheeler is one Of the few men
and they are coming to be as scarce as
hens teeth-whO have come out of this
war without anything but glory In their
records. His life has been a somewhat
curious mixture of the most dashing and
picturesque adventure and the most I'M
interesting of drudgery. \ West Point
lieutenant just entering upon his military
career at the beginning of the civil war, he
unhesitatingly devoted his heart and his
hand to the fortunes Of the Confederacy,
and became the most daring and success
ful cavalry leader of the South, possibly
of the whole country Wheeler's exploits
during those four years were told with
glee by the Confederates and with mix
ture of admiration and crashing of teeth
by the Union officers whom he circum-
vented. When Lee surrendered and Jeffer-
son Davis was a prisoner, Wheeler, loyal
as ever to the cause for which he had
fought for four long years, risked ms lie
ana freedom in an attempt to rescue
Davis. 1t failed, and when the turmoil OF
war had little subsidized and the knights
of the Lost Cause gathered themselves to-
gether to face the future, Wheeler, prac-
teal, plucky and accomplishing as ever,
was to be found grubbing a living out OF
his farm in Alabama. They wanted him to
be professor of philosophy in the Louisi-
ana State Seminary, but he declined that
offer and kept on practicing law and agri-
culture with equanimity and success.
The Forty-seventh Congress saw him in
the House, and after that nothing except
a war could have dislodged him from his
seat. Wherever there has been any devel-
opment which looked like war he has al
ways been the first to tender his services
TO the government. For the last thirty
years he has had what one might call a
standing determination to continue his mil
itary career when he had a chance 1t Is
my belief that if we had an administra-
ton foolish and obstinate enough to refuse
him commission he would have shoulder
ed a rife and gone to the front a priv
ate, and he would inevitably have come
out of the fight wearing shoulder straps.
He is not the kind of man TO be ignored
They are talking now about putting him in
the Senate, and, personally, L should not
object If they were to nominate him for
the presidency some fine day. There is
probably not another country on earth
where a man who fought against the rul-
ing powers of the nation and inflicted as
much damage as Wheeler did in the civil
war, could, thirty years afterward, stand
a fair chance of being himself a ruling
power. But then, there are not many
places where such men as Wheeler can
be found
Wheeler is not only a born fighter and a
general of marvellous skill, but he is per-
sonally one of the most delightful men in
public life to-day. HIS unassuming man
ner and invarable courtesy won him
friends among all whom he met in his
career as representative. He was always
ready to do a favor, always alert to pro-
tect the interests of his constituents and
absolutely without reproach politically.
Although his career in this war has I'M
questionaby given him a walkover in his
campaign for reelection, il would be a
very daring man who should suggest to an
Alabamaian that there was any political
motive at the bottom of the thing. They
know Wheeler too well down there for
that, and the person who contemplated
saying anything of the kind would be wise
If he secured a flying machine and made
his little speech from some distance up in
the air. Such a phenomenon as a man
too thoroughly devoted to the cause of
his country to be even suspected of self
seeking is rather rare in this day and
generation, but Wheeler is that kind of a
man.
The stories which have clustered about
Wheelers career in this war would make
an interesting book all by themselves. He
not only climbed a tree to reconnoiter the
enemy's camp-and it wasn't a cactus or
a cocoanut palm, as some of the enter
pTising artists tried to make us believe
but IL is reported that he climbed the tree
under which the capitulation was signed
at Santiago and sent a leaf thereof to
each of his constituents. l am inclined 10
doubt this yarn. OF course, 1t is a pic
| turesque thing to think of-the slender, ac-
tive little general sitting in the crotch
of limb busily picking leaves enough
to fill barrels, and leaving the tree as bare
as a BARRIERS pole, but 1t is, my belief that
if there really was a barrelful of leaves
picked off that tree Wheeler sent some
small Cuban boy up to do it. 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.
Wheelers behavior at Santiago has fur
nished the subject for almost the only real
war poem which has appeared during this
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 United States, and the
story of that day has been told every
where, but l 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 attack
Santiago, he was SO i'll that 1t was not
thought best to inform him when the
attack would take place. But he heard
the roar of the guns from afar, and he
was not to be let or hindered.
He told them to put him into an ambu-
lance and take him to the front, and
there is more power in the little major
generals say-so, even when he is help
less with fever, than there is in the bla-
tant roaring of big six-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 news
paper correspondents bear witness as to
the miserable inadequacy with which these
unfortunates were provided for Wheeler
was out of that ambulance and in the sad
die in about a minute and a half, and
though almost any man in his army
could have picked him up and carried
him, nobody ventured to oppose his deter
mination to go TO the front And then he
| rode to the front, and sight of him put