El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-09-03

the fight which followed, and ''his hat
wa pierced with q MIME bullet and
his foot confused by . fragment of
she'll"
General Wheeler was sent soon az
terward with his cavalry to cooperate
with Longsreet in the operations
against Burnside in East Tennessee.
tackled q supply train with Q small
force and was repulsed, but he ''check-
ed the charge of the Yankee cavalry
by u counter-charge with his staff and
escort" During the melee which
ensued General Wheeler was entirely
developed by the enemy but he man
aged to escape this time with q whole
skin.
wHEELER'S CAVALRY RAIDS.
Some of General Wheeler's most dsr-
ing and successful exploits during the
war were his cavalry raids and counter
raids. He was q constant and terrible
menace to the Union lines and means
of communication and transportation.
Railway locomotives and cars were de-
stroyed and bridges burned by the hun
dred: hundreds of wagons and thou
sands of mules we're captured aud car
ried of burned and killed, and millions
of dollars worth of quarter-masters',
commissary, ordnance and Eedical
stores shared a like fate. Thousands
OF Union soldiers lived on half or
quarter rations, and hundreds OF army
horses and mules starved for want of
forage on account of the operations OF
Wheeler's cavalry.
In January, 1873 in raid on General
RosecrRn's lipe of communication, Cen
eral Wheeler, with q brigade of cayal-
ry, attacked and destroyed nine river
transports loaded with army supplies,
and also captured and burned the "tin-
clad" gunboat Sedelle. In his account
of this exploit General Wheeler said:
alongside the blazing and cracking
transports she became q cinder upon
| the waters, which only an hour before
she had walked so proudly like q thing
of life.''
/ The capture of army transports and
navy gunboats by cavalry was so un-
usual an occurrence that the young
msjor-genersl probably thought the
| account OF 1t would bear adornment.
But other accounts written or dictated
| by him of his military achievements
| Indicate the existence of . strong vein
of poetry in his mental com position.
For example, his account of raid into
the Sequatchie Valley in the autumn
of 1863 contains the following passage:
"As jocund day began to stand tiptoe on
the mountain tops on either side, and
the sunbeams to cast their golden ra-
dance upon the fields of that fertile
valley, as il to cheer the weary soldiers
| for the brilliant achievements before
them, q column of the enemy was
encountered, and no sooner seen than
the notes of generals bugle sounded
the change and each horseman, instinc,
with new life, rushed formard to the
! attack.
The southern confederacy was in its
dying throes, ard General Wheeler
realized il and had a doleful tale to tel
when he was summoned to meet Jeffer.
son Davis at Charlotte, n. c., late in
April, 1864. The capture of both fol
lowed soon afterward, but at differen,
places, although Wheeler stood by his
fallen chief until the tine came wher
everybody must look out for his owr
safety. They were companions In capa
tivity for q short time, and it wa,
CHARACTERISTIC of the cavalry leader
that he should twice suggest "plsns fol
the rescue or flight of President Da
Wis.," both OF which were abandonedia