The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-03-17
WILMINGTON. n. G.
TUESDAY, MAkCH Ia, 1895.
AN ATTEMPT TO DISCREDIT GEN
WHEELER

not so favorable to the soutDs General
Joseph Wheeler as first accounts were.
And yet no one can doubt his splendid
gallantry and his ability as a fighter.
The book says Wheeler first favored
strongly the retreat, but afterwards OPP
posed it. An officer said TO the author:
General Kent told US that on that
afternoon General Wheeler came to see
him, and was most emphatic and out
spoken in his desire to retreat. we
were convinced that he came to this
meeting in this spirit, but as he had the
last vote he was able to modify his
views in accordance with those held by
Bates, Shafter and Lawton.
That puts a new phase on the matter.
He is found favoring retreat, while
Shafter, always reported as for retreat,
is put with those that opposed. Then
we are told tina it was the plan TO sup
ersede Wheeler as ranking officer in
command of a corps. The author says,
''there was a decided objection among
army officers to having what was prac-
tically the command of the whole
United States regular army devolve
upon a volunteer officer whose most re-
cent military experience dated back
1hirty-three years., and whose services
had been confined to the cavalry, an
army which was not represented in the
army before Santiago. Though Gener-
al Wheeler had been very i'll, and at
times quite delirious, he was a man Of
such wonderful pluck and endurance,
and of such surprising vitality, that he
morning of the I'd found him again in
the saddle and as indefatigable as
ever"
This is bad. A~ntagonizing "the
rebel no doubt even in the face of the
enemy. And yet time and again north
ern correspondents have made General
Wheeler really the hero at Santiago
on land, as another brave Southron,
Admiral Schley, was ON the sea. The
in command as he ranked Wheeler as
Major General. He was Inspector
General, The cause of the breakdown
of the plan is not given. The book
only gives this:
"a conference certainly took place
between General Shafter and Breckin-
ridge upon this subject, but, as the
health of General Shafter from this
thine on steadily improved, there is no
way of knowing what line of action was
decided upon, and, as the cOntin gencies
which they were preparing to meet did
not arise, naturally neither General
Shafter nor General Breckenridge has
felt inclined to disclose the decision
which they had reached"
Very sick with fever, the second day
the brave, resolute General Wheeler
was on horseback and at the front of
the command. What other officer
would have done as he did? Bonsal
compliments Wheeler for "his energy
and general aggressiveness," but he es-
says to discredit him as a soldier. We
copy from the New York Tribune's re-
view of 9onsal's book:
"Mr. Bonsal asserts that the enemy
had been dislodged from Siboney by
Lawton's men tw%enty-four hours ear
lier, and had taken up a position but a
few miles from Santiago; that General
Wheeler was entirely ignorant of their
position, and all he knew to the con-
trary, he might we'll have thought that
the few troops under his command had
bumped into the whole Spanish army
but that, luckily, General Lawton had
already sent General Chaffee's brigade
to the scene Of action. Friends
of General Wheeler claim that it was
due t this gallant officers Influence
that the retreat Vas not made. Mr..
Bonsal asserts, on the other hand, that
General Wheeler had been strongly in
favor of retreat all day long, that at the
meeting the man whose voice and In
f1uence did more than any others to
prevent such a movement was General
Lawton, who, with General Bates and
General Shafter, was unalterably OPP
posed to giving Ut one inch Of what we
already held"
The effort-bold, pertinacious, vigor-
us-w made t throw blame and ig-
uOIlluy upO L OShlCy VIM uCSlIOy Gu luG
Spanish fleet at Santiago. Now, if
Bonsal is a true historian, General
Wheeler was a palpable failure instead
of a hero, and the northern officers OBJ
jected to him as commander of a corps.
And then too Shafter is made
thing of a hero after reiterated accounts
Of him through the months as a failure.
Napoleon said that call history is a
fable" 1t looks that recent American
history is both false and fabulous.
We believe in Wheeler. H. rrah. for
little Jo. If Fitzpatrick were living he
could tell as to whether or no Wheeler
was : good fighter and ~wide-awake
General in the field. J