The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-05

at the General wheeler memorial meeting in the City Council chamber on Friday evening Camp Holtzclaw requested you to publish In The and character of General Joseph l Wheeler As they have not appeared l In the paper I write to request that | you yield to the wishes of Camp Holtz- I claw and publish them in Monday mornings Issue of The Advertiser This request is made at the instance of the members of tho Camp,
 Yours sincerely.
 Tyler Goodwin. Commander Camp Hoitsclaw s. C. V. l In compliance with the request Of ! Camp Holtzclaw the remarks of Major Screws are herewith presented. 1 Major Screws saids
 | Mir. Commander ladies and gentle 1 men. Confederate Veterans and Sons of Veterans.
 Wherever heroism and real manhood are appreciated, the name of Joseph 1 Wheeler is a familiar one. His deeds as Confederate soldier were known Ithroughout the world as they were 1 transpiring, and long before the war
 between the South and the North end cd he had an established reputation as l great military leader.
 General Wheeler was T Confederate l soldier from high sense of conviction land duty. He was 5orn in Augusta Ga. which was the nome of his par ents, September 10. 1885. He was sent | quite early to school i1 Connecticut. At the time he went there he was of | age when local surroundings n1nke I great and lasting Impressions, Many l of the relatives of his fathar and motE- ! CT lived in the community where he attended school and he was. therefore. thrown into close communication with | all the people. He had she opportunity ! of learning their views and in meas@ l ure of imbibng the prevailing scnti- l nent At that tine there was great l5crusade in the North against the South | on account of our peculiar institution, an institution which ia q measure Lad l been unloaded eli US itv people of New England and the Middle States. peo- 1 pie lost their reason and reasonabieness | when discussing our affairs and there was an atmosphere in those hoyhood days of his in which one less fixed in I principle than Joseph Whesler might have been swayed against those in I whose midst he was born
 From school in tjbaaecsieat he went I direct to West Point. whero all the con- l ditions tended to impress uI,on stu dents the indissolubility of the Union. l He had no opportunity. therefore, in his student days for miiigling with I Southern boys, who were to grow up and be the men of the future in the Southern States. The places Tt the l Military Academy open to Georgja 1 were all flled when he applied but l with the let armination which ever characterized him when ilis mind was once made Up. he applied to John 1 Wheeler, q Congressman from New | York and possibiy q Linsfnul. and l through him received an Appointment ] as q cadet He was appointed by Pres ident Franklin Pierce of gracious and glorious memory. His commission was 1 from the War office, by our own Jef- ferson Davis. then Secretary of War. 1 and it reads in these words:
 The President of the United States l having heen pleased to appoint Joseph l Wheeler, Jr.. a cadet in the service of the United States he Is to be received
 as such, and entitled to all the consid-
 erations attached to said appointment. i This appointment to take effect from
 the 30th day of June, 1854.
 Given at the War Ofice of the Unit
 ed States. this. the 2srd day of January.
 in the year of our Lord. one thousand eght hundred and ffty-five. and the
 sd@enty-ninth year of the independence
 of said States.
 Jefferson Davis, l SecTetary OI ,WHT.
 After graduating in 1859 standing I nineteenth in his class, he was attached
 to the cavalry arm of the service.
 Many men who became conspicuous
 either in the Confederate or Union ser-
 vice were his classmates. His record
 in the United States Army after grad
 uation was as follows:
 Brevet, Second Lieutenant First Dra- go0ns, July 1, 1859; transferred to Mounted Rifles. June 21. 1860; Second Lieutenant, September 1, 1860; resigned, April 22, 1861.
 | He resigned his commission in the Union Army to enter the Confederate service. The guns fired at Fort Sum l ter had been heard over the world He was on duty in Arizona and came from that then far distant point to east his lot with his native State He was actuated by the same noolef pa- triotism that forced Robert E. Lee from the Union to the Confederate William Wheeler, who organized the first company given by Georgia for the Confederate service, he wrote:
 Much as love the Union. and much as l am attached to my profess sion. all will be given up when my state tGeorgial, by it's action shows 1 that such a course is necessary and proper. If Georgia withdraws and be- comes a separate State T cannot, with propriety and justice to my people, | hesitate in resigning my commission. l" Here spoke the man that he was. | In spite of early association and youth | full environment his high patriotic spir- 1 1t asserted itself and from conscien- tious conviction of duty he cast his | lot with the people of his native State i From that day his name and fame have been secure No stain ever rested on his record either in military or civil l4e It is useless to attempt to recount his many brilliant achievements in war | They are to be found on almost every page recording events from the opening gtins at Shiloh to the last chapter written at Greensboro, N. C., l in 1865, when Joseph F. Johnston sur- rendered the remnants of his army. | They will be treasured in the hearts of Confederate soldiers the sons of | Confederates and their descendants as long as time shall last
 l General Wheeler while the very per- sonification of restless activity was the most perfect officer in either, army as 10 matters of detail It might be well ssupposed that in all his active move ments in command of cavalry, he would ! have lost papers and documents His able staff officer, Col. W. F. Wailes, i of Selma. says that the Department of War office at Washington, which com | phed the records of the war for both sides, reports General Wheeler's papers to have been the most complete of any received. Colonel WaiIes says on- Iy one or his orders was missing from the file.
 While he had a world wide fame Alabama claims him as peculiarly her | own His first military service with l the Southern Confectionery after his resignation from the United States