The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1906-04-06
TRIBUTES PAID
FIGHTING JOE"
Wheeler Memorial Services in At
Ianta Highly Impressive.
A GREAT HOST ATTENDS
Blue and Gray Vets from all Sections
MingIe to Accord Honor to Great
Cavalry Leader.

Old Confederates who had followed
him in his whirling charges through
the sixties; wearers OF the blue who
had striven against him through four
long years of fraternal strife; young
men still hale and strong who had
served with him in Cuba--aH gath
cred in Georgia's capital city Tues
day to do honor to the memory OF
"Fighting Joe" Wheeler. To Whea-
Ter, whom the passing of time AMI
she healing of wounds had made COM
rade and leader OF them all. He was
my comrade as well as yours Pres
ident Roosevelt told the men Of Vince
ler's command, when he met them
in Washington. He was my COM
rade as well as yours, said the young
men in Atlanta Tuesday, who were
proud to have served with him
against the Spaniards. "He was my
comrade, tco," said the faded wear
ers of the blue uniforms, their love
and admiration of the great Ameri-
can cavalry leader shining strong and
clear above the remembrance OF the
hard blows dealt on either side. Com
rade-that was the word that gave
the key to the whole occasion; and
all Atlanta and all Georgia felt drawn
nearer towards the sons and daugh-
tiers Of the leader in a sense of COM
radeship and kinship.
The opera house was well filed
when the exercises began, both the
galleries and lower floor. TO the left,
us one entered, were seated the
Daughters of the Confederacy who
had from the first taken an import
ant part in the Wheeler memorial ex-
ercises. The Sons and Veterans Or
CARNATIONS occupied seats on the
right
Corporal Tanner, commander-in-
chief of the Grand Army Of the Re
public, was present, and hobnobbed
with Colonel John S. Prather, COM
mander of the local Wheeler camp.
And they felt that they were COM
rades, too. 1t was reunion in more
senses of tine word than the military
one; in most unusual sense indeed.
Members of commands who hal
fought against each other from Bull
Run to Appomattox fraternized, and
fought their battles over again. Rel
atives who had fought in the oppos-
ing armies, officers who had yanquish-
ed opposing foes or had surrendered
to them, men who had held one an
other captive in southern or in north
ern prisons, met together, as If around
q camp fire, after years of peaceful
pursuits, and talked it over. Met to-
gether, and testified once again that
while mutual admiration survives like
a fame, all hatred and all sectional
feeling have been scattered and dis
sipated like ashes.
Perhaps the greatest sadness Wab
shown at the Kimball house, where
the members of the Wheeler family
were staying. All morning the lobby
was filled with veterans They called
and paid their respects to the daugh-
tiers of the great cavalry leader; ex-
changed reverent greetings and then
withdrew, filled with emotion.
The parade, which was to have been
one Of the main features of the occa-
sion, with veterans of both armies Of
the civil war, veterans of the Spanish
American war, in line, was abandoned
because Of the Indictment weather.
All throughout the day veterans
kept pouring into the city, to the
number Of many hundreds. They came
from Washington, d. c., from Florida,
Alabama, Tennessee, North and South
Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Louis
lana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas. Ar
kansas, Oklahoma and from all sec
tions Of Georgia.