BORN: 1836 in Augusta, GA.
DIED: 1906 in Brooklyn, NY.
CAMPAIGNS: Shiloh, Kentucky, Stone's River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Knoxville Siege, March to the Sea (contending Sherman).
HIGHEST RANK ACHIEVED: Major General
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Joseph Wheeler was born on September 10, 1836, in Augusta, Georgia. He was graduated from West Point in 1859, and was placed in the Mounted Dragoons. He spent two years fighting Native Americans, then resigned from the US Army to join the Confederate Service. Wheeler fought with the 19th Alabama Infantry through the Battle of Shiloh, then was given command of the cavalry of the Army of Mississippi in July of 1862. He was promoted to brigadier general to rank from October 30, 1862, then to major general, to date from January 20, 1863. Wheeler participated at Stone's River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga and the siege of Knoxville. He led some of the only Confederate troops opposing Sherman's March to the Sea, and was captured near Atlanta after Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's surrender. After the Civil War ended, Wheeler became a cotton planter in Wheeler, Alabama (which was named after him). He entered politics, and was elected to the US House of Representatives (1885-1900). President William McKinley appointed him a major general of volunteers during the Spanish-American War, and action which was praised as a sign of the healing of relations between the Union and the former Confederacy. After leading troops in the war, Wheeler was commissioned a brigadier general in the Regular Army as of September 10, 1900, and retired on his 64th birthday. He settled in Brooklyn, New York, where he died on January 25, 1906.
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