Alice Williamson Diary

Joseph Wheeler

(from Ferguson, Edwin L. Sumner County, Tennessee In the Civil War. Printed by author. Tompkinsville, Kentucky. 1972)

Joseph Wheeler was born on September 10, 1836 in Augusta GA. He died January 25, 1906, in Brooklyn NY. He graduated from West Point 1859, saw frontier duty and resigned April 1961. His Civil War service includes:

• 1861 1st Lt. of artillery
• Col. of 19th Alabama
• Chief of cavalry in Army of the Mississippi
• Kentucky Campaign
• October 1862 Brig. Gen.
• Murfreesboro
• January 1863 Maj. Gen.
• Chickamauga, Raided around Chattanooga
• Knoxville campaign
• Atlanta campaign
• Opposed Sherman's March to the Sea
• Carolinas campaign
• Superseded by Hampton

After the war he was a cotton planter, US congressman, Maj. Gen. of volunteers in Spanish-American War, commanded a brigade in the Philippines, and was commissioned a Brig. Gen. in the Regular Army. His reputation identified him as second only to Forrest as a raider.

(This information and a bibliography can be found at funnelweb.utcc.utk.edu/~hoemann/cong_w.html)

In the summer of 1864, Wheeler�s Cavalry went out on a large raid to destroy Sherman�s railroad communications. The cavalry came close enough to Gallatin for George Guild (a Gallatin resident) to get leave and sneak into his house, but the cavalry never attacked Gallatin.

(Taken from Durham, Walter T. and James W. Thomas. A Pictorial History of Sumner County, Tennessee 1786-1986. Sumner County Historical Society. Gallatin, Tennessee. 1986. p.202)

Alice Williamson Diary - Table of Contents

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