Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/758

706 colonel of the Nineteenth Alabama infantry regiment, and to brigadier-general of cavalry in July, 1862. In the cavalry service, he won promotion to the rank of major-general and corps command early in 1863; on May 11, 1864, at the age of twenty-seven years, he was the senior cavalry general of the Confederate States ; was promoted lieutenant-general, February 28, 1865; and for his services received the thanks of Congress. From early in 1862 until the war closed he was almost constantly engaged in battle. He was wounded three times. Thirty-six of his staff officers fell by his side, six killed and thirty wounded, and sixteen horses were shot under him. Going into the battle of Shiloh in command of his regiment, he led his brigade in the vigorous attack which resulted in the capture of General Prentiss and over 2,000 men. Wheeler, taking the prisoners in charge, was highly complimented by General Bragg, and ordered to convey the captured division to the rear. But desiring to continue in the fight, he detailed Colonel Shorter for this duty, and with the balance of the brigade remained at the front, winning praise in the official reports of his superior officers. This first great battle in the West, one of the bloodiest of the war, was a severe test of the mettle of officers and men, and it is to be noted as a premonition of Wheeler’s future career, that at the close of the first day he was in command at the front of the greater part of his division, under the general orders of the gallant Withers. Of his work on the second day, amid disorganization, a glimpse is given in the report of General Chalmers: Colonel Wheeler, of the Nineteenth Alabama, was, with a small remnant of his regiment, fighting with the Mississippians, on foot himself, and bearing the colors of his command,&quot; in the last charge against the enemy. Subsequently he commanded the rear guard in the retreat to Corinth, during the siege of which he was distinguished in a fight on the Monterey road, in command of two brigades of Withers division. After guarding the rear in