Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/64

 66 Southern Historical Society Papers

ing around Richmond, when McClellan was driven back and utterly defeated.

In compliance with his own wish, expressed in the words, ** Bury me on the field, boys,*' his remains were at first interred near the spot where he fell ; but it was afterwards found impossible properly to protect the grave, and therefore the body was removed, the following winter, to Hollywood cemetery, being escorted by a large military and civic procession from the Monumental church, where the burial service was performed by the Rev. Dr. Woodbridge, and at the grave by Dr. McCabe. The caisson bier, the riderless horse, the sol- emn dirge, the soldiers' thrice-vollied farewell — were these ** the last of earth " to our hero? The precious remains of his manly beauty were, indeed, laid in the grave ; but he, the pure patriot, the self- sacrificing soldier, the martyred hero, the sincere Christian, had passed into the heavens — promoted, at last ! His friends think of him as having had an especial honor put upon him. He is gone up from a remote province to the Capital of the Empire. The faithful soldier was summoned from his obscure post to become a member of the " family " of the Commander-in-Chief! We seem to hear a voice from heaven saying, '* Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things ; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." "Shot and shell,'' as Kingsley strikingly remarks, '* cannot take away human life ; they can but kill the body." All that we loved and valued most still lives, more truly lives, where we aspire to join him, ** high in salvation and the climes of bliss."

That Major Wheat was not promoted by the Confederate govern- ment, that the general expectation of the army and of the country was not realized in this respect, his friends might not unnaturally regret. If he felt the least resentment himself, he never showed it. It certainly did not in the least abate his devotion to the cause or the administration. It was a striking trait in his character that, being too proud to sue for promotion, he was content to have richly deserved it. Throughout his whole career, he always espoused the cause of the oppressed, the wronged, the struggling for freedom. And although he had many opportunities for enriching himself by means which others did not scruple to use, he came home as poor as he went — rich only in the fruits of experience and observation in many lands and strange adventures, an admirable raconteur, speaking various languages ; full of genius, wit, and eloquence, of stainless honor, and rare social attractions. His eminent soldierly qualities