Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 32.djvu/54

 4*2 Southern Historical Society Papers.

you will find this to be a mistake, and that the highest rank attained by Gen. Wheeler was that of Major- General. You will find all of Wheeler's orders and dispatches up to the end of the war signed "Major-General." You will observe, too, that he could not pos- sibly have been commissioned after the fall of Richmond, as there was after that no so session of the C. S. Senate to confirm an ap- pointment.

" In the list of West Point graduates who became officers in the Confederate Army, which was reprinted in the columns of the Rich- mond Dispatch (issues of March 30, Aoril 6, 27, and May 12, 1902) Wheeler is set down as ' Lieutenant-General.'

" As this is stated to have been supervised by Capt. W. Gordon McCabe, I wrote to him calling his attention to this. He replied that he had known that Wheeler was not a Lieut. -General, as he had conclusive proof of this, and had furnished his name for the West Point list as 'Major-General.' This seems definitely to settle the point, but Gen. Wade Hampton told me that in an inter- view he had with President Davis in North Carolina, when the latter was arranging for his escape southward, he offered the President an excort of 5,000 mounted volunteers, which he guaranteed to raise at once.

" Mr. Davis, however, declined this offer on the ground that such a force would attract too much attention, and would not be suffi- ciently mobile for his purposes.

"Gen. Hampton then suggested that with a small escort the Pres- ident should take Gen. Wheeler to accompany him, as the latter would be useful, being well-known in much of the country through which the party would probably have to pass, and that he (the President) should confer on Wheeler the title of Lieut. -General, in order to increase his prestige and influence with the people of the country. But, the latter part of the proposition the President pos- itively refused to accede to.

" This, alone, would prove that Wheeler was not at that time a Lieutenant-General, and he could not possibly afterward have be- come one.

" Yours sincerely,

" EDWARD L. WELLS."