Editing Joseph Wheeler (section)

==Civil War==

===Early service===
At the start of the Civil War, Wheeler entered the [[Confederate States Army]] on March 16 as a first lieutenant in the Georgia state militia artillery and then was assigned to [[Fort Barrancas]] off of [[Pensacola, Florida]], reporting to [[Major General (CSA)|Maj. Gen.]] [[Braxton Bragg]].<ref name="VKF13" /> His resignation from the U.S. Army was accepted on April 22, 1861.<ref name="Eicher563" /> He was ordered to [[Huntsville, Alabama]], to take command of the newly formed 19th Alabama Infantry Regiment<ref name="IIk8x" /> and was promoted to colonel on September 4.<ref name="Eicher563" />

Wheeler and the 19th Alabama fought well under Bragg at the [[Battle of Shiloh]] in April 1862.<ref name="xiMoE" /> During the [[Siege of Corinth]] in April and May, Wheeler's men on picket duty repeatedly clashed with U.S. patrols. Serving as acting brigade commander, Wheeler burned the bridges over the [[Tuscumbia River]] to cover the Confederate retreat to [[Tupelo, Mississippi]].<ref name="Bearss125" />

===Middle Tennessee===
From September to October, Wheeler transferred to the cavalry branch and commanded the 2nd Cavalry Brigade of the Left Wing in the [[Army of Mississippi]].<ref name="Dupuy793-4" /> During the [[Confederate Heartland Offensive]], Wheeler aggressively maintained contact with the U.S. Army. He began to suffer from poor relations with [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]], when Bragg reassigned most of Forrest's men to Wheeler, sending Forrest to [[Murfreesboro, Tennessee]] to recruit a new brigade.<ref name="Bearss125" /> Wheeler fought at the [[Battle of Perryville]] in October and, after the fight, performed an excellent rearguard action protecting the army's retreat.<ref name="5vtgF" /> He was promoted to [[Brig. Gen. (CSA)|brigadier general]] on October 30 and led the cavalry belonging to the [[Second Corps, Army of Tennessee]], from November to December. During the action at [[La Vergne, Tennessee]], on November 27, Wheeler was wounded by an artillery shell that exploded near him.<ref name="Eicher563" />

In December 1862, the U.S. [[Army of the Cumberland]] began to advance from [[Nashville]] against Bragg's army. Now commanding all of the Army of Tennessee's cavalry, Wheeler skirmished aggressively to delay their advance. He drove into the rear of the U.S. army, destroying hundreds of wagons and capturing more than 700 prisoners. After the [[Battle of Stones River]], as Bragg's army withdrew to the [[Duck River (Tennessee)|Duck River]] line, Wheeler struck the U.S. supply lines at Harpeth Shoals on January 12–13, burning three steamboats and capturing more than 400 prisoners. Bragg recommended that Wheeler be promoted as a "just reward",<ref name="Bearss126" /> and he became a [[Maj. Gen. (CSA)|major general]] on January 20, 1863.<ref name="Eicher563" />

Wheeler led the army's Cavalry Corps from January to November 24, then from December to November 15, 1864.<ref name="Eicher563" /> For his actions on January 12–13, 1863, Wheeler and his troopers received the Thanks of the [[Congress of the Confederate States|Confederate Congress]] on May 1, 1863.<ref name="1u0A6" />

In February 1863, Wheeler and Forrest [[Battle of Dover (1863)|attacked Fort Donelson]] at [[Dover, Tennessee]], but the small U.S. garrison repulsed them. Forrest angrily told Wheeler, "Tell [General Bragg] that I will be in my coffin before I will fight again under your command." Bragg dealt with this rivalry in the [[Tullahoma Campaign]] by assigning Wheeler to guard the army's right flank while Forrest guarded the left. A Union cavalry advance on [[Shelbyville, Tennessee|Shelbyville]] on June 27 trapped Wheeler and 50 of his men on the north side of the Duck River, forcing Wheeler to plunge his horse over a 15-foot embankment and escape through the rain-swollen river.<ref name="Bearss126" />

===Chickamauga and Chattanooga===
[[File:JWheelerCSAGenclose.jpg|thumb|Joseph Wheeler during the Civil War]]
Wheeler and his troopers guarded the army's left flank at the [[Battle of Chickamauga]] in September 1863. After the routed U.S. army collected in [[Chattanooga Campaign|Chattanooga]], Gen. Bragg sent Wheeler's men into central Tennessee to destroy railroads and Federal supply lines in a [[Wheeler's October 1863 Raid|major raid]]. On October 2, his attack at Anderson's Cross Roads (also known as Powell's Crossroads) destroyed more than 700 U.S. supply wagons, tightening the Confederate siege of Chattanooga. Pursued by U.S. soldiers, Wheeler advanced to McMinnville and captured its 600-man garrison. There were more actions at Murfreesboro and Farmington. Still, by October 9, Wheeler safely crossed the Tennessee River at [[Muscle Shoals, Alabama]].<ref name="Bearss126" /> The extensive raid and a subsequent northern movement to assist Longstreet in his siege of Knoxville would cause the mounted arm of the army to miss the [[Chattanooga Campaign]] (November 23–25). Wheeler covered Bragg's retreat from Chattanooga following the Union breakthrough at [[Battle of Missionary Ridge|Missionary Ridge]] on November 25 and received a wound in his foot as his cavalry and Maj. Gen. [[Patrick Cleburne]]'s infantry fought at the [[Battle of Ringgold Gap]] on November 27.

===Georgia and the Carolinas===
During U.S. Maj. Gen. [[William Tecumseh Sherman]]'s [[Atlanta Campaign]], Wheeler's cavalry corps screened the flanks of the Army of Tennessee as Gen. [[Joseph E. Johnston]] drew back from several positions toward Atlanta. In July, Sherman sent two large cavalry columns to destroy the railroads supplying the defenders of Atlanta. With fewer than 5,000 cavalrymen, Wheeler defeated the enemy raids, capturing one of the two commanding generals, Maj. Gen. [[George Stoneman]] (the highest-ranking U.S. prisoner of war). In August, Wheeler's corps crossed the [[Chattahoochee River]] in an attempt to destroy the railroad Sherman was using to supply his force from Chattanooga. Wheeler's men captured the town of [[Dalton, Georgia|Dalton]], but he failed to defeat the U.S. garrison protected in a nearby fort. Wheeler then took his men into East Tennessee, crossing the Tennessee River above Knoxville. His raid continued to the west, causing minor interruptions in the [[Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad]] and then continued south through [[Franklin, Tennessee]], until he recrossed the Tennessee at [[Tuscumbia, Alabama]]. The raid Wheeler was ordered to undertake was described by historian [[Ed Bearss]] as a "Confederate disaster" because it caused minimal damage to the United States while denying Gen. [[John Bell Hood]], now in command of the Army of Tennessee, the direct support of his cavalry arm. Without accurate intelligence of Sherman's dispositions, Hood lost the [[Battle of Jonesborough]] and was forced to evacuate Atlanta. Wheeler rendezvoused with Hood's army in early October after destroying the railroad bridge at Resaca. That said, the blame for this defeat cannot be laid at Wheeler's feet.<ref name="UltL1" />

In late 1864, Wheeler's cavalry did not accompany Hood on his [[Franklin–Nashville Campaign]] back into Tennessee and was virtually the only effective Confederate force to oppose [[Sherman's March to the Sea]] to [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]].<ref name="NpKKg" /> However, his resistance to Sherman did little to comfort Georgia civilians, and lax discipline within his command caused great dissatisfaction. [[Robert Toombs]] said, "I hope to God he will never get back to Georgia." Maj. Gen. [[D. H. Hill]] wrote that "the whole of Georgia is full of bitter complaints of Wheeler's cavalry."<ref name="Bearss127" /> A telling encounter between Wheeler and Sherman is documented in one of Sherman's reports. This incident occurred after Gen. Jeff C Davis decided to dismantle a pontoon bridge to distance his army from a group of escaped slaves who sought refuge and safety with the Union forces. 
According to Sherman's account, Wheeler ordered his cavalry to charge the refugees. This action forced the men, women, and children into the water, where it is presumed many drowned.<ref name="WTMS" />

Wheeler and his men continued to attempt to stop Sherman in the 1865 [[Carolinas Campaign]]. He defeated a U.S. cavalry force under Brig. Gen. [[Judson Kilpatrick]] in South Carolina at the [[Battle of Aiken]] on February 11. He was replaced as cavalry chief by Lt. Gen. [[Wade Hampton III]] and fought under him at the [[Battle of Bentonville]] on March 19–20.<ref name="Bearss127" /> While attempting to cover [[President of the Confederate States of America|Confederate President]] [[Jefferson Davis]]'s flight south and west in May, Wheeler was captured at [[Conyer's Station, Georgia|Conyer's Station]] just east of Atlanta. He had intended to reach the Trans-Mississippi and Gen. [[Edmund Kirby Smith]], still resisting out west, and had with him three officers from his staff and 11 privates when he was taken.<ref name="Foote1012" /> Wheeler was imprisoned for two months, first at [[Fort Monroe]] and then in solitary confinement at [[Fort Delaware]], where he was paroled on June 8.<ref name="EYX4X" />

During his career in the Confederate States Army, Wheeler was wounded three times, lost 36 staff officers to combat, and a total of 16 horses were shot from under him. Military historian Ezra J. Warner believed that Wheeler's actions leading cavalry in the conflict "were second only to those of [[Nathan Bedford Forrest|Bedford Forrest]]".<ref name="i8ew4" />