Editing Joseph Wheeler (section)

===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" />