This tome may have been written with War History Readers in mind.  The title of “A Soldier to the Last” is very descriptive, as it is a biography of Major General Joseph Wheeler with his military career the focal point.  His personal and political lives are touched upon, but very briefly in comparison.

Though the scion of New England families, Wheeler was born in Augusta, Georgia where his parents had sought, in vain as it turned out, a climate more salubrious to his mother’s health.  Returning to New England, Wheeler attended Episcopal Academy of Connecticut where he befriended his classmate, J. Piermont Morgan.  Aware of his family’s military tradition in the Revolution and War of 1812, he obtained a nomination to West Point from a congressman from New York where he had moved in with relatives.  Ironically, given his later career, his nomination was forwarded to Secretary of War Jefferson Davis.  In the undistinguished class of 1859, Wheller graduated 19 out of 22, with no accomplishments suggestive of a successful military career.

Assigned to the 1^st United States Dragoons, he received cavalry training at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania and, in common with most notable Civil War generals, Jefferson Barracks, Missouri before successfully requesting transfer to the Mounted Riflemen fighting Indians in New Mexico Territory.  After Georgia seceded, Wheeler resigned from the United States Army and offered his services to the governor of his native state, his family roots in Northern soil notwithstanding. 

Appointed a second lieutenant in the Confederate Artillery, Wheeler began Confederate service that brought him to many significant engagements in the Western Theatre.  Beginning with the defense of Pensacola, Florida.  Transferred among units commanded by Braxton Bragg, P. G. T. Beauregard and Leonidas Polk, Wheeler advanced to colonel and brigadier general.  He saw action at Shiloh (Pittsburg Landing), Tennessee, Kentucky, Chattanooga, Chickamauga, and harassed Sherman’s March Through Georgia.  Not surrendering until captured while attempting to catch up and escort fleeing President Jefferson Davis, Wheeler was confined for a while before release and return home. 

His family’s property having been devastated during the War, Wheeler pursued business interests in New Orleans and Alabama, where he turned to law before election to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1880.  Recognized primarily for constituent service, Wheeler’s he was called back to the colors with the advent of the Spanish American War in 1898.

With memories of the War Between the States and Reconstruction still vivid in Southern minds, President William McKinley recruited Confederate heroes to serve in the United States Army with the rank of Major General of Volunteers.  Of four former Confederates who accepted, only Wheeler saw combat.  His Cuban action was extensive, serving as commander of the cavalry division and, as second in command, often seized the initiative as the senior office on the scene while commanding General Shafter, a Union army veteran, remained well behind the front lines.  With victory in Cuba achieved, Wheeler briefly served in the Philippines.  His participation in and support of a war advanced by a Republican administration engendered Democratic opposition that thwarted any future political or military advancement.

Not a hagiography, author Edward G. Longacre frequently draws on Wheeler’s contemporaries and other historians and reports their praise and criticism of Wheeler’s conduct.  He is alleged to have exaggerated his accomplishments in official accounts, with recognition of that as a practice of military commanders going at least to Ceasar.  Claims of exceeding authority and military errors are balanced against Wheeler’s enthusiasm and energy.

When I find factual errors in books, I always wonder how many I missed.  I found two in this work.  It mentions “Lincoln…polled fewer votes than his combined Democrat and Whig opponents.”  True, Lincoln received only a plurality of votes, well short of a majority, but the Whig party had disbanded and ran no candidate in 1860.  Confederate Braxton Bragg is reported as commander of the Army of the Mississippi, a glaring error repeated in titles of dispatches.  As Union armies were traditionally named after rivers and Confederate after the area in which they served, the likelihood that the errors were made in original dispatches is very low.   I looked it up and the Army of the Mississippi was, as expected, a Union Army.

I appreciate “A Soldier to the Last” for several reasons.  It provides a biography of a unique personality in our military history.  It also provides a rather detailed account of the tide of battle among the Western Armies as well as the role of calvary units in that theatre.  I am glad I read this work and recommend it War History Network readers seeking another Civil War biography or insights into the workings of that war and its personal connections to the Spanish American War.