Maj. Gen John A. Wharton

Confederate Veteran
Vol. 5, No. 8, Pg. 417
August, 1897

From a comprehensive and deeply interesting sketch of Gen. John A. Wharton, by Judge James J. Wharton, of Jackson, Miss., the following extracts are made:

He rapidly forged his way to the front in his profession. Probably no young man in the state had in so short a time established such a reputation as an orator and jurist. Fortune was beckoning him on to the highest honors of that profession when the war broke out between the states. Inspired with the martial spirit born of Southern chivalry, and which nothing can satisfy but liberty or death, he immediately enlisted as a private in a company which he aided in organizing. His, law partner, Col. Terry, also aided in raising it. He was elected captain of the company, and Terry was elected colonel of the regiment of which that company was a part.

In the battle of Shiloh Col. Terry was killed. In the reorganization of the regiment Capt. Wharton was elected colonel of the regiment. He also was wounded in the battle of Shiloh. It is believed that he was promoted for gallantry in every battle in which he was engaged, including the last in which he participated, Chickamauga, where he was advanced to a full major-general's commission, after which he was ordered to report to Gen. Magruder, of the Trans-Mississippi Department, where he was assigned to command of all the cavalry of that department. It was there, and shortly after assignment to that command, that he met his tragic death at the hand of a brother Confederate officer, with whom he had previously been on terms of fraternal intimacy, in a sudden personal difficulty.

As early as October 7, 1862, his gallantry was so conspicuously displayed on a memorable occasion as to call for special compliment from the commanding general and be made the subject of a special order, as follows:

"HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
"HARRODSBURG, KY., October 7, 1862.
"General Order No. 12:

"The general commanding takes pleasure in bringing to the notice of the army under his command the gallant and brilliant charge made by Col. John A. Wharton, commanding the cavalry of the right wing, against a large force of the enemy, near Bardstown, Ky., on the 4th inst. Being posted four miles on the Louisville pike, which, as he believed, Col. Wharton occupied and guarded the town of Bardstown and its approaches, Col. Wharton received sudden intelligence that the enemy in force were within half a mile, to the east of the pike, between him and Bardstown. Immediately ordering his battery to follow after as soon as possible, he put himself at the head of the Texas Rangers and rode at half speed to the point of danger. In thirty minutes he passed the four miles and then found the First and Fourth Kentucky, Third Ohio, and Third Indiana regiments of cavalry---four times his own number---drawn up on the road and behind houses to receive him. In their rear, but not in supporting distance, was a battery of artillery and a heavy force of infantry. The enemy's cavalry was partially drawn up in columns of eight, prepared for a charge, and the rest as a reserve. The enemy was allowed to approach within forty yards, when Col. Wharton ordered a charge. The fearless Rangers responded nobly to the order, and in a few minutes the whole force of the enemy was drawn in confusion from the field with a loss of fifty killed and forty prisoners, among the latter a major. To this gallant action not only were the dangerous consequences of surprise obviated, but a severe chastisement was inflicted on the enemy and new luster added to the Confederate army. In complimenting Col. Wharton and the brave men under him for this daring feat of arms, the general commanding can not but mark the contrast with that which resulted so differently at New Harbor a short time before. Col. Wharton and the Texas Rangers have wiped out that stain. Their gallantry is worthy of the applause and emulation of their comrades of all arms in the army.

"By command of Gen. Polk.

"GEORGE G. GARNER, A. A. G."

His gallantry, displayed on every field in which his command had met opposing forces, aroused the admiration and enthusiasm of his political friends, who clamored for him to represent them in the Confederate Congress. Far removed from and now indifferent to political honors, his only ambition being to aid in securing the great prize for which the mighty contest was waged (the independence of the seceding states); oblivious to, if he ever heard, the clamor of his political friends at home, in the uncertainty of mail communication---his noble mother, not waiting to take counsel of her noble son, assumed to act for and in his behalf, and responded to the call upon him to become a candidate for Congress. In a card to the public---which became historic, and every word of which should be inscribed upon the tomb over her and his remains---she said, in effect, that she knew the blood that was in her son's veins; that her own heart was in full sympathy with his, and that there was no political honor in the gift of the people of the state of Texas or of all the seceding states which would induce him to lay down the arms he had taken up in her and their defense until victory had crowned their army.

Following his own tragic death in quick succession was that of daughter, wife, and mother, until that honored name is forever lost in all that preceded or succeeded him Can it be said that it was the irony of fate that---after he had faced and defied death on so many bloody fields, had borne himself so proudly, so reckless of life as to court rather than avoid danger, leading and cheering on his heroic command where the missiles of death were falling thickest and fastest, and escaping as if he bore about a charmed life---that it should be reserved for him to fall at last by the hand of one always recognized as a friend?

But his name is secure. What though his genealogical tree is stripped of every bough and not one left to transmit his name to future ages? As long as history is faithful to its sacred trust and a record of human valor is preserved his name and fame will be cherished with increased and ever-increasing jealousy and pride by the descendants of the heroes and martyrs of the Lone Star State.