Hood's Texas Brigade

Confederate Veteran
Volume 11, No. 9, Page 393
September 1903

Gen. Hood's famous battle at Gaines's Mills, Va., in June, 1862, when he gallantly left the Fourth Texas Infantry through McClellan's lines, was fought all over again at a meeting of the few survivors of Hood's Brigade during the reunion. Every soldier of that gallant brigade is proud of the name.

At the time that the battle of Gaines's Mill was fought,m Gen. Hood had advanced to the rank of brigadier general, but he had promised his old command, the Fourth Texas, that he would lead them in the first great battle that they fought. True to his promise, he rode into the Fourth's camp on the day of the battle and told his comrades that he had come to keep his promise. Seeing a weak spot in McClellan's lines, which every one else had seemingly overlooked, he moved that single regiment against the Federals, and gained a signal victory.

A welcome member among the survivors was that splendid veteran, J. G. Wheeler, the man who gave the famous cry, "Lee to the rear!" in the Wilderness. Though there has been frequent discussion as to who caught Gen Lee's bridle on this memorable occasion, it seems to be generally conceded that Capt. Harding was the first to reach the horse's head, and yet he admits that one or two others had lain hands on the animal. But there was little discussion that the New Orleans meeting regarding Wheeler's action, when the cry ran down the line, and was maintained with such persistence that Gen. Lee accepted the position and withdrew.

Mr. John G. Wheeler, with a widowed mother and a younger brother (the latter of whom became a lieutenant governor), emigrate to Texas from Gunter's Landing, Ala., when a mere youth. When the war broke out, he enlisted with the Terry Rangers, and saw active service in Tennessee and Virginia until his health gave down, necessitating a furlough, after prolonged confinement in the hospital at Nashville. With the furlough he repaired to his adopted home in Texas to regain his shattered health. Later he joined the Tom Greene Rifles, and returned to the heart of the war, losing his left arm near the shoulder in the Battle of the Wilderness. Mr. Wheeler returned to Austin and was elected county court clerk of Travis County, of which office he was deprived soon thereafter by the carpetbag administration, and he therefore began teaching school. Mr. Wheeler began merchandising soon after his marriage to Miss Margaret Brown, of San Antonio at Manor, near Austin, and has ever since been a most successful merchant at that place. Although having but one arm, Mr. Wheeler has always been, and is yet, a crack shot, and shooting quail is his favorite recreation. He uses a No. 16 Parker, bringing it to his left shoulder stump very dexterously, notwithstanding he is a man now verging upon three score and ten. Besides himself, his family consists of a wife, two boys and five girls. Mrs. Stanley Cooney, of Nashville, Mrs. J. P. Johns, of Chicago, and Mrs. W. P. Rector, of Manor, are the married daughters. Mr. Wheeler seldom converses about the War between the States, but certain it is that there never lived a braver soldier nor a truer citizen than John G. Wheeler, of Manor, Tex.

PRESIDENT DAVIS'S ACCOUNT OF IT.

Dr. J. W. Sharp, of Grenada, Miss., says of the event: "Comrade Lockhart, of Pine Bluff, Ark., in giving an account of an event on the plant road May 6, 1864, in which a soldier in one of Hood's divisions took hold of Gen. Lee's bridle and turned his horse's head to the rear, says he was also at Spottsylvania on the 12th of May,and if an incident of this kind occurred there he never heard of it. I was assistant surgeon of Harris's Mississippi Brigade, and on the field at the time, and such an incident did occur. President Davis says in his 'Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government,' Vol. II., page 521: 'Johnson's line had been broken, and at this time and place a scene occurred of which Mississippians are justly proud. Col. Venable, of Gen. Lee's staff, was sent to bring Harris's Mississippi Brigade from the extreme right. Gen. Lee met the brigade and rode at its head until under fire, and the soldiers invoked him to go back. Lee said: "If you will promise me to drive those people from our works, I will go back." The brigade shouted the promise.' Col. Venable afterwards wrote: 'Never did a brigade go into a fiercer battle under greater trials; never did brigade do its duty more nobly.'"

AN EYEWITNESS TO LEE'S OFFER TO LEAD.

Fred J. V. LeCand, Vicksburg, Miss. writes: "I note what W. G. Lockhart says (page 268, July VETERAN) about Gen. R. E. Lee offering to lead Hood's Brigade on May 6, 1874. I accept his statement as true. I notice, however, that he doubts the statement so frequently made that Lee proposed to lead Harris's Brigade of Mississippians on the 12th of May at Spottsylvania. I assert that, for I, with many other yet living, witnessed it. I would give the scene if it had not been so frequently and truthfully told. I could yet prove it by many eyewitnesses. A private soldier can hardly be supposed to see or hear of all that occurred along a line of battle. I am firmly convinced that Gen. Lee did, on two or more occasions, propose to lead brigades into battle. Our brigade was in the first line which charged into the works that day; and part of the Sixteenth Mississippi occupied the spot where the white oak tree was felled by bullets."

Comrade LeCand was of Company G, Twelfth Mississippi Regiment, and is Commander Natchez Camp, No. 20, U. C. V.

VERSION OF J. P. MANUEL, NOKESVILLE, VA.

I see in the June VETERAN, page 268, some criticisms of a statement that appeared in the December VETERAN of 1902 in regard to "Gen Lee to the Rear," saying nothing but truth should go into history. Now there is nothing in that statement that appeared in the December issue but truth. The incident occurred on the morning of the 12th of May, 1864, at what was afterwards known as the bloody angle, and just after the works. Our brigade, which was composed of the Thirteenth, Thirty-First, Forty-Ninth, Fifty-Second, and Fifty-Eighth Virginia Regiments, and at one time commanded by "Extra" Billie Smith, the Governor of Virginia, at this critical moment with Lee's army cut in two and one division captured. We were marched into position and formed in line just in the rear of our breastworks, then in possession of an overwhelming force of Yankees, and it was at this moment that Gen. Lee rode through the right of the Forthy-Ninth Virgnia Regiment, of which I was a private, and took off his hat. If he spoke, I did not hear him. Some one shouted, "Gen. Lee to the rear!" Gen. J. B. Gordon then said, "General, these men are Virginians. They have never faltered, and you won't now, will you, boys?' and a shout went up, "No, no." Gen. Gordon then returned Gen. Lee's horse around and gave the order to charge, and I do not believe there was ever a grander charge made. We had about twenty-five hundred men, and it is said that we took twenty-seven hundred prisoners.

 

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