A Soldier to the Last: Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler in Blue and Gray

By Edward G. Longacre
Illustrated, maps, notes, bibliography, index, 288 pp., 2007. Potomac Books, 22841 Quicksilver Dr., Dulles, VA 20166-2012, $29.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Richard M. McMurry
Richard M. McMurry's latest book (edited) is An Uncompromising Secessionist: the Civil War of George Knox Miller, 8th (Wade's) Confederate Cavalry.

Review:
Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler rose to prominence as commander of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of Tennessee. He was one of the youngest high-ranking officers (born 1836) on either side. Wheeler participated in most of the large battles in the West as well as in numerous mounted raids and skirmishes.

He proved fairly adept at handling troops in small engagements, but his larger operations-notably the August-September 1864 raid into North Georgia and Tennessee - turned into disasters for both his command and the Confederacy. After the war, Wheeler served several terms in the national House of Representatives. In 1898 he returned to military service and commanded U. S. troops in Cuba and in the Philippines. He died in 1906.

Edward Longacre's book adds very little except some tactical details to our knowledge of Joseph Wheeler or of Confederate cavalry in the West. Many readers will find some of the battle accounts difficult to follow owing to the absence of detailed maps. Many more will long for at least some sense of Wheeler the man and for an overall evaluation of Wheeler the general.

In writing this book Longacre was handicapped by the lack of personal papers (letters and diaries) written by his subject. Careful readers, however, will notice several major omissions from his sources. These include the Braxton Bragg Papers at the Western Reserve Historical Society, the Southern Historical Collection (SHC) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Compiled Service Records of Wheeler and his staff officers, and wartime newspapers. The first two are listed in Longacre's bibliography but not cited in the text or notes.

Bragg was Wheeler's patron; the SHC contains much information on the Army of Tennessee. Surely there is something in the service records about Wheeler. Newspapers such as the Atlanta Intelligencer, the Chattanooga Rebel (essentially an Army of Tennessee paper), the Memphis Appeal (which flitted about the western Confederacy to escape the Yankees), and the Mobile Advertiser and Register are full of information on the western Confederate army.

The only Confederate newspaper listed in the bibliography is the Charleston Mercury, and it is not cited in the text or in the notes.

Extensive research and careful writing can make even oft-told tales fresh and provide valuable new insights. Unfortunately, this book exhibits neither. This is at least the fifth book that Longacre has published in the last (as of February 2007) 26 months. A slower pace would almost certainly lead to better works.