Wheeler continued his withdrawal to the Tennessee River, and crossed it at Muscle Shoals, the enemy appearing on the northern bank as he reached the southern. For forty successive days he had been engaged with the enemy; he had obtained a victory in every fight, destroyed a vast amount of property, and, most important circumstance of all, he had drawn from Rosecrans all of his cavalry. Indeed, it was this forced absence of the enemy's cavalry,to which may be attributed the saving of the Confederate army from utter destruction, when it was defeated at Mis sionary Ridge, and hard pressed by Hooker's infantry in its rear, In his campaign in East Tennessee with Longstreet; in his engagements on Johnston's retreat to Atlanta; in his part in the first eight days in the siege of Knoxville, and in the battles of Ringgold, Rocky Face, Dalton, Resaca, Cassville, New Hope, Kennesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, and Decatur, Gen. Wheeler was constantly engaged in fighting superiour forces of the enemy, and with such success, that it was remarked that the army never met a reverse, or was otherwise than successful in its undertakings, while he commanded its cavalry. When Atlanta was wrested from the Confederates, Wheeler was in Tennessee; and during Hood's disastrous campaign in Tennessee, Wheeler was fighting Sherman in Georgia. In the latter part of January, 1865, Sherman commenced his march towards Augusta, which march Gen. Wheeler contested, step by step, daily inflicting heavy losses upon the enemy. Every bridge was burned, and deadly volleys poured into Sherman's columns as they attempted to force passages of streams by fording. By this means, the progress of the enemy was slow, and thus ample time was given for the defence of Augusta and other cities. On February 10th and 11th, Gen. Wheeler had a severe fight with the enemy at Aiken, driving back vastly superiour numbers in the greatest confusion, capturing, killing and wounding over two hundred. By these victories, not only were Augusta and Aiken saved, but also the vast manufactories in Graniteville and its vicinity. At Columbia, Gen. Beauregard had assumed command, with a portion of the Army of Tennessee to defend it. Wheeler fought the enemy desperately on his approach to the city, holding him for two days beyond gun-shot range. After the enemy's capture of Columbia, he continued to harass him as he moved through the Carolinas, daily taking large numbers of prisoners. At Averysboro, Gen. Hardee had become engaged with a largely superiour force of the enemy. Gen. Wheeler, hearing the guns, hastened to his relief, reaching the field just in time to check a force of the enemy which was turning his flank, and would have caused great disaster to his army. At Beltonville, he held the left of the Confederate army, and did some heavy fighting during the two days of the engagement. By a gallant charge here he restored the Confederate line of retreat or communication, and held the enemy at bay until Johnston got across Mill Creek. After this battle, Sherman moved with his army to Goldsboro, thus ending the campaign through the Carolinas, during which, Gen. Wheeler captured or placed hors de combat more than five thousand of the enemy; was victor in a number of engagements, and saved from the enemy's ravages, Augusta and several smaller cities. Thus ended hostile conflicts east of the Mississippi River. During the spring, Wheeler was appointed by the President, Lieutenant-General of Cavalry, he having held a command which entitled him to that rank continuously for two years and a half, a longer period than any other officer of the Confederate army had retained continuous command of an army corps in the field. Upon the surrender of the Confederate Army, Gen. Wheeler issued the following farewell address "Gallant Comrades: HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY CORPS, } "You have fought your battles, your task is done. During a four years' struggle for liberty, you have exhibited courage, fortitude and devotion; you are the sole victors of more than two hundred severely contested fields; you have participated in more than a thousand successful conflicts of arms; you are Heroes, Veterans, Patriots; the bones of your comrades mark battlefields upon the soil of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi; you have done all that human exertion could accomplish. In bidding you adieu, I desire to tender my thanks for your gallantry in battle, your fortitude under suffering, and your devotion at all times to the holy cause you have done so much to maintain. I desire also to express my gratitude for the kind feeling you have seen fit to extend towards myself, and to invoke upon you the blessings of our Heavenly Father, to whom we must always look for support in the hour of distress. "Brethren in the cause of freedom, Comrades in arms, I bid you farewell! "J. WHEELER." Gen. Wheeler had commanded in more than two hundred actions, many of which, considering the numbers engaged, were the most severe and successful recorded in the history of cavalry. In each case where his strength had been equal, and in many cases where it was far inferiour to that by which he was opposed, he had entirely overcome the enemy, capturing or dispersing him. In many cases, Gen. Wheeler had been called upon to engage forces many times his superiour, in order to retard the enemy while covering retreats, or to create a diversion while important movements were carried on in other localities. Operations of this character, which are the most difficult the service presents, had been conducted by Gen. Wheeler with such consummate skill, that not only had he invariably accomplished the desired object, but in almost every case inflicted a loss upon the enemy far heavier than that which he himself sustained. Such was the career of a man whose promotion, based upon his own merits, without having influence or friends, presents a rapidity of military advancement with scarcely a parallel in American or European armies. A Cadet at seventeen, a Second Lieutenant at twenty-two, a First Lieutenant at twenty-three, a Colonel at twenty-four, a Brigadier-General at twenty-five, a Major-General at twenty six, a Corps Commander at twenty-six, a Lieutenant General at twenty-eight. Gen. Wheeler had sixteen horses killed under him in the war, and a great number wounded. His saddle equipments and clothes had also been frequently struck by the missiles of the enemy. He had himself been three times slightly wounded, and once painfully. He had had thirty-two staff officers, or acting staff officers, killed or wounded. In almost every case when his staff officers had been wounded, they were immediately by his side, as they sank from their horses to the ground. Although small in stature, Gen. Wheeler is in appearance, "every inch a soldier," and bears a head which, as termed by the phrenologists, is "admirably fixed.". His eye is the very impersonation of that quick conception, heroic valour and dauntless courage, which stamped him as one of the great leaders of the war, and which explains how he manoeuvred his command under a hail-storm of the missiles of death, regarding them no more than leaves wafted by the wind-or how he led his squadrons to the charge, crashing into the enemy's ranks, and perfectly unconscious of the carnage and death by which he was every where surrounded. The contour of his face and the expression of his countenance exhibit that cool judgment, calm thoughtfulness, and quiet dignity, which mark his career as a soldier and gentleman. The arduous duties he performed, which his large cavalry command devolved upon him, only strengthened his energy and endurance. His soldiers had learned to love and admire in him all those noble traits, which, as the distinguished author of Charles XII. says, "stamp him as the steel-clad warrior, with the heart of the patriot and sympathizing man beating in every action." In scientific and literary attainments, Gen. Wheeler stands among the most learned men of our country. In military information he is most thoroughly read. His system of "Cavalry Tactics" is pronounced by cavalry officers to be the most complete and perfect work yet published. His leisure moments are spent in the study of his profession. A work he is reported to be now preparing, showing the part taken by cavalry in many of the great battles of the world, is said to show great research and profound knowledge. BRIG.-GEN. FELIX K. ZOLLICOFFER. CHAPTER LXV. His early life as a politician and member of Congress.-Appointed a Brigadier-Gen eral in the Confederate States Army.-His leniency to the people of East Ten. nessee. At Cumberland Gap.-Letter to Governor Magoffin.-The "wild-cat stampede."-Killed in the battle of Mill Springs.-How the enemy insulted his corpse. His character.-Extraordinary public regret of his death. THE record of Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer in the war was brief; he fell in the first year of the contest; but at this period of the war there had been no death that inspired a profounder sorrow, for he was a man peculiarly beloved, one who had a wide range of virtues, and a popularity extending over the space of many years. He was born in Tennessee. He was of Swiss descent, but in what degree the writer is unable to state. His early education was limited, and he was thrown with but little preparation upon his own resources. In his boyhood, he was employed in a printingoffice, where he soon became proficient, and was advanced to the editorship of a political newspaper. In 1835, he was editor of the Columbia Observer; and afterwards was editor of the Nashville Banner, which paper he conducted with ability and success as an exponent of the Whig creed of that day. Here he earned for himself considerable celebrity as a leader and partisan. In 1841, he was appointed Attorney-General of the State. In the same year he was elected Comptroller by the Legislature, and in 1849 he was elected to the State Senate. In 1853, he was sent to Congress from the Nashville district, which position he continued to hold by several re-elections, acquiring much popular distinction as a debater on the leading issues of the day. In the arena of politics he was remarkable for the array of facts which he brought to bear upor |