Joseph Wheeler first gained the notice of his superiors as a Confederate lieutenant colonel at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862. After fighting all day, he led his men, who were out of ammunition, in a bayonet attack against Union artillerymen defending Pittsburg Landing. The next day, when the army was forced to retreat, Wheeler's regiment was chosen to serve as rear guard. His grit and determination, which had much to do with the safe escape of the Southern army, earned him a promotion to full colonel. Wheeler was then just 25 years old — so young that he called himself 'the War Child.

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Born in Augusta, Ga., on September 10, 1836, Joseph Wheeler grew up in the North. He went to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, finishing a low 19th in his class of 1859. His worst grades were in cavalry tactics; nevertheless he was assigned to the Mounted Dragoons and fought Indians on the frontier for almost two years. When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, he joined the Confederacy, and family connections won him an appointment as a lieutenant colonel in the 19th Alabama Infantry.

When General Braxton Bragg took over the Army of Tennessee shortly after Shiloh, he remembered the young colonel's boldness and skill. In spite of his academy grades, Wheeler got the job as Bragg's cavalry commander in July 1862.

After Shiloh, the Union army was spread out all over Tennessee, and Bragg saw a chance to strike. With Maj. Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith in support, he cut through Tennessee and drove deep into Kentucky. Wheeler's cavalry screened and scouted for Bragg, fighting more than two dozen battles.

When Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell finally reacted to the threat, Wheeler's worn-out horsemen could not find the main body of the Union Army of the Ohio. In a daze, Bragg sent Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk's corps out to fight the entire Union army at Perryville on October 8, 1862. Wheeler, who was with Polk, bluffed one Union corps out of the fight with just 1,400 horsemen. Polk fought the rest of the army to a draw, but the invasion of Kentucky was over.

Now the question for the Confederates was how to get out of Federal territory. Neither Bragg nor Smith thought they could make the journey with their wagons or cannons. Wheeler again took rear-guard duty. His men fought all day and worked all night, blocking every road the Union army could use. The retirement went on for a long, tense week, but in the end it paid off. The Confederates got out not only their own equipment but also the 30 guns and 400 wagons they had taken from the enemy. Wheeler received the star of a brigadier general.

Major General William Starke Rosecrans took over the Union Army of the Cumberland on October 27, absorbing Buell's former command. On the day after Christmas, he moved against the new Southern base at Murfreesboro, Tenn. Bragg sent Wheeler to slow the Union force while he gathered his own men. Then on December 29, he turned Wheeler loose in the Union rear. Wheeler led his men completely around the Union army, making it back before the battle started. On the way, he took nearly 1,000 prisoners, captured or killed hundreds of horses and mules and burned four Union wagon trains. Wheeler and his tired men rested during most of the two-day battle, getting in only a little fighting on the last day.

Although the South saw the Battle of Murfreesboro as a victory, Rosecrans still had the strongest army, and he stood fast. For two nights Wheeler prodded the Union rear. Hearing wagons moving, he thought Rosecrans was retreating. He was wrong — the wagons were only hauling away the wounded. Finally, it was Bragg who retreated.

Two weeks later, Wheeler was back behind the Union army. On January 13, 1863, he hit Harpeth Shoals, northwest of Nashville, turning his cannons against the ships on the Cumberland River and stopping traffic for days.

In early February 1863, Wheeler struck Dover, Tenn. Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Wizard of the Saddle, was with him on that sortie. The Confederates outnumbered the Union force, but Forrest argued that Union fortifications would give the Federals an edge.

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