Joseph Wheeler - Later Life

Later Life

Wheeler was the author of several books on military history and strategy, as well as about civil subjects. His first was A Revised System of Cavalry Tactics, for the Use of the Cavalry and Mounted Infantry, C.S.A. in 1863, a manual that saw use by the Confederacy. His other works include: Fitz-John Porter in 1883, The Santiago Campaign in 1898, Confederate Military History: Alabama in 1899, and Report on the Island of Guam in 1900. Wheeler also co-wrote several more books throughout the rest of his life, the last of which, The New America and the Far East: A Pictureque and Historic Description of These Land and Peoples, was published in 1907, after his death.

Wheeler also appeared in an early film called Surrender of General Toral (1898) with William Rufus Shafter.

While attending the hundredth anniversary celebration of the U.S. Military Academy (West Point, New York) in 1902, Wheeler approached the old West Point hotel, where his Confederate comrades James Longstreet and Edward Porter Alexander were seated on the porch. At the festivities Wheeler wore his dress uniform of his most recent rank, that of a general in the U.S. Army. Longstreet recognized him coming near, and reportedly said, "Joe, I hope that Almighty God takes me before he does you, for I want to be within the gates of hell to hear Jubal Early cuss you in the blue uniform."

After long illness, Wheeler died in Brooklyn, New York City and is one of the few former Confederate officers to be buried within Arlington National Cemetery.