September 10, 1836

Gen. Joseph “Fighting Joe” Wheeler was born in Augusta, Georgia. Wheeler served as commander of the cavalry for the Confederate Army of Tennessee during the Civil War and, later, as a general in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War. In between wars, Wheeler served as a multi-term U.S. representative from Alabama as a Bourbon Democrat. A statue of Wheeler is one of two representing Alabama in the National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Wheeler was inducted into the Alabama Hall of Fame in 1968, and his plantation home in Hillsboro, named Pond Spring, is maintained by the Alabama Historical Commission.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Portrait of Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler, officer of the Confederate Army. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Joseph Wheeler and his secretary L.K. Wilson at Camp Wheeler, Huntsville, during the Spanish-American War. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)

Joseph Wheeler, foreground, on the horse given to him in Huntsville during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Wheeler was major general of volunteers during the war. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, Alabama Department of Archives and History)

Joseph Wheeler firing a rifle, ca. 1898, during his involvement with the U.S. Army in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)

Military commander Joseph Wheeler and his wife, Daniella (front row, center), seated for a portrait with their children in 1896. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)

This Joseph Wheeler statue by Berthold Nebel is one of two representing Alabama in the National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Architect of the Capitol)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.