Wheeler, Joseph:

$750 · Offered by William Reese Company

HEAD QUARTERS, WHEELER'S CAVALRY CORPS, JUNE 3rd, 1863. GENERAL ORDERS No. 7 [caption title]. A Confederate broadside detailing seven orders from Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler, then commander of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of Tennessee. Wheeler instructs his cavalry troops to file accurate reports, question prisoners closely, check and double-check the accuracy of their intelligence, avoid rumor and speculation, and report enemy advances at twenty-minute intervals to ensure "the Commanding general may be frequently re-assured that the dispositions he is making are correct," and his scouts and cavalry in the rear of the enemy to report all information promptly, even information that "may appear to them of little importance." He reminds his officers that what might seem trivial to them "is frequently of great value to the Commanding General, as the most trifling circumstances, when connected with other knowledge in his possession, very often develops the chief purpose of the enemy." He concludes by reminding his troops that they are the "eyes and ears of the General," and without their regular and accurate information the commander's "dispositions must be faulty, and his success by no means certain." The orders are signed in print by Wheeler and his adjutant general, D.G. Reed."Fightin' Joe" Wheeler was probably the most famous Confederate cavalry commander after J.E.B. Stuart and Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was that rare breed who served in both the Confederate Army and later in t

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