Postwar: Former Union Officer Attacks Confederate Gen. Joe Wheeler August 1865

Pat Young

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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@John Hartwell alerted me to this in another thread. This is a case of General Wheeler being attacked by a former Union four months after the surrender.

How Gen. Wheeler was Whipped in Nashville.

Published: September 3, 1865 New York Times

The Nashville correspondent of the Clarksville, Tenn., Chronicle, gives the following version of the difficulty between Gen. WHEELER, late of the rebel army, and Col. BLACKBURN and Capt. QUINN, of the Federal army, on the 21st:

Gen. WHEELER was stopping at the City Hotel, being here, as one account has it, on his way home from Northern imprisonment, and as another says, here as a witness for the defence in the Crant Ferguson trial -- at any rate, here the guest of the City Hotel, and, as I have been told, sick.

Yesterday afternoon, Col. BLACKBURN, accompanied by Capt. QUINN, proceeded to Gen. WHEELER's room, and, on entering, found him lying on the bed. He arose, and when Col. BLACKBURN announced himself, advanced and extended his hand, after a friendly, or at least polite greeting. This was met by BLACKBURN with a blow from a heavy cane, followed by others, fast and furious. WHEELER retreated from the room as well as he could, crying for help, and followed up by BLACKBURN, still dealing him heavy blows, while Capt. QUINN, armed with a couple of pistols, brought on the rear of attack; ready, I suppose, to disable or kill WHEELER if, by any means, he should prove able to defend himself successfully, or should got the better of the valorous Colonel. WHEELER's outcries, and the noise of the affray, soon brought others to the scene, and WHEELER was rescued from his infuriated assailant.

Gen. WHEELER was found to be very severely beaten about the head, face and arms, insomuch that he required at once the service of a physician, though his injuries are not of a dangerous character.

The cause of this assault upon an unarmed, defenceless man, I do not know, except upon the statement of a morning paper, which, in a matter of the kind, would make the very best case for BLACKBURN it could; and all the provocation it alleges is, that "it was said" that WHEELER had threatened BLACKBURN's life, and applied to him opprobrious epithets.

A large crowd collected at the City Hotel soon after the occurrence, and intense indignation, I learn, was manifested by Gen. WHEELER's friends, and for a little while a general melee between them and Col. BLACKBURN's friends was imminent, but it was, fortunately, prevented by the timely arrival of a military guard.

Gen. THOMAS, I am told, says that Col. BLACKBURN is not now in the United States service, having been recently mustered out; and this, I suppose, means that he (Gen. THOMAS) will take no action in the matter. The papers of this morning do not represent the city authorities as having taken any cognizance of it, either, so I suppose it will be allowed to pass into the chronicles of these chivalrous times unadjudicated by any recognized authority.

http://www.nytimes.com/1865/09/03/news/how-gen-wheeler-was-whipped-in-nashville.html
 
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