About Joseph Wheeler
Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler was an American military officer. He was a cavalry general in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War, and then a general in the United States Army during both the Spanish-American and Philippine–American Wars near the turn of the twentieth century. For much of the Civil War, he was the senior cavalry general in the Army of Tennessee and fought in most of its battles in the Western Theater. Wheeler was imprisoned for two months, first at Fort Monroe and then in solitary confinement at Fort Delaware, where he was paroled on June 8. Wheeler won a special election to return and serve the remaining weeks of the term. At the start of the Civil War, Wheeler entered the Confederate States Army on March 16 as a first lieutenant in the Georgia state militia artillery and then was assigned to Fort Barrancas off of Pensacola, Florida, reporting to Maj. Bragg recommended that Wheeler be promoted as a "just reward", and he became a major general on January 20, 1863.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.