Memoir of Gen. C. R. Wheat, Commander of the "Louisiana Tiger Battalion "

By his brother, LEO WHEAT.

Chatham Roberdeau Wheat was born in Alexandria, Va., on the 9th of April, 1826; his father being an Episcopal clergyman, and of an old Maryland family; his mother a granddaughter of Gen. Roberdeau, a Huguenot, and the first general of the Pennsylvania troops in the Revolutionary war; who built a fort at his own expense, and advanced the outfit for our first Commissioners to the court of France.

Mr. Wheat was graduated A. B. at the University of Nashville, Tenn., in 1845. Having been chosen the year before, the representative of his literary society in the junior competitive exhibition of oratory, he departed from the established usage by making an extemporaneous address, which gave bright promise of the eloquence for which he became afterwards distinguished.

He was reading law at Memphis at the breaking out of the Mexican war, and was among the first to volunteer. His father, then rector of Christ church, Nashville, had written to advise him to wait awhile, and promised he might go if there should be another call for volunteers. Before he could get his father's letter (the mail by stage being then four days between the two cities), one was received from him, to this effect: "Dear Pa, 'a chip of the old block,' I knew you would be ashamed of me if I did not volunteer as soon as the call came. My name I am proud to say, is the very first on the list. I have been unanimously elected second lieutenant in a company of cavalry. Please send 'Jim' by some careful hand.” This was a fine blooded horse, whose dog-like training and wonderful sagacity made him a chief actor in many scenes both tragic and comic, and a universal favorite in his master's regiment.

Upon the expiration of the twelve months for which they had enlisted, this regiment was disbanded at Vera Cruz, and most of the men returned home; but Wheat raised a company of one hundred and four men, and was chosen captain. The night before they left the city he was seized with vomito, or yellow fever. In a hammock swung between two mules he was carried up to Jalappa, where he arrived in an insensible condition. As soon as he was able he

reported to General Scott, and was detailed for special service as a separate command. His men being well mounted, handsomely uniformed, splendidly equipped and perfect in drill, “did the ornamental," as he laughingly said, "on great occasions for general officers, and triumphal entries into conquered cities." Accompanying a party making a reconnoissance, as they drew near the city of Mexico he pushed ahead, and was the first to catch a distant view of the city as it lay, to use his words, "glorified by the morning sun in the midst of the loveliest landscape the eye ever beheld.”

Captain Wheat was several times honorably named in General Scott's official reports, for important services and gallantry in the field.

His command having suffered severely in killed and wounded, he was sent home, soon after the taking of the city of Mexico, to fill up his ranks with new recruits. These he soon obtained at Nashville, where a flag was presented to his company by the young ladies of Christ church school; on which occasion the color-bearer had on a complete suit of armor-helmet, breast-plate, &c.. of polished brasstaken from one of Santa Anna's body-guard.

Returning to Mexico, Captain Wheat was detained at Jalappa till the close of the war. He used to regret that the government of the United States did not keep permanent possession of what he pronounced the finest country in the world; insisting that the present occupants were as incompetent to develop its resources as the Indians whom the Spaniards had supplanted. He thought it would be a charitable proceeding, as in the interest of civilization and reformed Christianity. He regarded the corrupt church in Mexico as the curse of the country.

After the war, Captain Wheat settled in New Orleans and resumed the study of law. He was admitted to the bar in 1847. He early acquired considerable reputation as a criminal lawyer. His very first effort resulted in the acquittal of one of his former command, charged with murder, and after the senior counsel had given up the case as indefensible.

In 1848 Captain Wheat was elected one of the representatives from the city of New Orleans to the State Legislature. He also canvassed the State for the Whig candidates in the pending Presidential election, by request of the Central Committee, and had no little success as a stump speaker. His father having deprecated his frequent introduction of Scripture language and illustration into his political speeches, he was equally surprised and aggrieved, saying he had found nothing

so telling and effective with the masses, and that he had not felt it to be a desecration of God's word; for which, though familiar with it from his childhood, he always had the profoundest reverence.

And now we come to the period when he entered upon a new military career, and that has been much misunderstood as to its character and motives, and was generally stigmatized as "Fillibustering." His was a far nobler purpose. He was induced to join General Lopez' first Cuban expedition not only from an impulse of philanthropy, but from a patriotic purpose, i. e., to maintain the equilibrium of the States by strengthening the South. Several prominent statesmen, who were also his warm personal friends, urged him to embark in an enterprise which promised great national benefits as well as personal fame and fortune.

In the coming sectional strife, which was then casting its shadow before, he and his friends fondly believed that the acquisition of Cuba as a new slave State would enable the South to withstand the further aggressions of Northern fanaticism, and maintain her rights under the Constitution. Several leading men had promised their open cooperation as soon as it was expedient. The public authorities did not interfere, and the expedition sailed from New Orleans with the sympathy and good wishes of the entire community. So far from being regarded as Quixotic, it was universally expected to be completely and at once successful. The Cubans were represented as only awaiting the landing of an organized force with a supply of arms and ammunition, to rush into its ranks and fill up its skeleton regiments with patriots panting for freedom. To those who quoted the philosophic aphorism, "Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow," Colonel Wheat (so commissioned by the Cuban Junta) was used to say, "Suppose a weak woman gagged, manacled, dungeoned, and completely in the power of a brutal ravisher, would you hesitate a moment to attempt her rescue even at the risk of your life? Every sentiment and instinct of manhood answers, No! a thousand times, No!" It was from General Lopez that he got the full information which won him to the cause of Cuban independence. All their subsequent intercourse did but deepen his first favorable impression of Lopez, as a pure patriot, an accomplished soldier, and a truly Christian gentleman.

In planning this first expedition, especial care was taken not to compromise the neutrality of our own government. The place of rendezvous was in mid-ocean, beyond the limits of the United States. There the "emigrants," as they called themselves, were

first formally made acquainted with their destination and its ulterior objects. The task was devolved upon Colonel Wheat. The vessels were lashed together, all hands on deck, and amid the silent sea his ringing voice was distinctly heard as he thus addressed them:

"Fellow citizens, I hold in my hand a paper delivered to me by one of General Lopez' aids, the seal of which he told me to break when in latitude 26° N. and long. 87° W., which point we have now reached. I find on opening this paper that I am directed to remain near this point until the 7th of May, when he expects to leave New To-morrow we are to sail on a direct line Orleans on the Creole. to the Belize, and by Thursday may expect to see the Creole and the old General. I have addressed you as fellow-citizens, but long before the sun shall sink beneath this world of waters we shall have done what will throw us beyond the protection of the glorious 'Stars and Stripes,' under whose auspices we have sailed thus far. We shall of organize our little band into a skeleton regiment, for the purpose landing on the island of Cuba, and wrenching it from the grasp of Spain, its cruel oppressor. The moment we organize, that moment we forfeit the protection of our own government, and we have no right to sail under her flag. But, like Hagar when she went forth from the tent of Abraham, we still have a right to call on Him who buildeth up the feeble and destroyeth the mighty, and doeth that at all times amongst the sons of men which seemeth good in His sight; to succour the distressed and deliver from their oppressors them that 'Soldiers I shall therefore henceforth address you as suffer wrong. of the Liberating Army of Cuba.'

"We then, fellow-soldiers, have arrived at the point for which we sailed. Although most of you ostensibly sailed for Chagres, yet you all knew whither you were really bound, and for what. Do any here object to landing in Cuba a week sooner than he expected when he left home? Do any grudge to the Cubans that boon of freedom which it is our purpose to bestow a few days in advance of the expected time? No! I feel that I address those who are not only imbued with the glorious principles of equal rights themselves, but who will seek the post of danger at any time for the purpose of extending them to all who may desire their beneficial influence on their political and social systems.

of progress,

and no It has been well said that we live in an age circumstance could be more indicative of this onward march than this expedition. When civilization was in its infancy, nation made war upon nation for conquest and booty. More recently, they have gone

to war for principle. Such was the case in the American Revolution; and the memory of Lafayette and our French allies is hallowed in every American heart for coming to the assistance of our fathers in their struggle for freedom and independence, after they had themselves taken up arms against the misrule and oppression of the mother country. But the march of mind is onward, and philanthropy does not now await the uprising of the oppressed before going to their assistance, as was the case in Texas, but hastens to help by striking the first blow for the down-trodden, as we shall do for the Cubans. Does any one doubt the propriety of our undertaking? Let him remember that it is our duty to do to others as we would have them do to us. Does any one fear to do it? Let him return." [Just at this point the Cuban flag was run up to the masthead and flung to the breeze.] "Liberators, behold your flag! Three cheers for Cuba! Soldiers of the Liberating Army of Cuba, if we have not been misled by the Cubans themselves, we have undertaken the most philanthropic and praiseworthy enterprise of ancient or modern times-that of giving liberty and equality to an oppressed and degraded people, who have now neither civil nor religious liberty. Only let them be true to us and to themselves, true to humanity and its inalienable rights, and ere long, instead of their flower-scented air being laden with the sighs and groans of dungeoned captives, it shall resound with the shouts of deliverance and the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God, the gracious Giver of every good and perfect gift. Yes! all the people of the land shall hail you as their benefactors for the bestowment of those blessings which are the proud portion of our own dear native land,

'The land of the free and the home of the brave.'

"You are aware, fellow-soldiers, that we have come from the United States without arms, without organization, without previous concert to commit any act which may compromise the peace and dignity of our own government. Nor do we intend to violate international law, unless revolution be so considered; and we must make ourselves successful, and secure the acknowledgment of Cuban independence. Then, soldiers of the Liberating Army, while you gaze on the Lone Star of Cuba, resolve to make it the bright beacon to victory and renown.

"You will now proceed to divide yourselves into ten equal companies, forming a skeleton regiment, and select your officers; after which they will draw lots for rank. And may success attend not