only this, but every other effort on the western continent—yes, in the whole world, to eradicate the last germ of monarchy."

While the Creole was getting water at the island of Mugeres, nearly the whole of the Mississippians and Louisianians determined to abandon the expedition. Colonel Wheat's eloquence was again called into requisition, and, assembling the men upon the beach, he addressed them in a brief but stirring speech, which so rekindled their enthusiasm that they unanimously resolved to persevere in their undertaking.

The place of landing on the island of Cuba, as it turned out, was ill-chosen; and without concert or co-operation with the Cubans, the In the night attack upon Cardenas, invaders were unable to hold it. Colonel Wheat was severely wounded, and when they had returned to the steamer they narrowly escaped capture by the Spanish warThe "Fillibusters," as because of their failure they ship Pizarro. The were now first called, pursued by the Pizarro, found refuge in the · harbor of Key West.

Colonel Wheat did not accompany Lopez in his second expedition, having been providentially prevented, very much to his chagrin at the time; though, as the event showed, most mercifully for himself; for his strong attachment to Lopez would have made him cling to his friend and share his fate with the gallant Crittenden.

It was a generous sympathy with the oppressed everywhere, and not a mere restless spirit of adventure, which next led Colonel Wheat to join Carravajal in his effort to put down the church party in Mexico, and give that beautiful land our free institutions instead of the effete misrule of a licentious priesthood. And again, when Walker, who had been his classmate at college, was in imminent peril of his life, after his defeat at Rivas, faithful to his friend in adversity, he hastened to his relief. It was at Nicaragua that he met with the most wonderful of his numerous escapes from death. the explosion of the boiler of a steamboat, he was blown from the hurricane deck into the river, but so entirely without injury that he swam to the shore with ease, taking a wounded man with him.

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When Alvarez "pronounced" against Santa Anna and the church party in Mexico, Colonel Wheat accepted a command in the patriot army. As general of the artillery brigade, when Alvarez became President, he received permanent rank and pay under his administration, with official commendation and thanks for his services. When, afterwards, by reason of age and its infirmities, Alvarez resigned the presidency and retired to his hacienda, at his earnest solicitation,

General Wheat went with him. The old hero would fain have persuaded him to remain there for the rest of his life as his adopted son. But being now in the fullest flush of a matured manhood, he could not be content with a life of inglorious ease; and as the world was just then beginning to resound with the name and exploits of Garibaldi, General Wheat determined to gratify a long-cherished wish to visit Europe, now become doubly attractive by the rapid march of events in the historic changes of governments and peoples. He landed in England and joined a party of congenial spirits who were going to Italy for the purpose of tendering their services to Garibaldi.

They stopped a few days in Paris, and General Wheat had a most informal, but also a most agreeable exchange of salutations with no less a personage than the Empress Eugenie herself. Having driven to the Bois de Boulogne she had alighted from her carriage, and, followed by her ladies in waiting, was walking leisurely down a shaded avenue, when General Wheat, arm in arm with an English officer, came suddenly before the Empress. His friend, from the impulse of his national sentiment that no one may presume to come unannounced and without previous permission into the presence of royalty, turned instantly and beat a hasty retreat. Not so the General, who, believing that his reverent salutation to the woman would not be resented by the Empress, tendered his homage by expressive look and gesture, and the lovely Eugenie promptly acknowledged it by a bright smile and a gracious inclination of the head. It would make a pretty picture that interchange of grave, sweet courtesies. For General Wheat was a man of as noble and commanding presence, as she of queenly grace and beauty. Over six feet in height, and finely formed, he had a dignified carriage and a polished ease of manner and address.

General Wheat's reception by Garibaldi was in every way gratifying—a hearty welcome and the offer of a position on his staff. Promptly accepting it, he engaged at once in active service; and in several engagements which quickly followed, his dash and gallantry were the frequent theme of the army correspondents of the English press.

career.

The troubles at home, however, gave another sudden turn to his As soon as he heard of the secession of the Southern States from the Federal government, he hastened back to England and took the first steamer for New York. His friend, General Scott, urged him to fight again under the old flag, promising his influence

to procure for him an eligible position in the Federal army. General Wheat had a great affection for his old commander, and a still greater for the old flag. It was, therefore, a most painful sacrifice to sever those ties which had been made more sacred by much service and suffering in their behalf. But he felt the call of a still higher and holier duty, and he obeyed; it was to stand in the lot, and to share the fortunes of his own people and kindred and family. In the spirit which animated that purest of patriots, R. E. Lee, and from a like stern sense of duty, he gave his hand with his heart in it to the South.

Stopping but a day at Montgomery, Ala., then the seat of the Confederate government, to learn the situation of affairs and the probable opening of the campaign, he hurried on to New Orleans, where he hoped to raise a regiment of volunteers for immediate service. Before his arrival the Governor of the State, by authority of the Convention which passed the "Ordinance of Secession," had put But in commission all the officers of the large force already raised. at the call for volunteers to go to Virginia, where it was certain the Federal government would strike the first blow, five full companies were organized by General Wheat in a few days. And but for his impatience to join in the first fight, then thought to be imminent, he could easily have raised a regiment. Making all speed with his battalion (entitling him, of course, only to the rank of Major-a secondary consideration with one who thought more of the cause than of himself), he arrived at the front in time to take that conspicuous part in the first battle of Manassas which made ever after the "Louisiana Tigers" a terror to the enemy. Major Wheat had But called the first company raised the "Old Dominion Guard.” another company named "The Tigers," and having the picture of a lamb with the legend as gentle as" for its absurd device (lucus a non lucendo), exhibited such reckless daring and terrible havoc in their hand-to hand struggle with the head of the attacking column, "Wheat's Battalion," was that the name of "Tigers," as often as thereafter its popular designation.

General Beauregard, in his official report, mentioned Major Wheat in the most flattering terms, as having won for himself and his command the "proud boast of belonging to that heroic band who saved the first hour at the battle of Manassas." Major Wheat's being in the position to bear the brunt of the enemy's first onset (unexpected at that point, which was the extreme left), in heavy column, was one of the several providences which "saved the day." He was here

desperately wounded. The surgeon warned him that it must prove fatal. He replied cheerfully, "I don't feel like dying yet. “But,” said the surgeon, “ there is no instance on record of recovery from such a wound." "Well, then," he rejoined, "I will put my case upon record.” His unexpected recovery was owing, the surgeon thought, chiefly to his resolute will.

His knightly courtesy was shown when a colonel of the Federal army, on his way as a prisoner to Richmond, begged permission to see his old friend, lying in a house by the roadside. The meeting was of the most friendly character. At parting Major Wheat directed his orderly to give Colonel P. some money and underclothing, saying, "he will need them in prison, poor fellow." Major Wheat's mother, who had flown to him as soon as she had heard in her distant home of her darling's disaster, and still righteously indignant at the invasion and desecration of the soil of her own loved, native State, warmly opposed this generous order of her wounded son. But he insisted, saying, “Why, my dear mother, P. is as conscientious in this war as we are; and if our places were changed he would do as much for me-wouldn't you, P. ?"

The popular sentiment, in the army and out of it, was in favor of his immediate promotion to the command of a regiment, if not of a brigade. One of his friends, a Confederate officer, said to him,

Wheat, I would give a thousand dollars to stand in your shoes today." Whereupon Wheat demurely directed his orderly to give Captain B. his shoes. Various efforts were made, but nothing had been done for his advancement when, at the end of two months, the Major returned to his battalion. He was not fully recovered, and President Davis advised him to go home with his father (they had called together to pay their respects), and "keep quiet until he was entirely well." The Major quickly replied, "I shall keep quiet, Mr. President, as long as yourself and the army do, but no longer."

Very soon afterwards he returned to his command, and was with Jackson in all that brilliant campaign which resulted in the discomfiture, successively, of Fremont, Shields, and Banks. He was always among the foremost in the fight, taking batteries, and driving the enemy from his strongest position. The newspapers of the day seldom give an account of a battle in which his name and daring are not conspicuously mentioned.

After all his wonderful escapes, our patriot hero and martyr fell in the bloody battle of Gaines' Mill, near Cold Harbor, on the 27th of June, 1862. It was one of those desperate " seven days" fight

ing around Richmond, when McClellan was driven back and utterly defeated.

In compliance with his own wish, expressed in the words, "Bury me on the field, boys," his remains were at first interred near the spot where he fell ; but it was afterwards found impossible properly to protect the grave, and therefore the body was removed, the following winter, to Holly wood cemetery, being escorted by a large military and civic procession from the Monumental church, where the burial service was performed by the Rev. Dr. Woodbridge, and at the grave by Dr. McCabe. The caisson bier, the riderless horse, the solemn dirge, the soldiers' thrice-vollied farewell—were these “the last of earth" to our hero? The precious remains of his manly beauty were, indeed, laid in the grave; but he, the pure patriot, the selfsacrificing soldier, the martyred hero, the sincere Christian, had passed into the heavens-promoted, at last! His friends think of him as having had an especial honor put upon him. He is gone up from a remote province to the Capital of the Empire. The faithful soldier was summoned from his obscure post to become a member of the family" of the Commander-in-Chief! We seem to hear a voice from heaven saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." "Shot and shell," as Kingsley strikingly remarks, “cannot take away human life; they can but kill the body." All that we loved and valued most still lives, more truly lives, where we aspire to join him, “high in salvation and the climes of bliss."

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That Major Wheat was not promoted by the Confederate government, that the general expectation of the army and of the country was not realized in this respect, his friends might not unnaturally regret. If he felt the least resentment himself, he never showed it. It certainly did not in the least abate his devotion to the cause or the administration. It was a striking trait in his character that, being too proud to sue for promotion, he was content to have richly deserved it. Throughout his whole career, he always espoused the cause of the oppressed, the wronged, the struggling for freedom. And although he had many opportunities for enriching himself by means which others did not scruple to use, he came home as poor as he went-rich only in the fruits of experience and observation in many lands and strange adventures, an admirable raconteur, speaking various languages; full of genius, wit, and eloquence, of stainless honor, and rare social attractions. His eminent soldierly qualities