Summary Information
Cornelius Wheeler Papers
1857-1915
- Wheeler, Cornelius, 1840-1915
Wis Mss 54S
0.4 c.f. (1 archives box)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of Cornelius Wheeler, consisting of correspondence while a student (1857-1860), in Civil War service in the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry and working for the U.S. Quartermaster's Dept. at Little Rock, Arkansas (1861-1866), getting established in business in Portage, Wis. (1867-1868), and seeking appointment to superintend the Soldiers' Home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1891-1892). Most of the letters were written by Wheeler. Also included is a handwritten manuscript history of Company I, 2nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, apparently never completed; and a folder of newspaper clippngs about Wheeler, the Soldiers' Home, and veteran reunions.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-wis0054s ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Cornelius Wheeler was born in 1840 at Medina, New York. As a boy he came with his family to southwestern Wisconsin, where his father worked at various enterprises in Mineral Point and Dodgeville. During 1857 and 1858 Cornelius attended schools in Platteville, Wisconsin and Meriden, New Hampshire. He returned to Wisconsin and in May 1861 enlisted in Company I of the Second Wisconsin Infantry. During the Civil War he participated in the battles of First Bull Run, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness; in fact, he fought in all of the engagements in which his unit saw action as part of the famed Iron Brigade until June 1864. During his three years of military service, he rose through the ranks and was made first lieutenant of his company when he was mustered out in June 1864. Two months later, in September 1864, Wheeler returned to the South as a civilian clerk employed by the U.S. Army Quartermaster's Department at Little Rock, Arkansas. Here he remained for nearly two years. In addition to his work for the Army, he attempted to operate a cotton plantation with a small group of other Northern associates--a money-making scheme which failed and left him just as “broke” in 1866 as he had been when he first came to Little Rock. In 1867, after his return to Wisconsin, he married and was given a position in his father-in-law's banking business in Portage. In 1892 he was appointed governor of the Northwestern Branch of the National Soldiers' Home, an institution for disabled volunteer soldiers and sailors located at Milwaukee. This position he relinquished less than two weeks before his death on January 13, 1915.
Scope and Content Note
The major portion of the collection consists of correspondence, 1857-1892. Fifteen letters fall in the years 1857-1860. Of these, most were written by Wheeler as a student in schools at Platteville and Meriden; two relate to unsuccessful attempts to secure for him an appointment to one of the United States service academies. About 130 letters cover Wheeler's Civil War service in the Second Wisconsin Infantry and in the Quartermaster's Department at Little Rock. Cornelius wrote to his parents and his younger brother Charlie quite frequently and regularly. Many of the letters are descriptive; many contain frank comments on officers and wartime events. Wheeler was not an abolitionist; he deplored the use of African-American troops by the North, and suggested that Lincoln had been misled in issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. He did not hesitate to sympathize with and applaud one relative who intended to desert to Canada if he was drafted. The 17 final letters fall into two periods: 1867-1868, when Wheeler was becoming established in Portage; and 1891-1892, when he sought the appointment to superintend the Soldiers' Home. One letter, dated January 6, 1892, was written by Congressman John L. Mitchell expressing his approval of Wheeler's appointment.
The collection contains a handwritten manuscript “Sketch of the Services of Company I, Second Regiment, Volunteer Infantry, 1861-1864,” written by Cornelius Wheeler. This manuscript appears to have been under preparation for publication in installments, but it seems never to have been completed. The first portions are in relatively finished form, but later parts are sometimes fragmentary and often exist in more than one draft. From the letterheads on which some pages of the manuscript are written it is evident that Wheeler was working on this project after 1892 when he went to the Soldiers' Home. There is also a carbon typescript of the major portion of the manuscript, which was prepared by the former owner of the collection, Mrs. Chester Colley. Accompanying the history are descriptive rolls containing copies of the records of the men serving in Company I. These records are very similar to and may have been copies from the official Descriptive Rolls compiled by the Wisconsin Adjutant-General which are now in the Wisconsin State Archives at the Historical Society.
Included with the manuscripts is one folder of newspaper clippings about Wheeler and an obituary leaflet about his life. The clippings relate primarily to his governorship of the Soldiers' Home.
Related Material
Three excellent photographs showing Wheeler as a Civil War soldier and member of the Iron Brigade and one portraying him while governor of the Soldiers' Home have been placed in the Historical Society's Iconographic Collections.
Administrative/Restriction Information
The Cornelius Wheeler collection was purchased in December, 1962 by a grant from the Wisconsin Civil War Centennial Commission. The collection was obtained from a descendant of Cornelius' brother Charles, Mrs. Chester F. Colley of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.
Processed by Josephine L. Harper, April 18, 1963.
Contents List
|
Correspondence
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
1
|
1857-1862
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
2
|
1863-1864
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
3
|
1865-1892
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
4
|
History, Company I, 2nd Regiment Wisconsin Infantry, and Rolls
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
5
|
History and Rolls (carbon copies)
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
6
|
Clippings and Ephemera
|
|
|
