Joseph Wheeler

William Rudolf O'Donovan, born Preston County, VA 1844-died New York City 1920 · 1895

This bust of General Joseph Wheeler was presented to the Smithsonian Institution in 1921 by a committee that included Joseph H. Choate, Henry Clews, and Theodore Roosevelt. Joseph Wheeler was a Confederate general in the Civil War. He graduated from West Point in 1859, but resigned from the United States Army two years later to fight for the Confederacy. During the war, he was noted for his tireless energy and perseverance despite being wounded three times and having sixteen horses shot from beneath him.