Frank Wheaton (May 8, 1833 – June 18, 1903) was a career military officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War and Indian Wars. He also was military commander over south Texas during the Garza Revolution.

Early life and career

Wheaton was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Dr. Francis Levison and Amelia S. Wheaton née Burrill. Dr. Francis Levison Wheaton graduated from Brown University in 1828 and served as a surgeon in the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War and as surgeon general of Rhode Island.

Frank Wheaton attended Brown University, studying civil engineering, but withdrew in 1850 at the age of seventeen to take a position with Mexican-American Boundary Commission, where he worked for the next five years. On March 3, 1855, he was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Cavalry and assigned to duty on the Indian frontier on the Missouri and Kansas Border. He participated in the campaign against the Cheyenne Indians and also in the Utah War and was promoted to captain on March 1, 1861. Wheaton remarried on November 2, 1861, to Emma Twiggs Mason (October 17, 1836 – February 16, 1864), born at Fort Des Moines, Wisconsin Territory, who, like his first wife, was a descendant of George Mason.

Civil War

When the Civil War started, Wheaton was commissioned as lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Rhode Island Infantry on July 10, 1861. His father-in-law from his first marriage, General Samuel Cooper,

On November 29, 1862, Wheaton was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers and placed in command of the 3rd Brigade (62d NY, 93d Pa, 98th Pa, 102 Pa & 139 Pa), 3rd Division, VI Corps. He led them in heavy fighting at the Battle of Chancellorsville. His brigade, under the command of Colonel David J. Nevin of the 62nd New York, was the only brigade of the VI Corps to see action on the afternoon of the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg after completing a forced march of approximately 30 miles from Manchester, Maryland that day. At Gettysburg, he commanded the 3rd Division while its commander, Maj. Gen. John Newton, temporarily commanded the I Corps, in place of John F. Reynolds. and Rhode Island presented him with a sword of honor in July 1866. On April 30, 1866, he was mustered out of the volunteers and was subsequently promoted as lieutenant colonel of the 39th Infantry on July 28. He was breveted to the rank of major general in the Regular Army, to date from March 13, 1865, for meritorious service during the Civil War.

He, along with others, recommended that Confederate General George H. Steuart of Maryland be pardoned for his crimes during the American Civil War. This led to Steuart's pardon in November 1866.

On January 14, 1867, Wheaton was married for the third and last time to Maria Bleeker Miller (August 4, 1846 – August 21, 1924), born in Utica, New York. She eventually would become a Vice-president General in the Daughters of the American Revolution.

In the lead up to the Modoc War, Wheaton took command of approximately 250 regular army troops and a further 150 troops consisting of volunteers from California and Oregon as well as some Klamath Native Americans. At the First Battle of the Stronghold on January 17, 1873, he faced about fifty Modoc warriors in well-defended positions amongst the lava fields of Northern California in dense fog. Wheaton's troops suffered 35 deaths and many more wounded compared to no casualties on the Modoc side. Wheaton was subsequently relieved of command of the troops in the field. This defeat eventually led to the assassination of General Edward R. S. Canby on April 11 at a meeting of the Peace Commission on the battlefield.

Wheaton was appointed colonel of the 2nd Infantry, effective December 13, 1874. On April 19, 1892, Wheaton was selected in a long and politically heated competition for promotion to brigadier general. While the selection of Wheaton was controversial, it was met with overall approval in the army due to his excellent war record. In August 1896, General Wheaton played a minor role in the Yaqui Uprising at Ambos Nogales. After a group of Yaqui, Pima and Mexican rebels were repulsed in their attempt to capture the customs house in Nogales, Sonora, some of the party fled north into Arizona. Wheaton dispatched two companies of the 24th Infantry to pursue the rebels but they escaped. His district also included troops involved in monitoring and fighting against the Garza Revolution.

In 1896, Wheaton was elected as an Honorary Companion in the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of Foreign Wars.

After the retirement of Major General Thomas H. Ruger, Wheaton was promoted to major general in the Regular Army on April 3, 1897, and was mandatorily retired one month later on his 64th birthday on May 8.

Post-military life

After his retirement, Wheaton left to spend two years in Europe.

Wheaton died in Washington, D.C., of a brain hemorrhage,

Legacy

The parking lot to the south of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery is named for Wheaton. The Wheaton, Maryland, section of the Wheaton/Glenmont division of the unincorporated township of Silver Spring, Maryland, just northwest of Washington, D.C., is named for him, as is the Wheaton High School, a school in the Down County Consortium of the Montgomery County Public School system of Montgomery County, Maryland.

See also

  • List of American Civil War generals (Union)

Notes

References

  • Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, .
  • Tagg, Larry. The Generals of Gettysburg. Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing, 1998. .
  • Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders, Louisiana State University Press, 1964, .
  • Antietam on the web capsule biography