MovieChat Forums > Rough Riders (1997) Discussion > Fighting Joe Wheeler

Fighting Joe Wheeler

posted 14 years ago by jglapin
4 replies | jump to latest

He apparently realy did exclaim "We've got the damned Yankees on the run!" upon hearing of the Spanish retreat at Las Guasymas.

Source: "Until The Last Trumpet Sounds", page 54, Gene Smith.

Wheeler and Pershing did meet in mid stream while on horseback. Pershing stopped his advance to give the old General a full and proper salute. It was not General Wheeler who gave Pershing the order to attack the heights.

Fighting Joe's next assignment, again with Pershing, was in the Philipines during the Moro Uprising,aka "The Philipine Insurrection". General Wheeler was leading a column of infantry through the jungle when one man fell out complaing of the heat. General Wheeler put the Infantryman on his horse and Fighting Joe shouldered the man's pack and rifle all the way to their destination. He was in his 70s by then.

[–] Hancock_the_Superb 12 years ago

I've always been irked that Milius has Wheeler quoting Nathan Bedford Forrest and calling him his "old friend." The two men hated each other's guts. Surely a nerdy complaint but I've wondered what the point was.

Also Wheeler was much more conciliatory towards the North than the movie suggests.

Gary Busey though is excellent. Perhaps not accurate but a fun characterization regardless.

"Do you know what lies at the bottom of the mainstream? Mediocrity!"

[–] MadTom 12 years ago

Nothing wrong with Busey's characterization, but at 6' he's at least 7 inches taller than Wheeler was. (Wheeler barely met the height minimum for admission to West Point; Phil Sheridan, who was ahead of him by 3 years, was 5'5" so Wheeler couldn't have been any taller.) There was a reason TR described him as "a regular old gamecock", and Tom Berenger saying it on screen as Busey is walking away simply doesn't go with it. But as you say, not accurate, but still fun.

[–] Toshi51 12 years ago

Fighting Joe was a very old man when he served in the Phillipines. He is reported to have out marched and out packed many younger and larger soldiers.

[–] tabari 9 years ago

I live just a ways down the road from the Wheeler home. I've toured it a couple of times over the years.
I am almost certain that he was supposed to be about 5'3", my own height. The same height as Mickey Rooney, to put it in perspective.