Last Order
Headquarters Cavalry Corps,
April 24th, 1865.
GALLANT COMRADES,
You have fought your fight. Your task is done. During four years of struggle for liberty you have exhibited courage, fortitude and devotion. You are the victors of more than 200 sternly contested fields. You have participated in more than 1,000 conflicts of arms.
You are heroes, veterans, patriots. The bones of your comrades mark the battlefields of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. You have done all that human exertions could accomplish. In bidding you adieu I desire to tender my thanks for your gallantry in battle, your fortitude under suffering, and the devotion at all times to the holy cause you have done so much to maintain. I desire also to express my gratitude for the kind feeling you have seen fit to extend to myself and to invoke upon you the blessings of our Heavenly Father in the cause of freedom:
Comrades in arms I bid you farewell.
Joseph Wheeler,
Lieut-Gen, commanding Cavalry Corps,
Army of Tennessee.