Non-relatives of note

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of Confederate General Joseph “Fighting Joe” Wheeler (1836-1906). He was a calvary general in the CSA during the American Civil War, and then a general in the U.S. Army during both the Spanish-American and Philippine-American wars near the turn of the twentieth century. He also served several terms in the U.S. Congress representing Alabama.

After graduating from West Point in 1854, while stationed in New Mexico and fighting in a skirmish with Indians, Wheeler picked up the nickname “Fighting Joe.” He is one of the few Confederates who is buried in Arlington Cemetery.

It is worth noting that Wheeler was of New England ancestry–descended from the English Puritans who came to New England in the seventeenth century–so it is possible that he is a distant cousin of our own Connecticut Wheelers.

Today is also the birthday of Arthur Holly Compton (1892-1962), the American particle physicist who shared the 1927 Nobel Prize for Physics with C.T.R. Wilson for his discovery of the Compton effect, which demonstrated the particle nature of electromagnetic radiation.

(Compton on the cover of Time magazine on January 13, 1936, holding his cosmic ray detector)

Compton was a key figure in the Manhattan Project that developed the first nuclear weapons. His reports were important in launching the project. In 1942, he became a member of the executive committee and then head of the “X” projects overseeing the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago. Throughout WWII, Compton remained a prominent scientific adviser and administrator. In 1945, he served, along with Lawrence, Oppenheimer, and Fermi, on the Scientific Panel that recommended military use of the atomic bomb against Japan. He was awarded the Medal of Merit for his services to the Manhattan Project.

After WWII he became the chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis. When I worked there, forty-plus years after he retired, people were constantly asking me if I was related to him. I would say, no, and my husband isn’t either.

So a toast to famous non-relatives Fighting Joe Wheeler and Arthur Holly Compton! Have a good day!