POND SPRING, Ala. --- The Alabama Historical Commission says it has enough money to restore Gen. Joseph Wheeler's home in Lawrence County.
Wheeler, a native of Augusta, served as a general with Confederate forces during the Civil War. He later represented Alabama in Congress and was a general with the U.S. Army in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.
If everything goes as planned, it's possible the nearly 6,000-square-foot home will reopen to the public some time in late 2011.
"We're in the final design phase now, and we're advertising for construction bids," said Mark Driscoll, the commission's director of historic sites.
The money the state is using to restore the home totals a little more than $2.1 million and is coming from four sources: $469,899 in conservation bonds; $400,000 in education bonds; $200,000 from the Friends of General Joe Wheeler Foundation; and $710,000 in commission money.
Driscoll said there is an allowance in the bid package that includes returning the more than 30,000 pieces in the Wheeler Home collection to the site. Those items have been at an undisclosed location since restoration started.
"We're so excited to have enough money to finally get the home restored," Pond Spring Site Director Melissa Beasley said. "Right now, we're concentrating on the main house."
On April 10, Beasley is inviting volunteers to Pond Spring to help clean the grounds. The event is part of the Civil War Preservation Trust drive to clean and restore battlefields, cemeteries and shrines.
Union and Confederate troops fought on the grounds during the Civil War. In June 1864, Confederate Col. Josiah Patterson, of Morgan County, used Pond Spring as his headquarters.
Pond Spring is on Alabama 20 between Courtland and Hillsboro. The state has owned the site since 1993. Because of safety concerns, the state closed the home about four years ago.
The home, where Wheeler raised his family, was built after the war and showed significant deterioration after the state acquired the site.
John P. Hickman, the plantation's first owner, came to Pond Spring in 1818.
Before selling the 1,760-acre plantation to Col. Ben Sherrod in 1827, Hickman constructed a two-story log house. Sherrod turned the cabin into a Federal-style house.
Sherrod's grandson inherited the estate and married Daniella Jones. After her husband's death in 1861, Daniella met Wheeler in October 1863.
Wheeler and Daniella married in 1866 and lived in New Orleans before the couple moved back and constructed the "Big House" at Pond Spring.
Augusta's Wheeler Road is named for Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler, who was born in 1836 in a house that once stood near its intersection with Aumond Road.
A West Point graduate, he served the South during the Civil War as a cavalry commander from Shiloh to Atlanta. He later became a lawyer, businessman and congressman from Alabama.
When the Spanish-American War broke, Wheeler, 61, volunteered and was commissioned a brigadier general.
During one of his first engagements in Cuba, Wheeler was said to have shouted, "Let's go, boys! We've got the damn Yankees on the run again!" somewhat mixing up his enemies.
He died in 1906 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Source: The Augusta Chronicle archives
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