The Wiki site may be referencing Wheeler's family, which lived in Augusta before the war. Wheeler himself spent relatively little time in Georgia, coming of age in Connecticut and New York. Except for his early childhood and much of 1864, I don't believe he spent much time in that state.

My original point was that Southerners were excluded from positions of political influence and power in the U.S. after the war. Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson some years afterwards were the first Southern men to serve as vice-presidents and presidents, both being elevated due to deaths of presidents. Having been raised in Georgia, Wilson was the first real American political leader since Andrew Johnson got the boot in 1868 to have any connection with the South.