Rufus R. Dawes, Civil War Hero and Congressman
Rufus Robinson Dawes (July 4, 1838 – August 2, 1899) was a military officer in the United States Army during the American Civil War. He was noted for his service in the famed Iron Brigade, particularly during the Battle of Gettysburg. After the War, he was a businessman, Congressman, and author, and the father of four nationally known sons, one of whom served as Vice President of the United States. (Most of this summary is from Wikipedia and various Civil War history websites.)
Rufus Dawes began his military career in 1861. He and several other young men raised a company of volunteers for state service, to which the 22-year old Dawes was elected captain. The organization was eventually assigned to the 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry as Company K. Dawes saw extensive service with the regiment at Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel to replace promoted officers. The Battle of Antietam had taken place September 17, 1862 in Maryland and was the bloodiest single-day battle in all of American combat history, with about 23,000 casualties on both sides, more than twice as many Americans as were killed or mortally wounded in combat as in the War of 1812, the Mexican War and Spanish-American War together.
Graves at the Sunken Road at the Battle of Antietam, 1862.
On the march towards Pennsylvania (and eventually Gettysburg) in late June 1863, Dawes remembered Antietam in a letter to his fiancée, Mary Beman Gates:
"We got the newspapers to-day. Our brigade newsboy got them through in some way. The head-lines say: 'Rebels in Pennsylvania' - 'Another battle at Antietam…' I hope not. I never want to fight there again. The flower of our regiment was slaughtered in that terrible cornfield. I dread the thought of the place. If there is a battle, watch the papers…
On the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863, late in the morning Dawes’ 6th Wisconsin regiment was sent to cut off Confederate troops moving into Gettysburg from the West. One of the rebel units, the 2nd Mississippi Regiment, had taken cover in a deep railroad cut, the majority of which was too deep to be an effective firing position for the rebels. The 6th Wisconsin charged the cut, suffering heavy casualties. Dawes reported that perhaps 160 men of his regiment of 450 fell in the charge.
Dawes's men faced daunting fire as they charged. The regiment's American flag went down at least three times during the charge. At one point Dawes took up the fallen flag before it was seized from him by a corporal of the color guard. When the Union men reached the railroad cut, vicious hand-to-hand and bayonet fighting broke out and many Confederates considered surrender. Colonel Dawes took the initiative by shouting "Where is the colonel of this regiment?" Major John Blair of the 2nd Mississippi stood up and responded, "Who are you?" Dawes replied, "I command this regiment. Surrender or I will fire."
Dawes later described what happened next:
“The officer replied not a word, but promptly handed me his sword, and his men, who still held them, threw down their muskets. The coolness, self possession, and discipline which held back our men from pouring a general volley saved a hundred lives of the enemy, and as my mind goes back to the fearful excitement of the moment, I marvel at it. – Col. Rufus R. Dawes, Service with the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers (1890, p. 169)
"Men of Iron" is a painting by Dale Gannon, whose civil war and other historical military art work is available online at gannon.com. This picture shows one of the regiments of the Iron Brigade -- in this case, the 24 Michigan Infantry led by Col. Henry Morrow -- who were fighting alongside Rufus Dawes and the 6th Wisconsin Regiment at the Railroad Cut during the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.
Colonel Dawes wrote a letter to his fiancée Mary shortly after the battle. In that letter, he lamented, "Our bravest and best are cold in the ground or suffering on beds of anguish. One young man, Corporal James Kelley of Company B, shot through the breast came staggering up to me before he fell and, opening his shirt, to show the wound said, Colonel, won't you write to my folks that I died a soldier?"
The Iron Brigade, of which the 6th Wisconsin was a part, lost a staggering 1,212 of 1,883 men on that day, July 1st, alone. The Iron Brigade, also known as the Black Hat Brigade, was an infantry brigade in the Union Army of the Potomac with five regiments. Noted for its strong discipline, its unique uniform appearance, and its tenacious fighting ability, the Iron Brigade suffered the highest percentage of casualties of any brigade in the war. Dawes later served that year in the Mine Run Campaign. During a furlough, he returned to Ohio and married Mary (1842–1921), a New Englander, on January 18, 1864. Returning to the Army of the Potomac, he served at the Battle of the Wilderness and the Siege of Petersburg. In July 1864, Dawes was offered the full rank of colonel, but declined the promotion. He mustered out of the army on August 10, 1864, following the fights at Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor, but was promoted to brevet Brigadier General before the war ended.
Dawes served on the Board of Trustees of Marietta College in Ohio for 28 years. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1881, he served only one term before losing his bid for re-election because he voted against the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. In 1890, he published a well-received account of his Civil War career, Service with the 6th Wisconsin Volunteers. This memoir was republished in Madison, Wisconsin by the State Historical Society of Commission, in 1962.
