Rufus King (general)

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Rufus King (January 26, 1814 – October 13, 1876) was a newspaper editor, educator, U.S. diplomat, and a Union brigadier general in the American Civil War.

King was born in New York City, the grandson of Rufus King, delegate for Massachusetts to the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention. After graduation from Columbia College, where his father, Charles King, served as president, King enrolled in the United States Military Academy at West Point. King graduated near the top of his class, and was appointed to the engineer corps in 1833. He resigned his commission in 1836.

After a short time with the New York and Erie Railroad, King served as the associate editor for two newspapers, the Albany Evening Journal and the Albany Advertiser (1841–45). At this point, he left New York and moved to the Wisconsin Territory, accomplishing a mixture of politics (member of the 1848 Wisconsin constitutional convention), journalism (part owner of the Milwaukee Sentinel and Gazette), and education (superintendent of schools in Milwaukee and a regent of the University of Wisconsin-Madison).

King was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as Minister to the Papal States in 1861. On his way to Rome when the Civil War broke out, he took a leave of absence to come to the defense of his country. He was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers and was given authorization to raise a Wisconsin regiment. He succeeded in organizing the beginning of what came to be known as the famous Iron Brigade. King rose to division command before the brigade acquired its name or saw combat. Apparently suffering from occasional bouts of epilepsy, King resigned his commission in October 1863 and resumed his Ministerial post.

Returning to New York from Rome in 1867, King served for two years as deputy comptroller of customs for the Port of New York, but then retired from public life on account of failing health until he died in 1876.