Daniel Ruggles

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Daniel Ruggles
Born (1810-01-31)January 31, 1810
Barre, Massachusetts
Died June 1, 1897(1897-06-01) (aged 87)
Fredericksburg, Virginia
Allegiance United States United States of America
Confederate States of America Confederate States of America
Service/branch  United States Army
 Confederate States Army
Years of service 1833–61 (USA)
1861–65 (CSA)
Rank Brevet Lieutenant Colonel (USA)
Brigadier General (CSA)
Battles/wars Second Seminole War
Mexican-American War
American Civil War
- Battle of Shiloh

Daniel Ruggles (January 31, 1810 – June 1, 1897) was a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He commanded a division at the Battle of Shiloh.[1]

Biography

Ruggles was born in Barre, Massachusetts, in 1810. In 1833, he graduated from the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, and served in the United States Army during the Second Seminole War and the Mexican-American War, and then served at a variety of garrisons and outposts.[2]

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Ruggles resigned his commission in the U.S. Army on May 7, 1861 and enlisted in the Confederate Army not long afterwards.[2]

In August 1861, he was promoted to brigadier general and assigned command of the 1st Division of the Second Corps in the Army of the Mississippi. He fought with General John C. Breckinridge, the former Vice President of the United States, in the 1862 campaign to regain control of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The combined Breckinridge-Ruggles forces were unable to regain the capital city.[3]

From August 15 to August 29, 1862 Ruggles was in command of the Port Hudson position on the Mississippi in Louisiana and supervised the planning and initial construction of fortifications in that region. On the 29th he was ordered by Breckinridge to move with some of his troops to the state of Mississippi.[4]:4-9

For the rest of the war he performed mostly administrative duties and was named as the head of the prison system in 1865. He oversaw the final exchange of Union prisoners of war at the end of the conflict.

During the battle of Shiloh (Union name Pittsburg Landing) on April 6–7, 1862, Gen. Ruggles, on Sunday, April 6, saw repeated Confederate charges against the Union line known as "The Hornets Nest" fail. He sent word to his commanders to "Get every gun you can find." Subsequently, artillery was collected from every part of the field and lined up in a row of 62 cannons, now known as "Ruggles's Battery" (the biggest concentration of Artillery ever seen before), which hammered the Hornets Nest until the last Confederate charge broke the Union line at around 5:30 p.m., forcing it to surrender, 12 hours after the battle had started.

After the war, Ruggles was a real estate agent and a farmer in Virginia. He later served as a member of the West Point Board of Visitors.[2] He died in Fredericksburg, Virginia in 1897.

See also

  • List of American Civil War generals

References

  1. ↑ "Daniel Ruggles Report, 1862". University of Notre Dame Rare Books and Special Collections. Retrieved 2007-07-14. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Daniel Ruggles". Corpus Christi Public Libraries Mexican War archives. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-07-14. 
  3. ↑ John D. Winters, The Civil War in Louisiana, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1963, ISBN 0-8071-0834-0, pp. 112-113
  4. ↑ Hewitt, Lawrence Lee (1987). Port Hudson, Confederate Bastion on the Mississippi. Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0-8071-1961-X. 

External links

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