Daniel Ruggles (January 31, 1810 – June 1, 1897) was a Brigadier General in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the Military forces of the Confederate States, military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) duri ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. He was a division commander at the

Battle of Shiloh The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the American Civil War fought on April 6–7, 1862. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee, which was part of the war's Western Theater of the ...

Early life and military service

Ruggles was born in

Barre, Massachusetts Barre ( ) is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,530 at the 2020 census. History Located on the ancestral homeland of the Nipmuc, the area was first settled by Europeans in 1720 and referred to as th ...

, on January 31, 1810. In 1833 he graduated from the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

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as 34th out of 43 cadets; among those George W. Cullum and

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. He was appointed a brevet 2nd Lieutenant in the 5th U.S. Infantry Regiment and was posted in Wisconsin. He spent the next years in the Midwest with border duty and recruiting services. In 1839, by now a 1st Lieutenant, Ruggles participated in the war against the Seminoles in Florida. In 1840 he returned to the Canada–US border; and Ruggles stayed until 1845 when he took part in the occupation of Texas.Cullum, p. 563 Ruggles and the 5th Infantry, under command of Lt. Col. James S. McIntosh, were part of the 2nd Brigade under Col. David E. Twiggs. Participating in the Texas Campaign Ruggles fought in the battles of

Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

and Resaca de la Palma; his solid services securing him a promotion to Captain on June 18, 1846. Doing recruiting services after the end of the campaign Ruggles and the 5th Infantry joined Gen.

Winfield Scott Winfield Scott (June 13, 1786May 29, 1866) was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as Commanding General of the United States Army from 1841 to 1861, and was a veteran of the War of 1812, American Indian Wars, Mexica ...

's army for the Mexico City Campaign, fighting at Vera Cruz,

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

, Churubusco, Molino del Rey,

Chapultepec Chapultepec, more commonly called the "Bosque de Chapultepec" (Chapultepec Forest) in Mexico City, is one of the largest Nature Value Area´s in Mexico, measuring in total just over . Centered on a rock formation called Chapultepec Hill, one of ...

and

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. Ruggles was breveted ''for Gallant and Meritorious Conduct'' to Major after Churubusco and to Lieutenant Colonel after Chapultepec. After the war ended he was posted for frontier duty in Texas and the surrounding territories. Participating in the Utah Expedition in 1858 and 1859, Ruggles went on leave of absence for health reasons and stayed absent until the beginning of the

Early Civil War

Despite being from the

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stronghold of Massachusetts, Ruggles married a woman from Virginia and held Confederate beliefs. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Ruggles resigned his commission in the U.S. Army on May 7, 1861 Appointed a Brigadier General of Militia and Colonel in the Provisional Army of Virginia he was given command of the Aquia District in May 1861.Eicher; pp. 464–465 There Ruggles set up shore batteries to block the

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. After exchanging fire with the Union Navy Ruggles' troops resisted a landing party and prevented a Union beachhead in the Battle of Mathias Point. On August 9, 1861, he was promoted to Brigadier General and assigned command of a brigade in Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Pensacola in Florida, although he was a known abolitionist. Simultaneously commanding the District of Northern Alabama, Ruggles's brigade moved westwards into Mississippi with Bragg in February 1862. Ruggles now was assigned to command a division in Bragg's Corps in the

Army of Mississippi There were three formations known as the Army of Mississippi in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. This name is contrasted against Army of ''the'' Mississippi, which was a Union Army named for the Mississippi River, no ...

. Under overall command of General

Albert Sidney Johnston General officer, General Albert Sidney Johnston (February 2, 1803 – April 6, 1862) was an American military officer who served as a general officer in three different armies: the Texian Army, the United States Army, and the Confederate States ...

they marched northwards for the Shiloh Campaign.

Battle of Shiloh

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 assembled in the history of North America up to that point), 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.

Late Civil War

He fought with General John C. Breckinridge, the former

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, in the 1862 campaign to regain control of

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. The combined Breckinridge-Ruggles forces were unable to regain the capital city. 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 to aid

Earl Van Dorn Earl Van Dorn (September 17, 1820May 7, 1863) was an American Major General who started his military career as a United States Army officer and became famous for successfully leading two defenses of a Native American settlement from the Comanch ...

in his attempt to recapture Corinth, Mississippi in the ensuing

Second Battle of Corinth The Second Battle of Corinth (which, in the context of the American Civil War, is usually referred to as the Battle of Corinth, to differentiate it from the siege of Corinth earlier the same year) was fought October 3–4, 1862, in Corinth, M ...

. "Most of the predatory warfare fter the fall of Vicksburg, in 1863 was waged by Federal troops stationed on the Memphis-Charleston Railroad n southern Tennessee and near it in orthernMississippi. On the eastern part of that frontier, Brig. Gen. Ruggles commanded Ferguson's brigade of Confederate cavalry, and ten or twelve field pieces...This disposition had been made by Lt. Gen. Pemberton."Johnston; p.226 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.

Later life

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. He died in

Fredericksburg, Virginia Fredericksburg is an Independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 27,982. It is south of Washington, D.C., and north of Richmond, Virginia, R ...

in 1897; and rests there in the Confederate Cemetery.

Notes

References

* * * * Joseph Eggleston Johnston, "Narrative of Military Operations Directed During the Late War Between the States",

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: D. Appleton and Company, 1874 * * U.S. War Department; ''The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies''; Series I, Washington, D.C.; 1880–1898 * * John D. Winters, ''The Civil War in Louisiana'',

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

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, 1963,

External links

*
Daniel Ruggles in Cullum's Register
online on Bill Thayer's Web

Early Suggestion to Arm Negroes for the Confederacy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruggles, Daniel 1810 births 1897 deaths Confederate States Army brigadier generals American military personnel of the Mexican–American War Northern-born Confederates People from Barre, Massachusetts American people of the Seminole Wars United States Army officers Military personnel from Fredericksburg, Virginia People of Virginia in the American Civil War United States Military Academy alumni Military personnel from Massachusetts