Rufus R. Dawes Letters

Rufus R. Dawes was born in 1839 in Marietta, Ohio, the second son of Henry and Sarah Cutler Dawes. Henry Dawes was originally from Maine, but settled in Ohio sometime between 1825 and 1830, where he set up business as a merchant.

Rufus Dawes attended school in Mauston (Juneau County), Wisconsin, (no information on the institution is available) and graduated in 1860. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Dawes was 22 years old and immediately began organizing a volunteer unit from Mauston. Dawes was elected captain of the company on July 6, 1861. Ten days later, the unit joined the 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, attached to the First Corps of the Union Army. The regiment left Wisconsin and arrived in Washington D.C. on July 28, 1861. For the first year of the war, Dawes remained in Washington and saw no major action.

In June 1862, Dawes received a promotion to Major, and within the month, had participated in the Second Battle of Bull Run (Second Manassas to the Confederacy). Further engagements included Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Battle of the Wilderness, and the sieges of Petersburg and Richmond. Following the Battle of Antietam, the regiment became a part of the famous Iron Brigade, comprised of the 19th Indiana and the 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin regiments. The Iron Brigade, also called the Black Hats because of their headgear, was the only all western brigade in the Union Army, and suffered a greater proportional loss than any other brigade.

In March 1863, Dawes received a further promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. At Gettysburg, five months later, Major General John Alan Blair of Tupelo, Mississippi, surrendered the 230 men of the 2nd Mississippi Regiment to Dawes. In July 1864, Dawes was offered the full rank of Colonel, but could not accept because horrendous casualty figures required him to stay with his regiment.

Dawes was mustered out of the army on August 10, 1864, following encounters at Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor. He returned home to Marietta, Ohio, and settled there with his new wife, M.B. Gates Dawes, whom he married on January 18, 1864. Little information is available concerning the postwar career of Rufus Dawes, but on March 13, 1865, he was awarded the rank of Brevet Brigadier General. Also, in 1890, he published an account of his Civil War career entitled Service with the 6th Wisconsin Volunteers. While researching for the book, Dawes corresponded with Major General John Blair of Tupelo, Mississippi, and the two became good friends. Rufus Dawes died in 1899.