Description:

Civil War
Louisiana; Mississippi, August 9, 1861-February 19, 1862
Confederate Brig. Gen. Daniel Ruggles Lists Members of His First Civil War Command
Diary/Journal

[CIVIL WAR.] DANIEL RUGGLES, Manuscript Document, Pocket Notebook, August 9, 1861–February 19, 1862. 106 pp., of which 20 have writing, 3.75" x 5.625". Bound in leather with Ruggles's name on cover in another hand; general toning; scattered foxing.

This pocket notebook belonged to Confederate Brigadier General Daniel Ruggles, a Massachusetts native and graduate of the United States Military Academy. The first pages include a listing of his staff after he became a brigadier general on August 9, 1861. They include his teenage son, 1st Lieutenant Mortimer B. Ruggles (1844-1902), who served as his aid-de-camp and four years later assisted John Wilkes Booth in his escape.

A couple of months after he was promoted, Ruggles was sent to New Orleans to oversee recruitment and organization. Later pages list the officers of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Louisiana Volunteer Infantry Regiments that composed Ruggles's brigade, with the dates of each officer's commission. Most of the companies of the first three regiments were mustered into Confederate service in late September and early October 1861, while the companies of the 19th Louisiana were mustered in on December 11 and 15, 1861. The regiments were led by Colonels Preston Pond Jr. (1823-1864), Samuel S. Heard (1807-1887), Alfred Mouton (1829-1864), and Benjamin L. Hodge (1824-1864), respectively. Only Mouton died in battle, leading his troops as a brigadier general at the Battle of Mansfield in Louisiana.

The final two pages of the text, in Ruggles's hand, begin a journal that Ruggles kept. On February 16, it reports that he left New Orleans. He arrived in Corinth, Mississippi, the following day, and he telegraphed Generals P. G. T. Beauregard and Albert Sidney Johnston and telegraphed orders to Memphis. On February 19, he noted "Heavy rain Shower" and "Col. M[outon] & 18th ar[rived]. last night." On February 20, 1862, the first day after the conclusion of this brief journal, Ruggles took command of all forces on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, as far as Decatur, Alabama, 95 miles to the east of Corinth.

Daniel Ruggles (1810-1897) was born in Massachusetts and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1833. After duty in the West, he participated in the Second Seminole War in Florida and in the Mexican War, during which he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. After further service in the West, he took a leave of absence for health reasons in 1859. In May 1861, he resigned his commission in the U.S. Army and was placed in command of forces in the Provisional Army of Virginia. On August 9, he was promoted to brigadier general and assigned to command a brigade in General Braxton Bragg's Army of Pensacola in Florida, even though Ruggles was a known abolitionist. In April 1862 at the Battle of Shiloh, he commanded repeated Confederate assaults on the "Hornet's Nest" in the Union line. He assembled 62 cannons from all parts of the field, known as "Ruggles Battery," to bombard the "Hornet's Nest" until a final Confederate charge broke the Union line twelve hours after the battle started and captured 2,200 Union soldiers. After additional service in Louisiana and Mississippi in 1862 and 1863, Ruggles fulfilled mostly administrative roles for the remainder of the war. After the war, he became a farmer and real estate agent in Virginia. He died in Fredericksburg in June 1897.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 3.75" x 5.625"
  • Medium: Diary/Journal

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