RUFUS SAXTON
SAXTON, RUFUS, United States army officer, was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, October 19, 1824. His parents were Jonathan Ashley and Miranda (Wright) Saxton. His father was a lawyer, editor and farmer, a man of high ideals, a lover of freedom and "a firm believer in the power of man to overcome unfavorable conditions." He held the office of justice of the peace. Among the early ancestors of the family in this country were Captain Salmon White, who was a soldier in the Revolution, and the Reverend Jonathan Ashley, the first Congregational minister of Deerfield, Massachusetts.
Rufus Saxton was graduated from the United States military academy at West Point in 1849. He entered the active work of life as a second lieutenant of artillery. In 1853-54, he was in command of an expedition to explore and survey a route across the Rocky Mountains for the Northern Pacific Railroad. For "indomitable energy, sound judgment and crowning accomplishment" in this work he received the thanks of the governor of Washington Territory. In the Civil war he was chief quartermaster on the staff of General Lyon in 1861 and later on that of General McClellan, and General Sherman. For "distinguished service and good conduct" in the defense of Harpers Ferry, when an attack upon that position was threatened by General Stonewall Jackson, May 26, 1862, he received the thanks of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, and was awarded a medal of honor by the government. He was military governor of the Department of the South, superintended the recruiting of colored troops, participated in the attack on Charleston, and was commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau for South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, until the end of the war. He was afterward chief quartermaster of various departments. By successive brevets he reached the rank of major-general of volunteers and by promotion that of colonel of the army. In 1888 he was retired with the rank of colonel and assistant quartermaster-general.
