Tag: Saxton (Rufus)

Wikipedia says: Rufus Saxton (October 19, 1824 – February 23, 1908) was a Union Army brigadier general during the American Civil War who received America’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions defending Harpers Ferry during Confederate General Jackson’s Valley Campaign. After the war he served as the Freedmen’s Bureau’s first assistant commissioner.

…As the Civil War broke out, Saxton served as a quartermaster and ultimately a brigadier general for the Union forces. During the war, he commanded the Union defenses at Harpers Ferry and he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his “gallant service” there in May and June 1862. According to a New York Times article of April 22, 1893, about Saxton’s award, “So far to only two other general officers have been awarded the medals, Gens. Schofield and Miles.” Later in 1862, he was appointed quartermaster of the South Carolina Expeditionary Corps based at Hilton Head during much of Union occupation of the Island and was in charge of supplying contraband colonies in the region including on Edisto Island and at Port Royal Saxton was later appointed military governor of the Department of the South. As such, he directed the recruitment of the first regiments of black soldiers who fought in the Union army.