Auction Date:2009 Jun 24 @ 10:00 (UTC-04:00 : AST/EDT)
Location:6270 Este Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45232, United States
1849-1865; ca 865 items (ca 775 war date).
The Ruger Papers begin upon his entry into West Point in the summer 1850, at a time when Robert E. Lee was commandant. His classmates included a long list of men who would become generals during the Civil War, including Confederates G.W.C. Lee, James Deshler, John Pegram, J.E.B. Stuart, Archibald Gracie, S.D. Lee, William Dorsey Pender, and John Bordenave Villepigue, and Union generals O.O. Howard and Stephen H. Weed.
An intense young man, even as a plebe, Ruger left a fine record of life at the antebellum academy through his letters home. A brilliant student and good writer, his letters (ca 75) offer a picture of a driven man, sometimes humorless, and seemingly obsessed with discipline, class standing, and personal advancement. When his father wrote to say he was glad to see Ruger had not received demerits, Thomas wrote back "A person who has not been here does not know how liable a person s to get demerit. There is no danger of ones getting enough to dismiss him unless he is very careless, but it is very hard to avoid getting some. Sometimes one may get them by mere accident, for instance losing the step when marching, or being late at some roll call of which we have several in the course of the day. If a person was reported for one of these and did not have a good excuse it would give him a few demerits. I expect you will hear that I have a few soon...." Ruger later became indignant when he his prediction came true, writing that he had earned demerits for allowing his men to cough on inspection when they could not help it and for allowing noise in the evening, though he had not heard it. His correspondence includes regular reports of his classes, study habits, social life at West Point, with occasional comments on his classmates and instructors.
After graduation, Ruger was assigned to duty as a military engineer under P.G.T. Beauregard in New Orleans, lasting only about a year before deciding to resign. In April 1855, he informed his father that he had good reasons for leaving: "First, if we are to have peace for some years yet -- in that case I would be in the Engineers, receiving my pay only, with no chance for distinction. If one is to stay in the army, the Engineers is not the branch of the service in which one can advance much... In case of war soon, of which there is every day more prospect, I would be in a corps in which the dangers of service are entirely disproportionate to the chance of distinction and promotion. If war occurs soon, open regiments would be raised, as if we do have war it will be one of considerable magnitude... Persons from the Academy would find no trouble in getting commissions...."
Ruger was prescient. Immediately after the crisis flared at Fort Sumter, he wrote to J.G. Totten in hopes of being reinstated in the Engineers, but when that was not possible, he talked his way into an appointment as Chief of Engineers in Wisconsin, and by May, he was organizing disparate companies into what would become the 3rd Wisconsin. The collection includes a dense run of correspondence, orders, commissions, muster rolls, and other documents relating to the early organization of the regiment that left Wisconsin in July 1861, for duty near Frederick, Md.
Promoted to Colonel in August, he was one of the men in charge when the Maryland Legislature threatened to authorize secession, showing a degree of initiative and a steely resolve to do whatever necessary to prevent that possibility: the collection includes 14 items relating to the arrest of the legislature to prevent secession, the most important being a series of letters from N.P. Banks ordering the 3rd Wisconsin to remain in readiness, capped by a letter of Sept. 16, stating: "It becomes necessary for reasons that need not be repeated to prevent a session of the Legislature of the State that is contemplated at Frederic tomorrow... at Frederic or elsewhere. You will therefore hold yourself in readiness, upon the receipt of these orders to arrest and detain such members of both houses as are specified by name upon a list enclosed herewith whether in session or not... It is quite possible that arrests recently made in Baltimore of prominent members of the Legislature may prevent a meeting at Frederic or that the member may not attend on the first day… I am advised that the Houses assemble in such manner, that the possession of the entrance of the building will make escape of any persons impossible...."
The collection also includes three original petitions (in somewhat rumpled condition) by Maryland citizens, including one by citizens of Frederick protesting "the passage of a law styled 'A Board of Public Safety' as a military despotism," and an appointment in December designating Ruger as Provost Marshall at Frederick with orders to keep a tight lid on the soldiers and citizens.
One of the notable features of the collection is that for much of the war, the correspondence is two way, including Ruger's letters to his wife and hers back. Ruger was often reticent to relay details on the battles he experienced, assuming both that his wife would read about things in the newspapers and that she would not want to hear the gore. His letters, however, reflect his interests in the politics of the military and his relentless, hard-boiled attitude toward conducting warfare.
Fighting in the Shenandoah Valley in May 1862, Ruger led the regiment in a sharp engagement where they were singled out by Brigade commander George H. Gordon in his official report (a manuscript copy is included): "When all the Regts of my Brigade behaved so well it is not intended to reflect in the least upon others in mentioned the steadiness and perfect discipline which marked the action of the 2d Mass, Lt. Col. Andrews and 3rd Wisconsin, Col. Ruger The enemy will long remember the destructive fire of the 3rd Wisconsin poured into them from behind a stone wall as this sturdy regiment moved steadily in line of battle from the field....." The collection also includes a detailed 3pp official battle report dated June 2, filed by the Captain Co. G.
Despite Ruger's reluctance to burden his wife with battle details, however, his letters can have a peculiar power. The war was a daily reality for him, constantly on his mind, and even when avoiding the details, the feeling comes through. After Cedar Mountain, where the 3rd suffered terrible losses, he wrote serenely: "in your letter you speak of the splendid sunset at which time you must have been writing. Well darling, allowing for the difference of time, nearly one [h]our between here and Beloit at the time, the very instant, perhaps, you were writing we were engaged in a most desperate fight. You have had very different feelings if you could have imagined the condition of things where your husband was..." Ruger's official report on Cedar Mountain, sent to the Governor of Wisconsin, is included.
Despite the losses, Ruger was not one to shrink back, and even when the outlook seemed dire, Ruger wanted only to press forward. Before 2nd Bull Run (at which the 3rd were not engaged), his confidence remained, but not unbounded: "If the regiments that were panic stricken at Manassas were like some of the 3 months Pensylvania troops I have seen it is not surprising. The only effect of the repulse of the Army before Manassas will be to delay the final conclusion of the war. It will arouse the loyalty of the people of the north to meet any requirements for men and money, but the troops that are not now organized cannot be made effective in a day...."
Antietam was a greater test still. On Sept. 21, he wrote, providing rather more details than usual: "It was a great battle. My regt. suffered very severely. It behaved with great steadiness and gallantry. We had only about 340 men at most, and there were two hundred and two or three killed & wounded, almost two thirds. All the officers who were with the regiment at the battle but four were wounded most of them severely. One I am sorry to say has since died of his wounds… The rebels are on the other side of the river. They were badly whipped in the three battles in Maryland.. The last was a general engagement, between their army and most of it and ours... I received a slight scratch on the head by a ball but not enough to interfere with my duties...." In the aftermath of the summer's campaigns and the announcement of plans to organize Colored regiments, Ruger turned contemplative. Intensely interested in his own advancement and in the preservation of the union at all costs, a consummate professional, Ruger was keenly interested in the greater political landscape. Attacks on McClellan, he believed, were merely politically motivated and the Confiscation Act was a sideshow. "The abolishment of slavery," he wrote, "desirable as it is, would not in the present condition of things help us a jot. The way to conquer a country is to whip its armies and cripple its resources. Unfortunately this is a rebellion and anything that will support life is a resource. We must whip their armies and get possession of their resources. I have as you know had considerable experience in the war and I can assure you that we cannot abolish slavery by acts of Congress alone, except where the country is under out control. The law would be inoperative...." He continued at length about the increasing harshness of the war, the treatment of prisoners of war (both sides, he insists, treat the other well).
Certainly, Ruger was not always impressed with the people of the region, and the toll the war took on them seems not to have elicited much sympathy. After complaining that the bread they serve in the area (western Virginia) was abominable, he turned to the populace: "The people have also married among themselves so long that the influence of that in addition to other things makes them 'poor white trash' in truth… The wife seems always to be the head of the family and to possess what little energy and strength of character may be necessary for keeping the family alive...."
On May 17, 1863, Ruger opined on the freed slaves of the south and the possibility of raising them into regiments, an idea he did not relish. "The Negro troops have not been raised," he wrote. "It was not in the nature of things that they would be. No sane man well informed would have expected that the places of the two years and the nine months men could be taken by Negro troops under the most favorable circumstances. The time was too short. Such radical changes require time in practice however flattering theories may be. I believe that the government has devoted a good deal of effort to the organization of Negro troops but it is found in practice to be a slow process in comparison to the anticipations of the more ardent friends of the measure...."
The letters leading up to Gettysburg provide a fine view of troop movements and the anticipation of battle and the pursuit of Lee, but by far the most affecting letter is the simplest: on July 4, in a hand shaking so badly that he could barely hold the pencil, Ruger wrote simply: "We have had a tremendous battle & repulsed (we attacked on the first day) the enemy with heavy loss. There may be another. Love to all. I was not, but commanded our Division." Ruger was called shortly thereafter to help suppress the Draft Riots in New York City. The collection includes a large and detailed map of Manhattan, annotated by hand to depict the sites of various riots.
In 1864, Ruger led a Division during the Atlanta Campaign, and was constantly under fire for days at a time. In the midst of the fray, he wrote to his wife that "Our operations here may be said to consist of a series of working up to the enemy, finding his position, operating on his flank which when seriously endangered is the occasion of his falling back a few miles to his next strong position which he has had time meanwhile to fortify…. The enemy has been gradually forced back and if ultimately driven beyond Atlanta without our suffering heavy losses it will be as well perhaps. But if we could give him a crushing blow it would be better and would probably be attended with no more loss to us. The difficulty is to get the opportunity. All the chances of a fair open battle would be in our favor...." One of those fair battles came on June 25, with the Battle at Kolb's Farm (Kennesaw Mountain): "Our Division had quite a spirited fight…. We were moving along the road towards Marietta called the Powder Springs & Marietta road & Had just touched the road with our right forming a connection with the 23d Corps, Schofield's, one division of which was moving on the road. The rebels thought that we had become stretched out too much and if they attached would find our line too weak to resist a mass attack. As soon as we found they were going to attack we took position, our Division on the left of the road.... The enemy came up in good spirits in four lines at the point of attack but were all doubled up and driven back pell mell with heavy loss and with slight loss on our side. Our Artillery cut them up badly which accounts in a good measure for our comparatively slight loss. Their leading division was whipped so quickly and so completely that the other Divisions of Hoods Corps kept at a discrete distance. Some of the prisoners taken said that they were told we had a line some 12 miles long said they would crush our right, but said one of them, 'Hood was mistaken as usual and Johnston too.'"
In the first week of November, Ruger was offered command of a Division in 28th Corps in Tennessee under George Thomas unless Sherman and Slocum (who did not want to have him leave their command) could offer him one. Ruger describes his meeting with Sherman: "I gave [Sherman] Gen. Slocum's letter and remarked that if the two Corps of the Army of the Cumberland the 14th and 20th were to be operated as an army it would place Gen. Williams in command of the 20th Corps and that would give me the Division during the campaign at least. He shook his head and said enough to let me know he had no such intention and directed the order for my transfer to be made out, said that it was not a good plan to 'stay too long in one hole' and besides Gen Schofield was very anxious to have me come." He received command of 2nd Div., 28 Corps, shortly before the Battle of Franklin, where he would earn a lasting reputation.
The correspondence relating to Franklin begins with a no nonsense letter from Schofield on Nov. 28: "I want you to make your position perfectly secure so as to render it impossible for the enemy to effect a crossing at that place. You may retain the guns which you have without horses even at the risk of losing them. If the bridge is not sufficiently burned to render it useless to the enemy complete it tonight under the cover of darkness...." There are five more orders from Nov. 29 and 30 (the day of the battle), beginning with the order for J.D. Cox to march into Franklin and dig in while Ruger covers until all have passed. At 8 a.m. on the 29th, word the order went out "The enemy is coming in force above us," ordering Ruger to leave a regiment to guard the river. When it was over, Ruger described the Battle of Franklin to his wife: "The attack of the enemy was very strong and determined much the hardest I have seen west a good deal like the attacks of [Stonewall] Jackson. We repulsed the enemy with loss, but as A.J. Smith's command and other were not up we fell back here where they are for concentration. The force we had was much smaller than the enemy...." The collection also includes a handsome field map of the area along the Duck River, Tenn., and a post-war letter from Gen. Jacob Dolson Cox -- who is often credited with saving the center of the line at Franklin (where Ruger was located) -- requesting information on the battle to combat critics.
Early in 1865, Ruger's division was sent to join in the Carolinas campaign. In a flurry of letters home, he described the Battle of Kinston and the surrender of Joseph Johnston, the latter of which he describes at some length. "After personal interviews in which Gen. Sherman sought for the surrender of all the rebel forces still in arms, it was agreed subject to ratification of the [?] at Washington that the rebel armies should be disbanded, their arms deposited at the different state capitals and a report of them made to the Ordnance Dept. at Washington, that the authority of the Government should be every where recognized, that the U.S. Courts should be reestablished. The only terms so far as I know given by us would be that all questions of confiscations and other questions which would in time of peace go before the U.S. Courts for trial are to go there in relation to the rebellion… There would be great disappointment in the army if they should stop a trifles in the matter of approving Gen. Sherman's action, as all even the men in the ranks feel that the rebels are whipped, conquered and ready to submit to the laws for all time to come."
Included from this period of time is an extraordinary letter in cipher (translated) from J.M. Schofield, dated May 20, 1865: "The Secretary of War is informed that Jeff Davis while at Charlotte exulted over the murder of President Lincoln and expressed the wish that Vice President Johnson should also be killed. Please investigate the matter thoroughly and report the facts. If the report proves correct send the witnesses to Washington." Curiously, the cipher is written out and docketed on the blank side of a printed sheet "To Official Bond, The Confederate States of America." Elsewhere, Ruger discussed news of Lincoln's assassination, stating it was met with "shock" and "great gloom from which it has not yet recovered," even among the citizenry of North Carolina. Sherman, he notes, was talking to Johnston when the news reached "it is said he was very much affected and said that the south had lost the best friend it had in the death of the President. I do not know, wifey, how matters will turn out but I have a good deal of hope that there will be no trouble about minor matters and that Sherman's agreement will be ratified...."
The final letters in the lot describe Ruger's transition to head of the District of North Carolina, noting that between his Division and the people in the area, he had his "hands full." On May 16, he moved into Charlotte and described finding the Confederate War Dept. archives, including all battle reports and captured flags, adding "the question of the negroes seems to be the principal trouble. The policy of the government seems to be to encourage them to stay with their former masters and labor so long as they are kindly treated and paid fair wages. I think it will be as much as will be done if the present year will result in sufficient for the support of all without suffering. The soil and manner of tilling in this state could never have paid by slave labor. The increase of the slaves must have been the main profit. Most of the negroes will remain quietly at home I think, but some have an idea that they can come to the military posts and be fed by the government the rest of their lives. The whites and blacks come from considerable distances to ask all sorts of questions. Some of the planters find a very big elephant on their hands where they have a good many women and children and the able bodied have gone off and want to know if such cannot be made to support their families and whether those able to work who hire to others will be allowed to keep their present cabins and live on their (former masters) lands...."
Among the many letters signed by famous military figures are those from Confederate Generals (all pre-war) P.G.T. Beauregard (4 ALsS), J.E.B. Stuart (ALS from Texas, 1853), and Jefferson Davis (appointment to Engineers, 1854), two letters from West Point commandant J.G. Totten.
Also present is Ruger's diploma from USMA, approx. 17 x 22" on vellum, 16 June 1854. It is signed by Robert E. Lee as Capt. Corps Engineers & Bvt. Col. Superintendent and Commandant, and ten faculty, department heads for the most part: Dennis Mahan LL.D., Prof. of Engineering; Albert E. Church, LL.D., Prof. of Mathematics; Rev. Wm. T. Sprole, Prof. of Ethics; Geo. W. Cullum, Capt. of Instructor of Practical Military Engineering; Robert S. Garnett, Capt. 7th Infy. & Instructor of Military Tactics; William H. C. Bartlett, LL.D., Prof of Natural and Experimental Philosophy; Jacob W. Bailey, A.M., Prof. of Chemistry, Mineralogy & Geology; Robert W. Weir, NA, Professor of Drawing; Hyacinth R. Agnel, Prof. of French; and Fitz-John Porter, 1st. Lieut. & Bvt. Maj. 4th Arty., Instructor of Artillery and Cavalry. Cullum (USMA '33) is important as the one who began collecting biographies of all Academy graduates in 1850. All cadets now receive a "Cullum number" on entry to the Academy. Porter (USAM '45) went on to serve the Union during the Civil War. It would be difficult to overstate the richness of this collection, kept by a professional soldier of the highest caliber, a dedicated union man with a no-nonsense, efficient mode. The collection stands out in size, completeness, significance of the writer, importance of the content, and quality of writing, making this an exceptional opportunity and a rich resource for future study.
Descended directly in the family of General Thomas H. Ruger
Condition:
Auction Location:
6270 Este Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45232, United States
Previewing Details:
Tuesday, June 23, 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday, June 24 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Taxes:
| Tax | Rate | Desc. |
| Ohio |
5.5% |
Ohio State Tax |
Buyer's Premiums:
| From (Incl.) | To (Excl.) | Premium |
| 0.00 |
Infinite |
17.5% |
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Buyers are required to pay for all packing, shipping and insurance charges. Overseas duty charges are the responsibility of the successful bidder. Be aware that for larger and/or valuable items, shipping charges can be substantial.
17) REMOVAL AND STORAGE OF PROPERTY
If purchased property has not been removed, or Cowan's has not received shipping instructions within 21 days after the auction date, a $10 per item per day storage fee may be charged to the buyer.
18) CANCELLATION OF SALE
If purchased property remains in the custody of Cowan's for a period of 60 days following the auction, Cowan's may, at its option, cancel the sale, retaining as liquidated damages any payments made by the buyer, or resell the property at auction or by any other commercially reasonable means, and in such event, buyer shall be liable for the payment of all of Cowan's costs, including but not limited to storage and costs of sale.