MASSACHUSETTS REBEL

DANIEL RUGGLES WAS UNUSUAL.

He was one of only three men born in Massachusetts to become a general in the Confederate Army. He was also fortunate. The general avoided Yankee bullets, outlasted political and military opponents in the Confederacy, and died in Fredericksburg in 1897 at the age of 87. How and why did a man from the state considered the cradle of abolition come to fight for the Southern cause?

Ruggles was born on January 31, 1810, in Barre, Mass.—still a small town in the central part of the state—to a family with a colorful military background. He was named after his grandfather, the Honorable Daniel Ruggles, who hailed from neighboring Hardwick and served as a lieutenant in the American Revolution and as a justice of the peace afterward. His great uncle was Edward Ruggles, a “Minuteman,” who fought at the Battle of Lexington in 1775 and, a few years after the Revolution, helped put down Shays’ Rebellion in western Massachusetts.

Ruggles followed in the family military tradition. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1833. A mediocre student, he finished 34th in a class of 43 cadets. His years at West Point, however, began a military career that lasted 32 years and took him all over the United States. After leaving West Point, he was stationed in Wisconsin Territory, and then saw his first action in Florida during the Seminole Wars of the late 1830s. In the Mexican War, Ruggles was twice breveted for bravery, won a promotion to captain, and fought with General Winfield Scott’s forces as they captured Mexico City. In the 1850s, Ruggles served on posts along the Mexican border, Utah, and Texas.

Given his long United States service and his deep Yankee roots, it seems mystifying that