Rufus R. Dawes

Rufus R. Dawes was a Lieutenant Colonel of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry.
== Antebellum ==
* Born on July 4, 1838
* Father and mother obtained legal separation a year after his birth
* Father moved to Wisconsin in 1855
* Briefly attended University of Wisconsin at Madison
* Graduated from Marietta College in the class of 1860 while living with his mother
* Moved to Wisconsin to help father with store, began clearing land outside of Mauston
== War Career ==
Dawes determined that he must act quickly if he were to make a name for himself in the coming conflict, and began organizing volunteers on April 25, 1861. He gathered 48 signatures on the first day, including that of Juneau County Prosecuting Attorney John A. Kellogg. When he collected signatures for the hundred or so volunteers that would make up the company, he gathered the future soldiers together at Langworthy's Hall in Mauston. On April 30, Dawes and Kellogg were elected to Captain and 1st Lieutenant of the company, and along with John Crane elected to 2nd Lieutenant, formed the first officers of the company. This company voted to call themselves "the Lemonwier Minute Men" after the river near their homes and after the American Minuteman tradition.Dawes, 6.
Dawes and the Lemonweir Minute Men were initially slated to form one of the first companies of the 7th Wisconsin Infantry. After the failure of several company to completely muster, Dawes received a telegram from the Military Secretary of Wisconsin calling the company into camp as soon as possible. With some difficulty, Dawes assembled as much of the company as he could and set off for Madison. They were mustered into Federal service as Company K of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry.
* Enlisted as a Captain of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry / Company K on May 3, 1861 at 22 years old
* Promoted to Major of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry on June 21, 1862
* Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry on March 10, 1863
* Promoted to Colonel of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry on July 5, 1864 (not mustered)
* Mustered out on August 10, 1864 when term expired
* Rejoined and promoted to Brevet Brigadier General of United States Volunteers on March 13, 1865
== Postwar Career ==
* Only returned to Mauston twice
** Once when father died unexpectedly in 1866
** Again in 1869 when closed the estate, worth between $50-60,000
* Children visited Mauston in 1926 when civil war pageant was held
* His mother never visited Mauston or Wisconsin, regarded it as "Little more than Indian country"
== Artifacts and Correspondence ==
 
 
 Memoir
Service with the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers
In 1890, Dawes published a collection of letters he sent during the war, preserved for him by his sister. He called this volume "(A Full Blown Yankee:) Service with the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers. In 1962, the State Historical Society of Wisconsin republished the collection in Madison, Wisconsin for the Wisconsin Civil War Centennial Commission. 
This source is available in its entirety on the WotRWiki! 
* To view more information on this source, click HERE
* To view the Home Category for this source, click HERE (This is the index for the source: each subcategory is a different chapter in the memoir, and leads to the individual pages of the source)
* To view the individual letters published in this source, without Dawes' commentary, click the Letters Tab above
* Citation: 
 
 
 Letters
 
</div>
== Family ==
* Henry Dawes (Father) (1804-1867), Married in 1829 to Sarah Cutler, from Ohio living in Wisconsin as general store operator and purchasing land for speculation
* Sarah Cutler (Mother) (1809-1896)
* Ephraim C. Dawes (Brother) - A Major under Generals Grant and Sherman in the Eastern Theater
* William Dawes (Jr.) (great-grandfather) - Paul Revere's riding companion before Lexington
* Mary Beman Gates Dawes (Wife)
** Charles Gates Dawes (Son) (August 27, 1865 – April 23, 1951) 
*** Banker, Politician 
*** 30th Vice President of the United States under Calvin Coolidge (1925–1929)
*** First World War veteran - cowinner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925 for his work on the Dawes Plan for World War I reparations 
*** Comptroller of the Currency
*** First director of the Bureau of the Budget
*** Ambassador to the United Kingdom
** Rufus C. Dawes (Son)
*** Businessman and lawyer
*** Awarded Chicago's "Most Distinguished Citizen Award" in 1934
** Beman Gates Dawes (Son)
*** Congressman from Ohio
** Henry May Dawes (Son)
*** Banker
*** Comptroller of the Currency for the United States under Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge 
** Mary Frances Dawes Beach (Daughter)
** Betsey Dawes Hoyt (Daughter)
== Notes ==
== Sources ==
* 
* (Pages 494, 533)
=== Other Sources ===
* Herdegan, IBiCWaM, 53
* IMAGE Herdegan, IBiCWaM, 54
* A Memoir, Rufus R. Dawes (privately printed 1900)
* Brigadier General Rufus R. Dawes William E. Roe - Dawes-Gates Ancestral Lines Volume 1 (privately printed, 1943)
Dawes
Dawes
Dawes
Dawes
Dawes
Dawes
Dawes
Dawes
Dawes