Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/715

tenant-colonel for his services at Chapultepec. From the close of that war until 1858 he was on duty mainly in Texas. After taking part in the Utah expedition, he was on sick leave of absence until the outbreak of the Confederate war, when he resigned from the United States army. He was commissioned brigadier-general of Virginia volunteers in April, and assigned to the command of the State forces along the line of the Potomac from Mount Vernon south, and in May was put in command of troops from the counties surrounding Fredericksburg, where he was stationed. His rank then became that of colonel in the provisional army. The troops under his command repulsed the attacks of Federal vessels at Aquia creek and Mathias point in June, 1861. In August following he was commissioned brigadier-general, provisional army. Confederate States, and ordered to Pensacola, Fla., and two months later to New Orleans, where he organized a brigade which was sent to Corinth early in 1862, General Bragg desiring the benefit of the experience and soldierly ability of Ruggles in that quarter. He reported the landing of Grant's army at Shiloh, March 16th, and in the great battle which followed, in April, he commanded the first division of Bragg's corps, consisting of the brigades of Anderson, Gibson and Pond, and was conspicuous through the two days' fight for the skill and gallantry with which he handled his troops. After he had driven the enemy from his front, a rally was made, which would have resulted disastrously to the Confederates if Ruggles had not made a rapid and masterly concentration of artillery at a point enfilading the right flank of Prentiss' division. The artillery, thus admirably placed, worked havoc in Prentiss' command, and drove back the reinforcements coming to his assistance, so that within an hour the entire command surrendered to the infantry attack, in which Ruggles' men had an important part. During the next day his troops fought valiantly, and he shared their danger, on one occasion leading the charge of the Seventeenth Louisiana, with its regimental flag in his hand. He fought the successful battle of Farmington, May 9th, and continued in division command during the siege of Corinth, but on June 26th was assigned to the district comprising the gulf counties of Mississippi and Louisiana east of the river. He commanded the left wing of Breckinridge's army in the successful battle of