Saxton, Rufus, 1824-1908

Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands.

Brigadier General who commanded the District of Beaufort, Department of the South, 1863-1865, and served as assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina, 1865; Saxton recruited and trained the 1st South Carolina Colored Volunteers; 1849 graduate of West Point; explorer of Rocky Mountains; belatedly received Medal of Honor for his defense of Harpers Ferry during the 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign.

Army officer.

Brigadier-general, U.S. Army, Department of the South.

Rufus Saxton was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, in 1824 and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1849. During the Civil War he participated in the Port Royal Expedition and in May 1862, Saxton was appointed the military governor of the Department of the South. From his headquarters in Beaufort, South Carolina, he organized the first black regiment in the United States Army. In 1865 Saxton became commissioner for the Freedmen's Bureau and a year later returned to the Quartermasters Corps. He retired in 1888 and died in 1908.

Samuel Willard Saxton was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts in 1829. A printer by training, Saxton lived at Brook Farm (1845-1847), working on The Harbinger, and then he moved to Boston to carry on his trade. During the Civil War he served as an aide-de-camp to his brother, General Rufus Saxton, in South Carolina. In 1866 S. Willard Saxton became a civilian employee of the Freedmen's Bureau in Washington, D.C. and remained with the agency until 1869. He then became an employee of the Treasury Department and continued in various governmental offices until his retirement in 1920. Saxton died in 1933.

Rufus Saxton, 1824-1908

Rufus Saxton was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts in 1824 and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1849. During the Civil War he participated in the Port Royal Expedition and in May 1862, Saxton was appointed the military governor of the Department of the South. From his headquarters in Beaufort, South Carolina, he organized the first black regiment in the United States Army. In 1865 Saxton became commissioner for the Freedmen's Bureau and a year later returned to the Quartermasters Corps. He retired in 1888 and died in 1908.

Samuel Willard Saxton, 1829-1933

Samuel Willard Saxton was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1829. As an adolescent Saxton was apprenticed to a printer, and from 1845 to 1847 he lived at George Ripley's Brook Farm, where he worked on The Harbinger . When Brook Farm was dissolved he went to work in Boston, where he lived off and on for the next fifteen years.

In 1862 Saxton joined his brother General Rufus Saxton in South Carolina. During the remainder of the Civil War Saxton served as his brother's aide-de-camp. He was brevetted major in 1865. Saxton remained in South Carolina on the staff of General Robert K. Howard until 1866 when he became a civilian employee of the Freedmen's Bureau. In 1869 Saxton was appointed to a position in the office of the First Comptroller of the Treasury and eventually rose to be chief of his division. Saxton retired from the government in 1921.

In 1861 Saxton married Mary Grant. They had seven children: Edward, Fanny (d. 1869), Minnie, Mattie, Louise, Katharine, and Beth. Saxton died in 1933 at the age of 103.