★★★ Rucker, Edmund Winchester

Edmund Winchester Rucker

Born: July 22, 1835
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Birthplace: Murfreesboro, Rutherford County, Tennessee

Father: Dr. Edmund Rucker 1800 – 1861

Mother: Louisa Orville Winchester 1810 – 1888
(Buried: Cragfont Cemetery, Gallatin, Tennessee)​

Wife: Mary Adele Woodfin 1854 – 1883
(Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama)​

Wife: Mary Thomas Bentley 1860 – 1941
(Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama)​

Children:
Doctor Edmund Winchester Rucker Jr 1878 -
Louise Winchester Rucker Agee Born 1875

Lilian Mary Rucker 1882 – 1883​
(Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama)​

Occupation before War:
Worked on the Surveying crew for Nashville & Decatur Railroad​
Established an Engineering & Surveying business in Memphis, Tennessee​
1858 – 1861: Memphis, Tennessee City Engineer​

Civil War Career:
1861 – 1865: Served in the Confederate Cavalry under Nathan Forrest​
Colonel and Commander of Rucker's Legion Cavalry​
1864: Participated in the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee​
1864: Wounded in Arm during the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee Capture​

Occupation after War:
President of Salem, Marion, and Memphis Railroad Company​
President of Birmingham Compress and Warehouse Company
Colonel Rucker after War.jpg
Vice President of Sloss Iron and Steel Company​
Vice President & Director of Alabama National Bank​
Vice President of American Coal Company​
Worked on Railroad Project in Alabama with General Nathan Forrest​
Industrial Businessman in Birmingham, Alabama​

Died: April 13, 1924

Place of Death: Birmingham, Alabama

Age at time of Death: 88 years old

Burial Place: Oak Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama

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As just a sidelight, Rucker is buried just down the hill from the GAR Plot and the Rucker name is still well known around the Birmingham area. Also, if you ever wish to visit Oak Hill Cemetery (where many of the founders of Birmingham are buried); it is downtown just Northwest of the Civic Center. Fort Rucker (where the military trains their helicopter pilots) is named in honor of Colonel Rucker.
 
Occupation after War:
President of Salem, Marion and Memphis Railroad Company

What was the Memphis Railroad Company?
I was reading a biography of a Tennessean who was also part of this company. Did it have anything to do with the operation of the Memphis & Charleston RailRoad?
 
Fort Rucker (where the military trains their helicopter pilots) is named in honor of Colonel Rucker.

Also the home of the US Army Aviation Museum. If you like Helo's, you need to make the drive down to Fort Rucker.
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Lots of Helicopters and of course many Bell models.
Here is an Viet Nam era AH-1G attack helo hovering over an AH-1S(Modernized) Cobra armed with TOW missiles.
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Before being transferred to cavalry in 1862 Rucker was given command of a group of Illinoisans who wanted to join the Confederacy. I'm thinking this was an artillery unit but not sure?

He initially had enlisted in a unit of sappers and miners. Later he commanded a battery (with said Illinoisians) in the 1st TN Heavy Artillery.
 
What was the Memphis Railroad Company?
I was reading a biography of a Tennessean who was also part of this company. Did it have anything to do with the operation of the Memphis & Charleston RailRoad?

It's hard to tell now, DixieRifles! That is the Selma, Marion, Memphis Railroad Company that began in 1859 and was three different companies of the same name until its final incarnation as the Selma, Marion, Memphis Railroad Company of Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama. The general books of the company are gone - they were in the company's former president's house when it burned to the ground with nothing saved - that former president being Forrest. The bankrupt company came up for auction in 1871- Rucker had been a partner with Forrest in this enterprise earlier and he and two other partners bid for the line and got it. They did little better and ended in bankruptcy again. Think they'd gotten 43 miles finished and there it ended. That line had a whammy on it, I guess!
 
I haven't been online much lately, but while doing a search today this thread popped up. My great grandfather was Alex Campbell Rucker. He was Edmund's younger brother. My gr grandfather, Alex served in the 2nd (Bate's) Tennessee Infantry and then transferred into the signal corp. My grandfather's name is also Edmund Rucker. He was Alex's son. Both Edmund Winchester Rucker and my grandfather, Edmund Patrick Rucker are named after my 2nd great grandfather, Dr. Edmund P. Rucker, who died in November, 1861, after being tied to a fence and made to watch his home burn in Wilson County, Tennessee. He walked to his daughters home in Marengo, Dayton, Alabama where he collapsed and died. My great grandfather, Alex died at the Pewee Valley Old Confederates Home in Oldham County, Kentucky in 1922.
 
Edmund Winchester Rucker

Born: July 22, 1835View attachment 342167

Birthplace: Murfreesboro, Rutherford County, Tennessee

Father: Dr. Edmund Rucker 1800 – 1861

Mother: Louisa Orville Winchester 1810 – 1888
(Buried: Cragfont Cemetery, Gallatin, Tennessee)​

Wife: Mary Adele Woodfin 1854 – 1883
(Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama)​

Wife: Mary Thomas Bentley 1860 – 1941
(Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama)​

Children:
Lilian Mary Rucker 1882 – 1883​
(Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama)​

Occupation before War:
Worked on the Surveying crew for Nashville & Decatur Railroad​
Established an Engineering & Surveying business in Memphis, Tennessee​
1858 – 1861: Memphis, Tennessee City Engineer​

Civil War Career:
1861 – 1865: Served in the Confederate Cavalry under Nathan Forrest​
Colonel and Commander of Rucker's Legion Cavalry​
1864: Participated in the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee​
1864: Wounded in Arm during the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee Capture​

Occupation after War:
President of Salem, Marion, and Memphis Railroad Company​
President of Birmingham Compress and Warehouse CompanyView attachment 342168
Vice President of Sloss Iron and Steel Company​
Vice President & Director of Alabama National Bank​
Vice President of American Coal Company​
Worked on Railroad Project in Alabama with General Nathan Forrest​
Industrial Businessman in Birmingham, Alabama​

Died: April 13, 1924

Place of Death: Birmingham, Alabama

Age at time of Death: 88 years old

Burial Place: Oak Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, Alabama

He had two other children not mentioned.

Doctor Edmund Winchester Rucker Jr
Born 3 May 1878 in Birmingham, Jefferson, Alabama

Louise Winchester Rucker Agee Born 1875
 
This in no way reflects on the person who posted that last newspaper article. Good job, by the way.The article refers to Rucker as a "General", I'm not sure and will do some checking and cross-checking but didn't Rucker only go as high as Colonel in rank?
 
This in no way reflects on the person who posted that last newspaper article. Good job, by the way.The article refers to Rucker as a "General", I'm not sure and will do some checking and cross-checking but didn't Rucker only go as high as Colonel in rank?
Yes, after the War, he got his "meritorious" promotion as many veterans did. Privates were suddenly majors and above.
 
This in no way reflects on the person who posted that last newspaper article. Good job, by the way.The article refers to Rucker as a "General", I'm not sure and will do some checking and cross-checking but didn't Rucker only go as high as Colonel in rank?
Thanks for the comment. I had also looked at the earlier posting by @John Hartwell , which also referred to Rucker as “General”. Now I am intrigued....
One more reason I enjoy the vast collective knowledge shared by this group’s members.....
 
One of the brigades under General Forrest ( Chalmer's Division, I think) was intially led by James J. Neely. Command was taken away and given to Rucker. Some of the other regimental commanders resented an "Outsider" taking over and some refused to obey Rucker's orders. Some of them wrote to Rucker and requested his not taking command. They were arrested and suspended from command except Neely who was cashiered and kicked out of the Army on Oct. 18, 1864.
 
This in no way reflects on the person who posted that last newspaper article. Good job, by the way.The article refers to Rucker as a "General", I'm not sure and will do some checking and cross-checking but didn't Rucker only go as high as Colonel in rank?
First of all I must apologise for my Post #8 above, wherein the Obituary from the Birmingham News (14 April 1924) is inexcusably incomplete. Somehow I neglected to include the portion between Gen. Rucker's photograph, and the text (which begins "continued from page 1"), which portion I attach below:
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I wish there were some way to add a note to said Post #8 that the omission is posted here.

The earliest mention of Rucker as a General that I have found in any newspaper, North or South, is in the reports of his capture, where he is designated as "Brigadier General E. W. Rucker" in multiple northern papers. After the war his is consistently "Gen. Rucker."
 
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There is an interesting book about Rucker that just came out a year or two ago. The title comes from a quote by Rucker and its written by a descendant,a great grandson I believe, Mike Rucker. The book is "The Meanest and Damnest Job". When Rucker was assigned duty in Tennessee in 1862 to help maintain martial law, He called this the "...meanest and damnest job a soldier ever had to do".
 
A good article about his leadership with the University of Alabama Cadets, who are themselves a great story:

View attachment 378154 This is an extract, which I think I found within their muster rolls. Was written by Mr. Bracken in 1931. Probably the Montgomery Advertiser....
Sadly the plaque honoring the Alabama Cadets, which was on the outer wall of the University of Alabama Library was recently removed due to phobia to eradicate our history......hr
 
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