Biography

Civil War Union Brigadier General. He was the grandson of Rufus King, delegate to the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Congress. Grandson King graduated near the top of his class at West point and was appointed an officer to the Engineer Corps in 1833. In 1861, he was appointed by President Lincoln as Minister to the Papal States of Italy, but when the Civil War broke out, he took a leave of absence to serve his country. He was appointed a Brigadier General of the Wisconsin militia on April 15, 1861 and given authorization to raise a Wisconsin Regiment. He succeeded in organizing what was known as the Wisconsin Iron Brigade but never commanded his unit in combat. In December, 1862, he was appointed as a justice on the Union Army Court Martial Board and resigned his commission in in October 1863 and resumed his Italy Ministerial post. 

First marriage to Ellen Elizabeth Eliot in 1836, she passed away two years later, after which, King married Susan McCown Eliot in 1843. In total he had three children; Rufus Jr., Charles, and Frances.

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Gen. Rufus King brought together the regiments known as the Iron Brigade and commanded them at the start of the Civil War. He was also an influential Wisconsin newspaper editor and political leader before the war.

Early Life
King was born in New York City and entered West Point in 1829, at age 15. After graduating in 1833, he served as an engineer in Virginia under Robert E. Lee and on the Great Lakes. He left the military to edit the Albany Evening Journal and served as Adjutant General of New York, 1840-1844. [nds note: King was Adjutant General from 1 Jan 1839]

He came to Milwaukee in September 1845 to edit the Milwaukee Sentinel. Under King's management, the Sentinel became a strong advocate first for the anti-slavery Whig Party and later for the Republicans. Besides editing that paper until 1861, he served in the 1848 Constitutional Convention, was Milwaukee's superintendent of schools, and was one of the first regents of the University of Wisconsin.

Civil War Service
Before the war broke out in April 1861, President Lincoln appointed King as ambassador to the Vatican. He was in New York boarding the boat for Europe when he heard of the attack on Fort Sumter. King rushed back to Washington, D.C., and was commissioned a brigadier general, with responsibility over the first brigade of Wisconsin volunteers that could be raised. He assembled them outside Washington over the summer of 1861, when he became a close friend of President Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward.

King's brigade was made up of the regiments that would later be called the Iron Brigade. He commanded it during the battles of Fredericksburg, Gainesville, South Mountain and Second Bull Run. The public blamed the series of Union defeats in 1862, in part, on his leadership. King was relieved of his command in 1863. His son later claimed that the charges were undeserved and that the dishonor ruined his health.

Later Life
After leaving the military King was reappointed ambassador to the Vatican for four years. In 1865 he was instrumental in capturing John Surratt, thought to be one of the conspirators in Lincoln's assassination who had escaped to Europe. After returning to the United States in 1867, King worked as a tax collector in New York City until his health failed and he became an invalid. He died in New York in 1876.
Appointed by WHS as NY State Adjutant General. The appointment was decided by WHS before he took office on 18390101.