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R. Ingalls

R. Ingalls

Federal (USA)

Lieutenant Colonel

Rufus Ingalls

(1819 - 1893)

Home State: Maine

Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1843;Class Rank: 32

Command Billet: Chief Quartermaster

Branch of Service: Supply

Unit: Army of the Potomac

 

see his Battle Report

Before Antietam

After graduation from West Point in 1843 he served with the US Rifles, then, from 1845, in the 1st US Dragoons, as Lieutenant. He saw action in the Mexican War (1847-8), and was promoted to Captain and Assistant Quartermaster in 1848. He then served on expeditions and posts in the West.

He returned east at the outbreak of the War in early 1861, serving first at Fort Pickens, Florida, then at Washington DC. He was Lieutenant Colonel and ADC in September 1861, and promoted from Captain to Major, Regular Army, in January 1862. He joined the Army of the Potomac as Chief Quartermaster in mid-1862 on the Peninsula Campaign.

On the Campaign

He was Chief QM, AoP, on General McClellan's staff at Antietam.

The rest of the War

He was promoted to Brigadier General, US Volunteers in May 1863, and continued in service with the Army of the Potomac through 1864, then he was Chief Quartermaster for all the armies operating around Richmond until the end of the war.

After the War

He continued his US Army career in the Quartermaster Corps, appointed Lieutenant Colonel, USA, on 27 July 1866 and Colonel, Assistant QM General the next day. He was at headquarters in Washington, and depots in New York, San Francisco and Chicago. He was promoted Brigadier General and Quartermaster of the Army in February 1882 and retired from active duty the next year.

He lived in Oregon til 1891 when he moved to New York City.

References & notes

Service dates from Heitman 1 and biographical details from the US Army QM Museum.2

Birth

8/23/1819; Denmark, ME

Death

1/15/1893; New York City, NY

Notes

1   Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, pg. 562  [AotW citation 165]

2   US Army, U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum, Published 2001-, first accessed 01 March 2005, <http://www.qmmuseum.lee.army.mil/index.html>, Source page: /BG_Rufus_Ingalls.htm  [AotW citation 166]