General Rufus Saxton ALS 8vo, 1page, Washington D.C.m April 28, 1896 .
"My Dear Sir, I have your postal of Apl. 24th asking a reply you
ours of March 23rd. It was never received by me. Very Respectfully
Yours, Rufus Saxton.”
Saxton received
America's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions defending Harpers
Ferry during Confederate
General Jackson's Valley
Campaign. After the war he served as
the Freedmen's Bureau's first assistant commissioner. Saxton was
an abolitionist and proponent for
greater civil rights for blacks. According to an account by his close personal
friend, author Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Saxton "had been almost the only cadet in his time at West Point
who was strong in anti-slavery feeling, and who thus began with antagonisms
which lasted into actual service."[
In 1866, Saxton testified before Congress's Joint Committee on Reconstruction, saying "I think if the Negro is put in possession of all his rights as a citizen and as a man, he will be peaceful, orderly, and self-sustaining as any other man or class of men, and that he will rapidly advance." Saxton also spoke in Congress against widespread confiscation of firearms owned by African-Americans, stating such actions were "clear and direct violation of their personal rights" as described in the Second Amendment.
Saxton appointed his friend, author and abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson, colonel of the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, the first official black regiment. Rufus Saxton figures prominently in Higginson's book Army Life in a Black Regiment (1870). On the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Higginson and Saxton were both presented with engraved silver ceremonial swords by the freedmen.We are currently not accepting orders on-line. If you would like to purchase this item please email medhurstmd@aol.com or give a call 913-851-8462