60 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



GARFIELD, then driving a canal mule. After his stage-coaching 

 days he was employed for a short period as a foreman of graders 

 on the Zanesville and Wilmington railroad, later the Muskingum 

 Valley. About 1852 he became a cooper, making large numbers 

 of barrels in the old log house on his mother's farm, these barrels 

 being sold to the salt industry then conducted along the Muskin- 

 gum. In 1853 with his wife and two children, he migrated to 

 Viroqua, Wis., where there were numerous settlers from Morgan 

 and Perry counties, Ohio. Here he became a tavern keeper, a 

 thresherman, and stage driver, owning the line between Prairie 

 du Chien and Black River Falls. In 1855 he was elected sheriff, 

 in 1857 coroner, and in 1861 a member of the state assembly. 



In 1862 he recruited the 25th Wisconsin infantry and was com- 

 missioned as its Major, later becoming Lieutenant Colonel. He 

 participated in the siege of Vicksburg, June 7th to July 4th, 1863, 

 and in fourteen major actions thereafter, the 25th Regiment being 

 a part of General Sherman's army. After dismissal from the 

 service he was brevetted a Brigadier General for conspicuous 

 gallantry in crossing the Salkehatchie River, South Carolina, in 

 February, 1865. His regiment participated in the review of 

 Sherman's army, May 24, 1865, at Washington, was mustered out 

 June 7th, and disbanded at Madison, June llth. The mortality 

 record of the 25th was the largest of any Wisconsin regiment, 

 and much of its conspicuous gallantry was due to the dash and 

 zealous activity of COL. RUSK. . In 1865 he was elected State Bank 

 Comptroller, an office to which he was re-elected in 1867. In 

 1870 he was elected to Congress and served for a period of seven 

 years. He then returned to his farm, organizing a bank and pro- 

 curing the extension of a railway from Sparta to Viroqua. While 

 in Congress, SENATOR RUSK was a member of the committee on 

 agriculture and at the Republican national convention of 1880 he 

 was largely instrumental in causing the break that nominated 

 GARFIELD for president. Later he was offered several missions by 



