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 11th. 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 Cot. 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 
