Growing up, Rue lived the agricultural based existence of a Presbyterian Family in antebellum Kentucky. The exact extent of his education is unknown, other than that he attended the local schools in Harrodsburg.
Rue reached the age of 18 in 1846 just as the Mexican War was beginning, later saying, “The soldier’s life always had attractions for me.” Joining the 2nd Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Rue served in Major General, and later president, Zachary Taylor’s Army of Occupation. The lieutenant colonel of Rue’s regiment, who would not survive the war, was Henry Clay Jr., son of “The Great Compromiser.”
Rue’s first experience with combat came on Feb. 22-23, 1847 at the Battle of Buena Vista. After Antonio López de Santa Anna’s Mexican forces feigned an attack on the American right flank, the 2nd Kentucky was rushed to high ground to defend Colonel Braxton Bragg’s artillery.
When the actual Mexican assault came on a plateau at the American center, Rue’s regiment was redeployed to reinforce troops in that area. When they arrived there, they joined two other regiments and an artillery battery in beating back the Mexican forces.
As the battle continued and the tactical situation changed, the 2nd Kentucky, as well as the 1st Illinois, was ordered to advance and attack the retreating Mexican force. However, what they ran into instead was Santa Anna’s regrouped and consolidated forces already on the attack and vastly outnumbering the American troops. Rue was at the pinnacle of the slaughter that ensued as his regiment broke and fled to the safety of friendly artillery while being pursued by mounted Mexican lancers.
Not among the 37% of his regiment killed at Buena Vista, Rue survived the war and was discharged after a year’s service. He returned to farming in Kentucky and in 1853 married Elizabeth (Brower) Rue, who died within a year of their marriage.
It is unknown exactly when Rue came to Butler County for the first time, but records verify that he married Mary Amanda (Kline) Rue, a migrant from Pennsylvania, in Butler County on Dec. 20, 1855. The couple would eventually raise four children, Isaac Rue, Cornelia Rue, Mary Rue and George Rue.
By 1860, the Rues were back in Harrodsburg living on the family farm. As tensions rose and the Civil War appeared imminent, families in the boarder state of Kentucky were divided in their loyalties to preserving the union or succeeding from it.
On Aug. 10, 1862 Rue joined the Union Army, appointed major of the 9th Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry. A testament to his standing amongst his peers, Rue raised 448 volunteers within a single day at Eminence, Kentucky on Aug. 22, 1862 to fill the regiment’s ranks.
Rue’s unit operated in support of Union forces before, during, and after the Battle of Perryville and following its conclusion helped chase Bragg’s Army, the same Bragg that Rue had defended at Buena Vista, out of Kentucky. Following the campaign, the 9th Kentucky conducted counterinsurgency operations against Confederate guerillas Champ Ferguson and William Pegram.
However, these insurgents paled in comparison to Confederate brigadier general John Hunt Morgan who broke out on a raid behind Union lines in June 1863. As Morgan’s Raiders, as they would be known to history, made their way toward Indiana, Rue’s regiment was among those sent in pursuit. However, due to illness, Rue was left behind.
Invading the north with federals on their heels, Morgan’s Raiders looped through Indiana and headed for the Ohio border. They avoided large troop concentrations and fortifications in Cincinnati and Hamilton, sending screening forces towards both cities while the main force passed through Harrison, Bevis, Sharonville, Glendale, Evendale, Blue Ash, and Deer Park before continuing east.
All of southwestern Ohio was in full panic, with martial law being declared in Hamilton to both protect the city and keep local Copperheads and Southern sympathizers from helping the raiders. According to a report created after the raid, in attempting to defend Butler County Union troops caused three and half times more damage, by value, than did Morgan’s Raiders in the county.
Meanwhile, Rue had recovered and made his way to Cincinnati by rail looking for his regiment. He reported to General Ambrose Burnside who, after a couple days, detailed him to form a composite cavalry force and head out via rail to get ahead of and intercept Morgan.
Union forces caught up to Morgan twice during his incursion, first on July 19, 1863 at the Battle of Buffington Island as his men tried to cross into West Virginia and then again on July 26, 1863 at the Battle of Salineville. The latter of these battles greatly depleted Morgan’s forces.
Rue’s men worked their way through trails, creek beds, and backroads to get in front of Morgan’s advance. Achieving this near West Point, Ohio, Rue rapidly positioned his troopers to receive Morgan’s Raiders.
Almost immediately Morgan and his remaining men rode up to Rue’s position and halted their advance upon seeing his troops lying in wait for them. Under a flag of truce, Morgan first requested Rue’s surrender and then tried to trick him and say he had already surrendered to another unit. Having none of it, Rue insisted that Morgan surrender directly to him.
With Morgan’s eventual acquiescence, Rue rode into his camp to accept his surrender, claiming that he greeted Morgan with, “I’m glad to see you, but I don’t think you are glad to see me.” Accepting Morgan’s surrender, Rue became known to history as the captor of John Hunt Morgan, though others would also make the claim.
Turning over his prisoner to higher command, Rue returned to Kentucky with his regiment. He was discharged July 16, 1863, taking with him two prized souvenirs of the war, a sword given to him by his regiment and the sword Morgan handed over to him as his formal act of surrender.
Just after the conclusion of the war, Rue permanently brought his family to Butler County, purchasing a farm in Section 3, Town 1, Range 2, Fairfield Twp. on Sep. 9, 1865. Growing increasingly active in the Hamilton community, Rue moved closer and closer to town, first residing in Lindenwald, then an unincorporated “village,” by 1880 and then moving into the city itself. He eventually resided in an unassuming home at 236 N. 11th St., in the Dayton-Campbell neighborhood, where he would spend the rest of his life.
Giving up farming, Rue worked as an insurance salesman and agent for Traveler’s Insurance Company after relocating to Hamilton. He became a charter member of Hamilton’s Wetzel-Compton Post No. 96, Grand Army of the Republic upon its formation in 1881 and took an active part in the organization’s efforts to build the Butler County Soldiers, Sailors, and Pioneers Monument.
In 1887, Rue became one the first six letter carriers ever appointed by the Hamilton Post Office. Another of the six, W.F. Sauer later recounted that Rue tried to make his deliveries using a horse and buggy instead of walking a route, but the method proved infeasible and Rue only did the job for a short period of time.
Mary died on Dec. 14, 1889, leaving Rue a widower. He married for the last time at age 67 on July 3, 1895, wedding Marietta or Maryetta “Nettie” Miller (Seward) Rue, a 44-year-old widow. That same year, uncontented with the Hamilton Presbyterian Church, Rue joined in the formation of the Westminster Presbyterian Church.
Questioning institutional structures seems to have been a theme of Rue’s later life. Although later referred to in his obituary, published in the Hamilton Daily Democrat, as “always being a staunch Democrat,” other evidence from earlier in his life shows that he sought political appointment as a Republican. Perhaps not finding contentment with either party platform, in 1901 Rue chaired a committee studying the possibility of forming an unnamed local third party, though it never came into being.
On Sept. 21, 1910 Rue left Hamilton with an invitation to attend the dedication of a monument in eastern Ohio near where he had captured Morgan. It was a last hurrah for the old soldier who died back in Hamilton on April 3, 1911.
His grave is marked with a Union Army headstone in the G.A.R. Section of Greenwood Cemetery alongside the other veterans from the organization who fought to preserve the union.
Brad Spurlock is the manager of the Smith Library of Regional History and Cummins Local History Room, Lane Libraries. A certified archivist, Brad has over a decade of experience working with local history, maintaining archival collections and collaborating on community history projects.
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