10/15/2026
Meeting Summary: October 2026 – "The Dawes Brothers"
The October 2026 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable featured a very engrossing presentation by Steve Magnusen. Steve's presentation focused on the Dawes brothers, Rufus and Ephraim, with emphasis on their Civil War service. Steve began his presentation by discussing why he chose to study the Dawes brothers, and he gave a few reasons for this. Among those reasons was that each of the brothers wrote recollections of the Civil War and that both brothers had heroic actions during the Civil War, which makes their war experiences compelling. Another reason is that they were members of a family with an exceptional history. Steve noted that William Dawes, the great-grandfather of Rufus and Ephraim, rode with Paul Revere and that maternal ancestors of the Dawes brothers played essential roles in bringing about the migration of settlers into Ohio and in the formation of settlements in that future state, specifically Marietta. In addition, these maternal ancestors were the driving force behind the policies that molded the Northwest Territory, in particular the exclusion of slavery. Steve further noted that the father of the Dawes brothers, Henry Dawes, was not an exemplary husband or parent. Henry's wife Sarah Dawes (née Cutler) was very unhappy in her marriage and eventually left Henry and then obtained a marital separation. The agreement for this required that Rufus and Ephraim live with their father, who moved to Wisconsin.
At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Rufus recruited a regiment, the 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which became part of the Iron Brigade. Ephraim enlisted in the 53rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which became part of a division commanded by William Tecumseh Sherman. Steve went on to describe the Civil War service of the two brothers, and some of their experiences were truly impressive. For example, at the Battle of Shiloh, Ephraim shouted a warning to Sherman that he was under fire, and Sherman moved his hand in front of his face, which resulted in Sherman receiving a minor wound in his hand rather than being shot in the head. As for Rufus, he was in the major battles in the Eastern Theater including Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg among others. At Chancellorsville, Rufus' regiment along with another regiment were ordered to make a crossing of the Rappahannock River under fire from Confederates on the other side of the river, which was an extremely dangerous movement. But the crossing was accomplished, and the Confederates were driven off, which allowed the rest of the I Corps to cross the river.
Steve also said that at the Battle of Dallas, which was part of Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, Ephraim was severely wounded in the face by a bullet that took off part of his lower jaw and lower teeth. He was honorably discharged and later had surgery for facial reconstruction. As Steve described, the chloroform anesthesia was not totally effective, and Ephraim could feel the surgeon cutting into his face during the procedure. The procedure and false teeth did restore Ephraim's face quite well, and he grew a beard to conceal the scars. Steve ended his presentation by discussing the post-war years of the Dawes brothers.
The Roundtable is grateful to Steve for his detailed and engrossing presentation about Rufus and Ephraim Dawes. Presentations like Steve's are extremely beneficial, because such presentations focus on the people who were responsible for carrying out the difficult and dangerous tasks that made the successful outcomes in the Civil War possible. We thank Steve for educating us about the lives and Civil War experiences of Rufus and Ephraim Dawes, two people who made essential and heroic contributions to the Union war effort.
A more detailed summary of Steve's excellent presentation is on the home page of the Roundtable's website (www.clevelandcivilwarroundtable.com).
