The Meanest and Damnest Job : Being the Civil War Exploits and Civilian Accomplishments of Colonel Edmund Winchester Rucker During and after the War

During the Civil War, it was recorded by several observers that Edmund Winchester Rucker had a "bulldog look" when engaged in battle. He was a fearless leader who inspired his subordinates to fight as hard as he did himself. Before the war, he was a city engineer for the town of Memphis. He entered the war as a military engineer and directed construction of several Confederate forts along the Mississippi River. As an artillery commander, he was able to hold off the United States Army as it attempted to take possession of the river. Later, on special duty in east Tennessee, he was assigned leadership of "Rucker's Legion," a rarely utilized unit consisting of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. He developed a close friendship with General Nathan Bedford Forrest that led to their becoming postwar business partners. Book jacket.