Just Married!
Rufus Dawes and Mary Gates "tie the knot" on a cold January 18 pre-dawn mini-ceremony held in her parent's home parlor. Then soon after, travel by rail to Milwaukee, catching up with his regiment now on leave. Rufus' sister Lucy pens a quick follow-up letter, quipping to her new sister, Mary: "I hope the roses have come back to your cheeks, for you looked as tho you were led to the “halter” ra . . .
Courage creates a title: "The Iron Brigade"
"McClellan and Hooker have seen many units fight battles. These soldiers under General Gibbon are tough, tough as iron, and they say so. The name sticks. Gibbon's brigade earned their name, forever after the "Iron Brigade", in the bloody darkness on the slopes of Turner's Gap, along both sides of the winding National Road, on a Sunday evening, September 14, 1862."
August 27, 1842 - Marietta, Ohio - MARY BEMAN GATES enters the world
The Gates home, corner of Fourth and Putnam.
Beman Gates: "We are parents! Can you believe it? Mr. and Mrs. Beman Gates are parents!” An exhausted Betsey Sybil Shipman Gates, lying weak but peaceful now in her bed, smiles at her husband and replies, “Yes, dear, I very well know . . .