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Marsena Rudolph Patrick was an American military and agriculturist.
Background
Marsena Rudolph Patrick was born on March 11, 1811 in Watertown, Jefferson County, New York, United States. He was of Scotch-Irish and English colonial and revolutionary stock, the tenth and youngest child of John and Miriam (White) Patrick. His father's family, originally Kill Patrick, had dropped the prefix soon after reaching New England early in the eighteenth century.
Education
In 1831 Marsena Rudolph Patrick was studying medicine. He was appointed to the United States Military Academy in nearby West Point as the protégé of Gen. Stephen van Rensselaer, he graduated in 1835, forty-eighth in a class of fifty-one.
Career
Running away from home, where his mother's excessive Puritanism dominated, Marsena Rudolph Patrick became a driver on the Erie Canal and taught school. In 1835 he was brevetted second lieutenant of infantry. The Seminole War, staff duty, General Wool's Mexican expedition, and military routine occupied his life from 1837 to 1850, when (though a captain and brevet major) he resigned and engaged in scientific agriculture at Geneva, New York. In 1859 he became president of the New York State Agricultural College, at Ovid. An antecedent of Cornell University, the institution was chartered in 1853, and the cornerstone of its first building was laid in 1859. The following year, with one wing of the building completed and with a faculty of five, the college opened. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Patrick resigned. Preferring service with volunteers, he declined reappointment in the regular army but was persuaded by Governor Morgan to become inspector general of New York volunteers in May 1861.
In March 1862, at McClellan's request, Marsena Rudolph Patrick was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers. As a part of King's Division, McDowell's Corps (recalled to protect Washington), Patrick's brigade saw no service on the Peninsula but participated in the second Manassas and Antietam campaigns, during which the volunteers learned the value of his stern discipline. His tactical skill was recognized by officers of both armies but, to his regret, staff duty again took him from the line, his capacity for great combat leadership untested. With the Army of the Potomac disorganized by battle and change of leaders, McClellan, in October 1862, appointed him provost marshal-general. Although charged with a host of duties, from maintaining order to securing military information, he was conscientious, vigorous, and capable. Successive commanders in turn found him almost indispensable. In 1864 Grant designated him provost marshal-general of all the armies operating against Richmond, and on March 13, 1865, he was brevetted major-general of volunteers for "faithful and meritorious service, " a tardy recognition. The rank and file respected and loved him; the Sanitary and Christian Commissions found him a faithful supporter; while the Southern citizenry counted him a friend albeit a conquering invader.
Following Appomattox, he commanded the district of Henrico (including Richmond), but in June 1865 Grant suggested to Halleck that Patrick be relieved lest his kindheartedness "interfere with the proper government of the city. " Relieved shortly afterward, at his own request, he resigned from the army, June 12, 1865, and went home. Disgust for Republican policies now led him momentarily into politics as the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for state treasurer. A few years later, as president of the New York State Agricultural Society (1867 - 1868), he pioneered for conservation and reforestation; to check the migration from country to city, he advocated a cottage system for farm workers. His last years, following his wife's death in 1880, were spent in Ohio as governor of the Central Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Dayton.
Marsena Rudolph Patrick died in Dayton, Ohio, on July 27, 1888 and was buried in the Dayton National Cemetery.
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
Personality
Of commanding presence, with patriarchal beard and thunderous voice, a self-disciplined Presbyterian fearing God only, Marsena Rudolph Patrick had the air of an Old Testament prophet with a dash of the Pharisee.
Connections
In 1836, while stationed at Fort Mackinac, Marsena Rudolph Patrick married Mary Madeline McGulpin, niece of an agent employed in the Astor fur trade.