author
James Fowler Rusling
1834–1918
A Civil War officer, lawyer, and lively travel writer, this 19th-century author turned a wide-ranging public career into vivid books about war, the American West, and family history. His work blends firsthand experience with a sharp eye for people, places, and the making of modern America.
1 Audiobook
Across America; Or, The Great West and the Pacific Coast
by James Fowler Rusling
About the author
Born in Warren County, New Jersey, in 1834, James Fowler Rusling studied at the Pennington School and graduated from Dickinson College in 1854. He later read law and was admitted to the New Jersey bar, building a career that moved between public service, military duty, and writing.
During the American Civil War, he served with the 5th New Jersey Infantry and later in the Quartermaster Corps, eventually receiving the brevet rank of brigadier general. After the war he remained active as a lawyer and public figure, and his firsthand experience fed into the historical and memoir writing for which he is best remembered.
Rusling wrote on several subjects, including travel, war, and genealogy. His best-known books include Across America; or, The Great West and the Pacific Coast, a travel account of the expanding United States, and Men and Things I Saw in Civil War Days, a memoir drawn from his wartime experience. He died in 1918, leaving behind work that captures both the movement and the memory of 19th-century American life.