I want to give a special thanks to Shirley Starks for sponsoring this site for the coming year.

John Robert Rust was born June 14, 1840, on the Ashby Farm in Warren County, Virginia. His father was Charles Buckner Carroll Rust, son of Judge John Rust and Elizabeth Marshall, and his mother was Mary Ann Ashby, daughter of Robert B. Ashby and Elizabeth Ash. John Robert Rust enlisted in Company A, 7th Virginia Cavalry, under Captain Turner Ashby, his relative. After Ashby's death, He then went to Company I, 12th Va. Cav., Rosser's Brigade. Although never having been promoted to Captain, Lt. John Robert Rust commanded the company from June 17, 1863, until he was captured February 18, 1865. Lt. Rust was then taken to Fort McHenry, Md., and was paroled on May 2, 1865, after being forced to take the Oath of Allegiance.

John Robert Rust was always called Captain John R. Rust, but note in the CW Docs "JRR Robbed of the Captaincy" that he was never officially promoted to Captain. From this letter, it appears that he must have been told to stop using the title. Elizabeth Antrim Rust (Williams) said that the family story was that his Captaincy papers were on the desk of (whoever needed to sign them) when the war ended. JRR was acting Captain of the company much of the time. His War Record, obtained from Richmond, lists him as Lieutenant John Rust, and he signed his name as Lt. John R. Rust through the end of the war.

JRR's war record lists him as having been captured twice, but the only family stories handed down, were of the one capture that he talks about in his diary on January of 1865. I have seen no other mention of the alleged second capture in 1863, except in the official records from Richmond.

John Robert Rust married Nancy Antram McKay, daughter of Joshua McKay and Esther Ann Heacock, on December 23, 1873, and they had four children:
Robert Antram Rust
John Warwick Rust
Albert Breckenridge Rust
Esther May Rust

John Robert Rust died June 1, 1919 in Haymarket, Virginia.