Rufus Fairchild Zogbaum was born in Charleston, South Carolina on August 28, 1849. He received his art education at the Art students' league, New York, in 1818-1819, and during 1880-1889 under Leon J. F. Bonnat in Paris. Soon after, he became a member of the American water-color society. Having studied many of the great armies of Europe in field and garrison, he became known as a delineator of Army and Navy exercises, though his subjects are varied. He was widely published in an assortment of magazines in the late nineteenth century, including Harpers Weekly.