Robert Ransom Jr.
(February 12, 1828 – January 14, 1892) was a
major general
in the
Confederate States Army
during the
American Civil War
. His brother
Matt W. Ransom
was also a Confederate general officer and
U.S. Senator
.
Early life
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Ransom was born in
Warren County, North Carolina
to Robert Ransom Sr. and Priscilla Whitaker Ransom. He graduated from the
United States Military Academy
at
West Point
in 1850. Ransom was assigned to the 1st dragoons on July 1, 1850. He attended the cavalry school at
Carlisle Barracks
in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
in 1850?51. On October 9, 1851, he was promoted to
second lieutenant
. Ransom then performed frontier service in New Mexico from 1851 to 1854. Ransom married Minnie Huntt in 1854. He was assistant instructor of cavalry tactics at West Point from 1854 to 1855. In 1855 he was promoted to
first lieutenant
and transferred to the 1st U.S. Cavalry. Ransom served as adjutant of the regiment at
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
from 1855 to 1857, where he took part in the Sioux expedition and in policing the Kansas disturbances. The next few years saw him in the recruiting service and frontier duty in Arkansas, Kansas and Colorado. He was also promoted to
captain
. He resigned his commission on January 31, 1861, with the discussion of
secession
and the sectional crisis that led to the Civil War.
Civil War
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He was initially appointed as a
captain
in the North Carolina cavalry in early 1861 and served with his
regiment
in
Northern Virginia
, where he fought in several minor skirmishes. On October 13, 1861, he was appointed to the
colonelcy
of the
1st North Carolina Cavalry Regiment
. He commanded the Confederate forces at the skirmish around
Vienna
on November 26, 1861, and was afterward returned to North Carolina. On March 1, 1862, Ransom was promoted to
brigadier general
and fought on the
Peninsula
attached to
Huger
's Division.
He led his North Carolina
brigade
in the September 1862
invasion of Maryland
and participated in the capture of
Harpers Ferry
and the
Battle of Antietam
. On November 7, he was placed in temporary command of the
division
and led it through the
Battle of Fredericksburg
, where Ransom's division had successfully defended Marye's Heights against the attacking
Union Army
.
In January 1863, Ransom and his brigade were sent back to North Carolina. In May he was promoted to major general and performed duty around
Richmond
, western Virginia, and
eastern Tennessee
. In May 1864 he led a division under General
P.G.T. Beauregard
in the defense of Drewry's Bluff against Union General
Benjamin Butler
. He was sent to command the cavalry in the
Shenandoah Valley
in the summer, under the command of General
Jubal A. Early
, where he participated in the battles of
Monocacy
and
Fort Stevens
.
He was relieved of command in August 1864 due to illness and never returned to front line service. He ended the war serving on military courts at administrative posts in
Kentucky
and at
Charleston, South Carolina
, before surrendering to Union troops on May 2, 1865.
[1]
Postbellum career
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Following the war, he was an express agent and city marshal at
Wilmington, North Carolina
, and then was a farmer until 1878. He then was a
civil engineer
in charge of Federal river and harbor works at
New Bern, North Carolina
. In 1881, his first wife died. The couple had nine children. In 1884, he married Katherine DeWitt Lumpkin and they had three children. Ransom died in New Bern in 1892. He is buried in
Cedar Grove Cemetery
.
[2]
See also
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Notes
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References
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