On February 12, 1828, Confederate General Robert Ransom Jr. was born in Warren County.
Ransom was appointed to West Point where he graduated in 1850. The young officer was assigned to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Ransom returned to West Point as a cavalry instructor in 1854, and again was posted to the Kansas frontier in 1856.
Promoted to captain in January 1861, Ransom resigned shortly after his promotion to join the Confederacy. He received a commission as a captain in the Confederate Army and was ordered to raise a regiment. With his regiment designated the First North Carolina Cavalry, he was promoted to colonel and placed in command.
Ransom was elevated to brigadier general in the spring of 1862 and to major general a little more than a year later. In May 1863, he was ordered to assume command of Richmond.
Ransom, who battled a number of serious illnesses over the years, fell ill in the summer of 1864 and remained on sick leave for the duration of the war. In 1878, he was hired as assistant to the U.S. civil engineer in New Bern, a job that gave him the opportunity to improve harbors and waterways throughout the Carolinas.
He died in 1881 and is buried in New Bern.
Other related resources:
- The Civil War on NCpedia
- Images from the Civil War in the State Archives
Image from Lumpkin & Tomlinson, Photographic Artists, 98 Main Street, Richmond, VA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.