Horace Ripley

In 1860 he was a 17 year old farmer on his father's place at Sun Prairie near Bristol, Dane County, WI. He enlisted as a Private in Company B, 7th Wisconsin Infantry on 28 August 1861.

He was detached to Battery B, 4th United States Artillery on 12 September 1862 and was in action with them at Antietam on 17 September 1862:

When the Battery went into action in the early morning of Sept. 17 it was literally my first "battery drill." ... When Packard's gun first went into action on the Sharpsburg Pike below the Miller House in the morning I was employed as a hitching post for the Sergeant's horse. Very soon after the difficulty began the Sergeant (West) was hit in the thigh, and I helped him back to the Miller barn, which was the field hospital. Returning to the Battery ... By that time the Johnnies had made room for me at our piece, so I left the horses and went in as Cannoneer on Packard's gun, beginning by acting Nos. 5 and 7, carrying ammunition from the limber to the gun. The slaughter at our gun continued until Packard and I were the only men left standing, when some of the 7th Wisconsin came in to help us ...

He remained with Battery B to August 1864 and mustered out with his regiment on 1 September 1864 at Petersburg, VA.

By 1867 he was living in Deerfield, Vernon County, Missouri, and he was a farmer and stockman there for the rest of his life. In 1938, then 95 years old, he attended the 75th Gettysburg Reunion. He died at age 101.

His service from the State of Wisconsin.1 The quote above from a letter he wrote to Buell.2 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1910. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Frances Elvira Hurlburt (1852-1923) in June 1873 at Deep River, IN, and they had a daughter and three sons.

08/07/1842; South Crosby, Ontario, CANADA

01/04/1944; Nevada, MO; burial in Deerfield Cemetery, Deerfield, MO