Robert Ransom, Jr

After graduating from West Point, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, US Army, and assigned to the 1st Dragoons. His first assignment was at Taos, New Mexico, under then-Lt Colonel Edwin V. Sumner. He was 1st Lieutenant and Regimental Adjutant in the newly established 1st US Cavalry 1855-57, and was promoted to Captain 31 January 1861. He had served in the West, and as Cavalry instructor at West Point. He resigned from US service 24 May 1861.

He was commissioned Captain of Cavalry, C. S. A., and then appointed first Colonel of the First North Carolina Cavalry (9th Regiment NC State Troops). They saw their first action in a skirmish at Vienna, VA on 26 November 1861. He was promoted Brigadier General on 6 March 1862.

He led his brigade on the Campaign in Walker's Division, part of Longstreet's Command.

He was in command of the division at Fredericksburg in December 1862, and served with them in North Carolina until May 1863. He was promoted Major General and given command the district including the Appomattox and Blackwater in Virginia, then at Richmond until July. In October 1863, he was in East Tennessee and commanded cavalry there until April 1864. He twas then back in the defenses of Richmond. In June commanded Early's cavalry in the raid through Maryland against Washington but in August he was relieved on account of illness and afterward served in administrative jobs in Kentucky and at Charleston, SC before surrendering 2 May 1865.

He was an express agent and city marshal at Wilmington, NC, and then was a farmer until 1878. He then was a civil engineer in charge of Federal river and harbor works at New Bern.

His service basics from Heitman1 and Evans2. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture is from a CDV in the collection of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, VA.

02/12/1828; Bridle Creek, NC

01/14/1892; New Bern, NC; burial in Cedar Grove Cemetery, New Bern, NC