The Confederacy’s
Boy Major General
lie now lies beside the daughter who
never saw her hero father.
Early on an autumn morning in Oc¬
tober 1864, there rode out from his
headquarters, jauntily sitting upon his
horse, a young Confederate soldier and
upon his left breast just over his heart
was pinned a beautiful white rosebud.
When asked by a member of his staff
why the unusual decoration, he said,
"In honor of my young daughter,
Mary, who has just arrived at our home
back in North Carolina."
He was destined never to sec the
new daughter because before the end
of the day he lay mortally wounded
upon the battlefield at Cedar Creek,
Virginia, the youngest major general
in the Confederate Army.
Buried at Lincolnton
His name was Stephen Dodson Ram-
scur. He rose from a second lieutenant
in the United States Army to a major
general in the Confederate Army in
four years. A succinct statement of this
spectacular rise follows: commissioned
a second lieutenant in the United States
Army in 1860; resigned and commis¬
sioned a captain in the Confederate
Army April 16, 1861; promoted to a
major, May 16, 1861; promoted to a
colonel, April 12. 1862; promoted to
a brigadier general, November 1, 1862;
and promoted to a major general.
June 1, 1864.
It took him his lifetime to reach the
goal but that life spanned only twenty-
seven years.
Born near Lincolnton, May 31,
1837, he attended local schools and
entered Davidson College when he was
fifteen years old. Eighteen months later
he received an appointment to the Mili¬
tary Academy at West Point, where he
was graduated in 1860. He was com¬
missioned in the artillery and served
in the United States Army until the
opening of the War Between the States.
Resigning his commission in the United
States Army he came to Raleigh, was
commissioned a captain and placed in
command of the Ellis Battery, named
in honor of John W. Ellis, then gover¬
nor of North Carolina. His battery fired
the salute on the capitol square cele¬
brating the separation of North Caro¬
lina from the Union.
In Many Battles
Ramscur participated in the most
important battles of the war. He fought
with Jackson at Chanccllorsvillc. He
was with Lee at Gettysburg and was
first to enter the town. In many of the
other great battles of the war he
played an important part. At Cedar
LINCOLN MACHINE & FOUNDRY, Inc.
P. 0. BOX 404 • PHONE REgcnt 5-7207
GRAY IRON CASTINGS
MACHINE WORK
LINCOLNTON, N. C.
STEPHEN D. RAMSEUR
Creek on October 19, 1864, he fell
mortally wounded, was carried to a
nearby house, and died the next day.
He had been wounded before and had
recovered but the wound this day was
through the right lung and death fol¬
lowed shortly.
He received the wound between five
and six o’clock in the afternoon. Word
passed rapidly among his own and
other friendly troops and on in to the
enemy lines that General Ramscur had
been struck down. Several of his com¬
rades of West Point days came from
the Union lines into the Confederate
lines to sec him. One, Col. Du Pont,
sat with him through his last hours
and they talked of home and the new
baby. After he died he was carried
into the enemy lines and embalmed.
His body was shipped home and laid
to rest far from the roar of the battle¬
field.
Monument Erected in 1921
In 1921 a monument was erected to
his memory on the battlefield at Cedar
Creek and the daughter in whose honor
he wore the rose on that fatal day in
October 1864, now an old lady, un¬
veiled the monument.
Col. Du Pont, now an old, old man.
was there and he showed her where
her father had died and where they
had talked in those last hours of the
brilliant soldier.
The daughter now lies beside him
in the little Lincolnton graveyard.
Maybe in that land beyond the sunset
they walk and talk together and dream
of battles long ago.
THE STATE. APRIL 30. 1960
