The Bravest of the Brave: The Correspondence of Stephen Dodson Ramseur

By George G. Kundahl

Born in Lincolnton, North Carolina, in 1837, Stephen Dodson Ramseur rose meteorically through the military ranks. Graduating from West Point in 1860, he joined the Confederate army as a captain. By the time of his death near the end of the war at the Battle of Cedar Creek, he had attained the rank of major general in the Army of Northern Virginia. He excelled in every assignment and was involved as a senior officer in many of the war's most important conflicts east of the Appalachians.

Ramseur's letters--over 180 of which are collected and transcribed here by George Kundahl--provide his incisive observations on these military events. At the same time, they offer rare insight into the personal opinions of a high-ranking Civil War officer. Correspondence by Civil War figures is often strictly professional. But in personal letters to his wife, Nellie, and best friend, David Schenk, Ramseur candidly expresses beliefs about the social, military, and political issues of the day. He also shares vivid accounts of battle and daily camp life, providing colorful details on soldiering during the war.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Release date: Jun 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9780807895702

Book preview

The Bravest of the Brave

Civil War America

Gary W. Gallagher, editor

The Bravest of the Brave

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF Stephen Dodson Ramseur

Edited by

George G. Kundahl

Foreword by Gary W. Gallagher

THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS

Chapel Hill

© 2010 The University of North Carolina Press

All rights reserved.

Designed and set in Whitman by Rebecca Evans.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ramseur, Stephen Dodson, 1837–1864.

The bravest of the brave: the correspondence of Stephen Dodson Ramseur/

edited by George G. Kundahl; foreword by Gary W. Gallagher.—1st ed.

p. cm.—(Civil War America) Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8078-3373-5 (cloth: alk. paper)

1. Ramseur, Stephen Dodson, 1837–1864—Correspondence. 2. Generals—

Confederate States of America—Correspondence. 3. Confederate States of

America. Army—Officers—Biography. 4. United States—History—Civil War,

1861–1865—Personal narratives, Confederate. 5. United States—History—

Civil War, 1861–1865—Campaigns. 6. Generals—Confederate States of

America—Biography. 7. Generals—United States—Biography. I. Kundahl,

George G., 1940–II. Title.

E467.1.R2A4 2010 973.7□82—dc22 2009047819

Frontispiece: Etching of Stephen Dodson Ramseur as a major general (Library of Congress)

14 13 12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1

For GEORGE K. COMBS

and the staff of the Alexandria

Library Special Collections:

LESLIE, RITA, BARBARA, JULIE,

MICHELLE, JOYCE, and ADA

Contents

Foreword by Gary W. Gallagher

Editorial Method and Letter Sources

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE

The Formative Years, 1837–1855

CHAPTER TWO

Wearing the Military Uniform of the United States The West Point Years and Service as an Army Officer, 1855–1861

CHAPTER THREE

Confederate Artillery Officer, 1861–1862

CHAPTER FOUR

Regimental Commander, April–October 1862

CHAPTER FIVE

Brigade Commander (I), November 1862–October

CHAPTER SIX

Brigade Commander (II), November 1863–May 1864

CHAPTER SEVEN

Division Commander, May–October 1864

CHAPTER EIGHT

Death and Aftermath

APPENDIX

Abbreviated Family Tree of Stephen Dodson Ramseur

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Index

Illustrations

Etching of Stephen Dodson Ramseur as a major general frontispiece

Dod Ramseur as a young man 13

Dod Ramseur and Frank Huger at West Point 42

Stephen Dodson Ramseur during the Civil War 90

Ellen Richmond Ramseur (Nellie) 106

Woodside, outside Milton, North Carolina, in the nineteenth century 172

Sketch of the mortal wounding of General Ramseur at Cedar Creek 293

Sketch of Gen. George A. Custer at the bedside of the dying Ramseur 293

Foreword

NEARLY THIRTY YEARS have elapsed since I first encountered the Stephen Dodson Ramseur Papers at the Southern Historical Collection in Chapel Hill. I had chosen Ramseur as the subject of my doctoral dissertation, planning to examine his Confederate career as a case study of how able young officers rose to prominence in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. I knew that Douglas Southall Freeman, whose books on Lee and his army stood as monuments in the field of Civil War military history, had characterized the letters as a large, fine series. Freeman’s description led me to believe the collection would yield important information about Ramseur’s military development. I also hoped the correspondence would illuminate his personality, relationships with members of his family, and attitudes toward nonmilitary topics and issues. I soon realized the papers far exceeded my most optimistic expectations. Consisting of two groups of letters, one to Ellen Richmond (his cousin and later wife) and the other to David Schenck (his closest friend from childhood and later brother-in-law), the collection revealed Dodson Ramseur and his world in fascinating detail. All historians who work in unpublished materials dream of finding a rich, largely untapped lode of personal testimony—which is precisely what awaited me in the many folders of the Ramseur Papers. Every day I spent in Wilson Library, which houses the Southern Historical Collection, proved to be a joy. I found it hard to believe that no one had decided to exploit the letters for a book or at least an article. Ramseur wrote to Ellen Richmond in such touching, intimate terms that I often felt like an intruder reading his words. The letters to Schenck, more concerned with political, military, and other public subjects, rivaled the personal ones in interest.

The material relating to Ramseur’s service as a regimental, brigade, and division commander in the Army of Northern Virginia shed much light on how he advanced to the rank of major general just past his twenty-seventh birthday. He fit perfectly into the culture of command created by Lee and personified by Stonewall Jackson. Lee sought aggressive, risk-taking subordinates who emphasized rigorous training and brought well-disciplined, hard-hitting units to the battlefield. Ramseur drilled his men endlessly, looked after their well-being in camp, and led by example in the heaviest combat—an approach that achieved gaudy success on fields such as Chancellorsville and Spotsylvania, brought multiple wounds (the last one fatal), and garnered praise from Lee, Jackson, and other famous superiors. The letters also sparked my long-standing interest in the question of Confederate national sentiment. Ramseur displayed an array of loyalties—to the United States while a cadet at West Point ruminating about Revolutionary figures, to his native North Carolina, to the slaveholding South, and, finally, to the short-lived Confederate republic. His generation of men from slaveholding families, who grew to maturity in the midst of escalating sectional controversies, seemed less attached to the Union and more willing to embrace secession than many older white southerners. Ramseur’s letters reflect a strong sense of antebellum southern identity that quickly evolved into Confederate nationalism and a determination to sacrifice much to earn independence. Reading the letters helped explain why it took so long and so much blood and treasure for the United States to crush the southern rebellion.

More than once over the past twenty-five years, I thought about editing the Ramseur letters for publication. I knew such a book immediately would take its place alongside the most-quoted sets of published letters by officers in the Eastern Theater, including those of William Dorsey Pender and Robert McAllister. Other commitments always intervened, however, and I wondered whether anyone else would pursue the project. Word that George Kundahl had taken on the task came as a welcome answer to my question. Because of his editorial efforts, generations of readers and scholars will find, as I did in Chapel Hill many years ago, that Dodson Ramseur wrote letters of surpassing interest to students of the Civil War era.

GARY W. GALLAGHER

Editorial Method and Letter Sources

OVER 180 LETTERS written by Stephen Dodson Ramseur are known to exist today. Only a handful are official correspondence; the overwhelming majority are personal. They are addressed to family members, principally to his cousin Ellen Nellie Richmond, who became his wife, and to his best friend, David Schenck. The correspondence to his wife and family is archived in the Southern Historical Collection (SHC) in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Until late 2005, the Schenck letters resided there as well; they have subsequently passed into the hands of a private collector (PC). The primary source materials at Chapel Hill also include posthumous remembrances from Ramseur’s friends concerning his life and death.

At the Office of Archives and History (NCOAH) of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources in Raleigh are a random collection of personal correspondence, official papers, and letters of appointment and certificates relating to Ramseur’s military career. They are found in the Stephen Dodson Ramseur Papers. An exchange of letters with J. H. S. Funk concerning Ramseur’s attack at Chancellorsville over and through the ranks of another Confederate command is also conserved there.

Finally, papers related to his application and admission to the U.S. Military Academy and miscellaneous official correspondence are found in the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Washington, D.C. In Ramseur’s Compiled Military Service Record (CMSR) is a haphazard compilation of Confederate military documents relating to attendance, pay, ordnance, and supply. Footnotes identify the location of each document in this volume using the abbreviations given above.

Earlier letters are devoted in large part to home life and local news to such an extent that they might discourage a reader from reaching the more important observations on matters, private as well as public, related to Ramseur’s life preceding and during his military service. They refer to numerous individuals in the Lincolnton area and, later, in Caswell County, some of whom cannot be identified. Where possible, identification is provided; some individuals must remain simply Kell, Doc Julius, and Miss Bonney.

The small number of surviving letters Ramseur received during his lifetime have largely been excluded, as they tend to focus on personal matters and Home Loves, as he referred to his family. There are two exceptions: the first is the correspondence from his mother after Ramseur’s departure for West Point, testifying to a mutual affection that was cut short by her passing away in midlife; the second is the sole remaining letter from Nellie, written after the clash at Stephenson’s Depot on July 20, 1864, which is included to facilitate understanding of the controversy engendered by that episode and how Ramseur coped with it. After Ramseur’s death, third-party documents detail circumstances surrounding his death, illuminate earlier chapters of his life, and help readers appreciate the high esteem in which he was held by contemporaries.

Reading these holographic letters is a challenge. Those in pencil are faded; those written in ink often have blots or bleeding from one side of the paper to the other. Cross-writing is common, as are perpendicular continuations in the margins. The penmanship is sometimes poor, as Ramseur wrote while in the saddle and, during two periods, used his left hand due to wounds in his right arm sustained at Malvern Hill and Spotsylvania. Gnawed corners and edges occasionally obliterate words. After trying to unscramble a particularly vexing combination of letters, I was amused at the sudden realization that it was a word from mid-nineteenth-century usage no longer common today. Mote and tittle are two examples. Only in a few places is the writer’s fallibility evident, as when he mistakenly jots down the wrong month or day or forgets to enter the information altogether. A numbering system Ramseur used to supplement dating in September 1864 is of some assistance.

The spontaneous fluency and articulation of Americans who wrote by hand generations ago is a wonder to modern wordsmiths armed with software to edit and re-edit texts. Ramseur varied his vocabulary and sentence structure with only an occasional cross out or insertion. He used British spelling, notably -our at the end of words where -or is common in American English. The original spellings have been retained, as have misspellings. Ramseur tended to employ dashes where periods or commas would be expected. In most cases, these have been converted to the modern punctuation style for ease of reading. Again and again, the writer underlined words and phrases (shown here as italics) for emphasis. Only occasionally has it been necessary to add a comma or period. These additions could be rationalized by supposing that the original markings have faded. Abbreviations remain as written in most instances, as they are frequent and readily comprehensible. To facilitate a clear reading, long discourses covering more than a single topic have been divided into paragraphs. And to make for a more readable page in the printed book, levels of indent for paragraphs and various elements of the letters (salutations, closings, etc.) have been regularized, periods and commas have been uniformly placed inside close quotation marks, and words and phrases that originally appeared in full capital letters have been typeset in small caps. In truth, the challenge of the editorial method has been in deciphering the handwriting, not reformatting it to please the twenty-first-century reader.

The Bravest of the Brave

Introduction

WHENEVER YOU CAN SEND THEM, we shall be more than glad to get your father’s letters. I know there will be much material in them that will be very helpful to students of Confederate History.¹ So wrote D. H. Hill, the general’s son who served as secretary of the North Carolina Historical Commission, to the daughter of Stephen Dodson Ramseur. Hill had not personally known the writer but his father had, both from instructing Ramseur in mathematics at Davidson College in the mid-1850s and while serving with him during the Civil War. Maj. Gen. Daniel Harvey Hill would have observed Ramseur’s endearing humanity in daily life and known of his bravery and leadership in times of strife.² If the younger Hill expected these qualities to be reflected in Ramseur’s letters, he was not disappointed.

Stephen Dodson Ramseur was born into a mercantile family in a small North Carolina town and reared with the religious beliefs and values common to the South’s slaveholding class during the antebellum period. His intelligence and drive led to a successful five-year course of study at West Point, after two years at a liberal arts college, followed by service as an artillery officer in the U.S. Army. In step with many of his southern peers, Ramseur resigned his commission in the spring of 1861 and joined his state’s militia.

Ramseur’s death on the battlefield at age twenty-seven brought closure to a meteoric rise from lieutenant to major general in a period of less than four years. His advancement was the reward for excellent performance at each level of command. He participated in action peripheral to the naval duel between the Monitor and Virginia (née Merrimac) as an artillery officer and later led his infantry regiment into battle at Malvern Hill. As a brigade commander, he took part in Stonewall Jackson’s flanking maneuver at Chancellorsville, saw action on the first day at Gettysburg, and fought valiantly in the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania Court House. He then served as a division commander during Jubal A. Early’s Valley campaign, after accompanying Early on the raid from Maryland to Washington, D.C. In short, Ramseur was involved as a senior officer in many of the war’s important conflicts east of the Appalachians. His incisive observations on these events are those of a competent, well-respected commander in the second tier of general-officer leadership in the Army of Northern Virginia.

In addition to providing a portrait of Ramseur’s years in the Confederate army, and earlier at West Point, his letters describe his courtship and union with Ellen Nellie Richmond. In revealing his feelings about her and the events taking place in a nation at war with itself, Ramseur voices his attitudes on social matters, as well as on the military and political issues of his day. Ramseur’s letters reflect the constant inner tensions generated by balancing national and state allegiances, family obligations and public service, and gender relations. The content is therefore of importance to a range of historians and other readers studying not just political and military campaigns, but the culture, religion, and social values of white southern society at the time of the war.

Ramseur’s personal values radiate throughout the letters. Foremost is his unwavering faith in a loving God. Next is a sense of duty to his country, a profound feeling that repeatedly drew Ramseur away from family and loved ones to fulfill what he considered his foremost responsibilities. His letters also reflect courage, both in military service to his nation and in the personal risks he took on the battlefield, resulting in four wounds. Indeed, his friend since childhood characterized Ramseur as the bravest of the brave (see chapter 8). He was a man who lived as he thought right and died as a consequence. In sum, Ramseur’s precepts and beliefs epitomize many of those held by southern gentlemen of his day.

In examining the experience of combat in the Civil War, historian Gerald E. Linderman identifies the set of values that constitute courage: manliness, godliness, honor, duty, and knightliness.³ These ideals are reflected throughout Ramseur’s correspondence, as illustrated by his thoughts during the pause before the critical events of 1863: We certainly have a Stupendous task before us! A task which will test our manhood, and if successfully accomplished, will entitle those of us who unflinchingly perform the part allotted to us, to the full title of Heroes.⁴ Like so many of his class in southern society, the most prominent of whom was Robert E. Lee, Ramseur was culturally, morally, and spiritually compelled by honor to defend his family, his community, and, just as important, his new nation.⁵

Ramseur fervently believed in full independence for the Confederate States. Repeatedly, he expressed hope that the North would tire of the fighting and suffering, and negotiate peace. He would accept no compromise to nationhood for the South, even though continuation of the war required him to remain far from home and family. While a self-acknowledged secessionist, he never mentioned slavery as his reason for pursuing the conflict. Yet his father owned slaves, and Ramseur employed and traded them.⁶ He clearly expressed his feelings on the institution while a cadet at West Point, referring to slavery as "the very source of our existence, the greatest blessing both for master & slave, that could have been bestowed upon us.⁷ By contrast, and with religious precepts foremost in his mind at Davidson College, he declared that he abhorred human trafficking, writing, Is Mr Barrett still buying negroes. I sincerely hope he may soon see the wickedness of such a course."⁸

Knowledge of Ramseur’s family is vital to understanding his letters. His paternal family was centered in Lincoln County in the North Carolina Piedmont. There were nine children in his immediate family in Lincolnton: Mary, Stephen Dodson, David, Sallie, Lucy (nicknamed Luly), Fannie, Charles, Addie, and Harvey. His mother’s family (the Dodsons), as well as that of his wife-to-be (the Richmonds), lived in Caswell County on the Virginia border just below Danville. Caleb and Mary Richmond, who resided outside Milton, also had a son named Stephen Dodson and cousins Mary, Nellie, Caleb, George, Lou, and Nat. Young Caleb served on Ramseur’s personal staff and is frequently mentioned in his correspondence. Ramseur’s mother and elder sister, both named Mary, died in the 1850s; later references to Mama and Mary in his letters to Nellie concern her mother and elder sibling respectively. Although Milton was a focal point for the extended family, relatives were found elsewhere throughout the surrounding area. His aunt and uncle, Dr. Charles and Priscilla Prissie Dodson, for example, appear repeatedly in Ramseur’s writings.

Ramseur uses the name David when referring to his brother who served as a military surgeon. The more familiar Dave is reserved for Ramseur’s lifelong confidant, David Schenck.⁹ To confuse matters further, correspondence addressed to Schenck usually begins, My Dear Brother. He is referred to in the third person as Mr. Schenck or Mr. S. in correspondence with Nellie. And, when Schenck married Ramseur’s sister, Sallie, their first-born was christened Dodson Ramseur, or Doddie. Character identification is further complicated by Ramseur’s using Lue as a nickname for both his sister, Lucy or Luly, and for Nellie’s sister, Lucy Ann. The context must be used to determine which sister is intended. A truncated family tree is provided as a reference to guide the reader through the tangle of Ramseur’s relatives and their recurring names.

While not the majority of Ramseur’s correspondence, the Schenck letters are rich in subject matter of interest to latter-day historians. A childhood friend, two years older than Ramseur and in later years his biographer, Schenck was an intimate. The closing of each message is often so syrupy as to suggest a sexual relationship to present-day readers, but such sentimentality was not unusual at that time. Historian Grady McWhiney cites these letters as an example of latent homosexuality, if nothing more.¹⁰ Ramseur communicated to Schenck his experiences at West Point, the details of battles, the reasons underlying his actions, and his hopes and fears for the future in a way he would not with a family member or sweetheart. Written less frequently during the war, these epistles tend to be long and insightful.

The most prominent aspect of Ramseur’s letters is the overt religious tone. Not only is God invoked in almost every piece, but the writer sometimes employs biblical references, hymns and quotations from uplifting nineteenth-century tracts, many unfamiliar to modern readers. Every letter pleads for more mail from the recipient, reflecting Ramseur’s loneliness while in college, during five long years at West Point, and, finally, engaged in military campaigning.

The bulk of Ramseur’s extant correspondence from his years at West Point and during his first two years in uniform is addressed to Schenck. In late 1862, Ramseur fell in love with his cousin, Nellie Richmond, to whom he began writing regularly. For the remainder of his life, Ramseur’s thoughts were foremost of her, first as a sweetheart, then as a betrothed, and finally, as a wife. Nellie’s father was a prosperous plow-maker and landowner who, at one time, served as a state legislator. The 1860 Slave Census lists thirty-eight blacks and mulattos belonging to him, twenty-two above the age of fourteen years.

Correspondence with Nellie is openly affectionate. Ramseur unreservedly expresses his love, repeatedly regrets long separations, warmly recalls their brief times together, longs for the slightest bit of news about her, and always asks God’s blessing on her and their marriage. Caring for others is a theme throughout his writing. While away from home, he regularly inquires about his family and friends and articulates his feelings for them. This concern is for relatives in both Milton and Lincolnton. Once war is under way, Ramseur writes of news and fears for chums from childhood, cadets he knew at West Point, and senior leaders and comrades with whom he is serving in the Confederate army. Indeed, his close companion while campaigning, chaplain Ephraim H. Harding from Caswell County, observed after the war, It seems strange that one so affectionate, so almost womanly in his feelings, should have been so completely at home amid the dreadful scenes of the battle field.¹¹

Ramseur’s seven years of education at the college level is reflected in literary and historical references and in his use of words and phrases in Latin and French. What is remarkable is that Nellie, age nineteen during 1860 and with no schooling beyond that available in a small North Carolina town, would be thought to understand these allusions.

The nature of the correspondence changes as the war progresses. In general, reports of the unpleasant and unsuccessful become less common. With the exception of Ramseur’s controversial decisions at Stephenson’s Depot and his reactions thereafter, one must turn to other sources for accounts of his rare less-than-stellar performances and for explanations of his wounds. As the conflict lengthens and Confederate prospects grow gloomier, there are fewer references to politics, as well as to friends and relatives. When troop levels plummet and Ramseur’s command responsibilities increase through promotion, his attention focuses on the immediate situation. At the end of his days, the careful wording of letters to his new wife reveal a fear of alarming her during a pregnancy that Ramseur repeatedly declares is of the utmost importance to him. Tensions build on the battlefield and in his private life until, without warning, the writings stop.

1 The Formative Years, 1837–1855

BORN ON MAY 31, 1837, the eldest son of Lucy and Jacob Ramsour,¹ Stephen Dodson Ramseur was known throughout his life as Dod or Dodson, his mother’s maiden name. Dod took a special interest in nurturing his brother, David, who was two years younger. From the frequent, endearing correspondence between them, he also seems to have been very close to his sister Lucy, or Luly, six years his junior. Sallie, born between David and Luly, assumed special importance by marrying Dod’s best friend, David Schenck.

Dod’s was the third generation of his paternal family to live in Lincoln-ton, a town in the rolling hills of the North Carolina Piedmont.² Located forty miles northwest of Charlotte, the settlement was named for Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, a Revolutionary War hero. Dod’s father and grandfather were both successful entrepreneurs. Ramsour’s Mill,³ just north of town, was made famous by an armed confrontation between British loyalists and outnumbered patriots in 1780. His mother’s family resided in Milton on the Dan River, just inside the state boundary ten miles southeast of Danville, Virginia.

In an era predating public schools, Dod attended the state-chartered Pleasant Retreat Academy, where he received a classical education in mathematics, chemistry, grammar, logic, Greek, and Latin. The primary influence during this period was his mother, a staunch Presbyterian who helped shape his character using the Westminster catechism.⁴ Their bond made her death in 1859 particularly painful to him. The slight youngster enjoyed roaming the woods and hunting in the fields surrounding the community. Perhaps Dod’s skill with a musket was one reason he embarked upon a career as a soldier.

Dod’s two steady chums were Schenck and Robert F. Hoke. The former was the son of a local physician and became Ramseur’s Boswell. Schenck’s extensive notations in a diary, letters saved from his friend during his schooling and military career, and the state history and reminiscences Schenck penned many years later, provide a thorough account of Dod’s life. Only four days older than Dod, Hoke enrolled in the Kentucky Military Institute in 1852, but was required to return home before graduation to help his widowed mother run the family’s diversified industries. This management experience undoubtedly helped prepare Hoke for the problems of military leadership that lay ahead as he rose to the rank of major general in the Confederate army.⁵

A year after Hoke departed for school, Ramseur left home at age sixteen to enroll in Davidson College, twenty miles to the east. Founded by Presbyterians in 1837, fewer than 100 students received instruction in a pair of small, two-story Greek Revival buildings facing each other. The young men were housed in one-story brick quarters nearby. Participation in religious activities was an integral part of Davidson’s curriculum.

The idealism of youth prevented Ramseur from being satisfied with Davidson. He was understandably hurt when the severe regimen imposed by the faculty required students to stay on campus and study, thus preventing Ramseur from traveling the few miles home to spend a short time with family and friends. Even if his college experience disappointed him, it deepened his faith in God. His noble religious principles are reflected in a denunciation of slavery, a tenet he would later discard in the cauldron of intersectionalism boiling at West Point. The concept of personal duty was a value repeatedly expressed in his writing from Davidson, sometimes making Ramseur seem too serious for a teenager. His interest in politics and an abiding concern for family would never wane.

Davidson College, Oct 17th 1853

Dearest Sister⁶

I have learned my Latin lesson & have a short time to write to you, which will be more pleasant for me to do than to yawn over my Greek lesson. I can’t describe my feelings on leaving Mr. Penick’s, but I can assure you that the company of such a man as Mr. Penick is enough to keep anyone from feeling as I did.⁷ I was very much surprised to hear of the objections Mr. Smith had to D. College. Altho’ he may find many things to object to here, as regards the course of study, or rather the way it is taught, yet he can not object to this place on account of its being wicked. There are some wicked boys here that is true, but two thirds of the students are members of the Church. We have morning and evening prayer. Saturday night some of the students have a prayer meeting in one of the lecture rooms. Sabbath morning they have a Sabbath school which was gotten up by the students of their own accord, and at three o clock in the afternoon the Faculty hear all of the Students recite a Bible lesson. Does that not speak well for this place and does it not show that there is a true religious feeling with most of the students of this place, and besides this Davidson College has turned out more ministers than any other place in proportion to the number of Graduates. I don’t think Mr. Smith can say this much for Newton.⁸

You asked me how I spend the Sabbath here. In the morning at Sunrise I go to prayers in the Chapel. From there we go to breakfast, and then it is about an hour until Sabbath school, which time I spend in reading my Bible. It is about 11 o clock when Sabbath School breaks up, and then we listen to a sermon from one of the members of the Faculty. After the morning sermon, I read some good book (I am reading [Philip] Doddridge’s Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul) which I hope may prove of lasting benefit to me. At 2 o clock all of the Students go up to the Chapel and recite a Bible lesson to Dr. Williamson,⁹ which is very interesting and instructive, and we have another sermon Sabbath night. Yes Dearest Sister I try to spend the Sabbath in such a way as I think will please my Father in Heaven, and will be beneficial to my never-dying soul.

I get along in all my studies more easily than I expected except Greek, and I can keep up with the class in that by studying pretty hard. I suppose the great wedding has taken place at Mr. Hendersons.¹⁰ Tell me all the news when you write again. Have you seen Cousin Mary Ann & Mag lately?¹¹ Is Mr. Barrett¹² still buying negroes. I do sincerely hope that he may soon see the wickedness of such a course. When you [see] Mr. Abram:¹³ tell him I will write to him as soon as I possibly can. Ask Pa if he is selling many goods now. Has he received the goods he ordered, and if so hope is pleased with them. How has the bottom corn turned out that was under water. Tell Pa please to see Mr. Craige,¹⁴ and to ask him to assist me in procuring the appointment to West Point. Tell Pa please to do it as soon as he possibly can. Ask Mother if Pa had not better invite him to our house, so that he may become acquainted with all of the family, and tell her to talk all about it to him. For Dearest Sister, I tell you candidly I do not desire to stay here and graduate, for this place will not do to give anyone a first rate education. I know that it is owing in a great measure to the person, whether he is a schollar or not, but I do not believe it is possible for any one to receive as good an education here (the way things are now carried on). Let him try ever so hard. I already know two or three members of the Senior Class who talk much more incorrectly than Mr. Font, and I believe they stand as high in their class as any. I think Crockett is the only one in the Senior class who is a good English scholar, and he says he has forgotten nearly all he ever did know about it since he came here. Yes, I think there is something in the college as well as the individual, and I certainly think from all that I have seen of this place, and I am sorry to say it, that it will certainly go down unless Mr. [Daniel Harvey] Hill can do something to make it hold its head up.¹⁵ My honest opinion is that Mr. Rockwell¹⁶ is the only one of the Faculty that is fit to be a Professor and he is very worthy of a Professorship in any College. Besides this Dr. Williamson is so easy and partial that some of the students who are not as worthy as some of the rest get along as well and better I believe with him than those who are really worthy. No Dearest sister it is impossible for me to form a very high opinion of Davidson, try as hard as I may. Don’t let any one see this for it may produce a bad effect on their minds, and I want every-one to form an opinion for themselves concerning this place, but will be perfectly contented to stay here two years and then to go to West Point, (or if I can not succeed in procuring the appointment to the place) to stay here four years and graduate. …

S. D. Ramseur¹⁷

Davidson College N.C.

June 27th 1854

My dear Mother

I can give you no idea of my disappointment. I have been cheering myself up to perform my duties by the hope of making a visit home. How much pleasure did it afford me to think that I would be with my dear friends at home. Yes! after anticipating so much pleasure, I have been disappointed. My visit to my dear home must be deferred two more long months. Oh, it is a great disappointment. I am very sorry indeed that David¹⁸ was troubled so much for nothing. I felt so sad to part with him. Was he not very much fatigued with his ride? I did not know. I did not even think that the Faculty would for one moment refuse to give me permission to go home when I was sent for, but there is a change at Davidson since Maj Hill’s arrival. When I asked for "permission, I told The Faculty" that Pa had sent for me, and I wished to go home and I would promise to return on Monday evening. Prof. Gilland¹⁹ first asked me if any of my friends were sick. I told him they were well, but that I wished to go home to see them. Also that I wished to attend Mr. Davis’s communion²⁰ which would be at that time. Prof. Gilland then said that it was absolutely important that I should not neglect one single Greek lesson, for he said, that I had already been absent nearly six weeks and was not quite up with my class, so that he thought that it was my duty to stay. Maj. Hill said that unless this was an extraordinary case and it was very necessary for me to be at home, that it was clearly my duty to remain here. Mr. Rockwell said the same thing and more. He said if I wished to stand high in scholarship and to receive a good report, it was necessary that I should attend carefully and punctually to every single recitation. Dr. Williamson said, that he knew and I knew that it was important for me to stay here and attend to my studies, but that as Pa had sent for me that he might blame him for preventing me from coming home. All the Members of the Faculty said many more things to me, telling what they thought I ought to do &c, &c and concluded to leave it to me, after letting me know that it was their wish and advice that I should remain and not fall back again. And I know that I ought to stay but I wished to go home. I want to see my dear Mother, Father, Brothers and Sisters. None but those who have experienced an expectation from friends and relatives can imagine what a great pleasure I sacrificed. I denied myself this pleasure, for I do not wish to be behind my class. …

It seems but as yesterday, when I loved to be with my darling Sister. Yes! the memory of that darling one, of her pure loving, pious heart, will ever be fresh and delightful. Oh! what a consolation it is for us to know that she is now freed from the anxious cares and burdensome sins of this wicked world. She is now an Angel worshipping in the presence of that Jesus she loved so fondly and served so faithfully while she was with us here in this world of sin and sorrow.²¹

[Dear Mother, July 24, 1854]

Sometimes I am so oppressed with my sinfulness that I can not but be sad. I fear sometimes that I do not perform my duty in every thing, but then I know that the blood of my Savior can atone for all of my infirmities. Oh! It is a precious thing to believe in God, to know that in all things whatever may happen, that it shall all work together for good for those who love God.²² He is our protector, our preserver, and our merciful Savior. Oh how thankful ought we to be for all of his mercies to us. He gives us every good and perfect gift.²³ Though we are sometimes called to go through fiery trials, his sustaining Grace will support us; he only designs our dross to consume and our gold to refine.²⁴

Dod Ramseur as a young man

(editor’s collection)

The following letter of recommendation for Ramseur’s admission to West Point from his mentor and idol, who would soon be a champion of the Confederacy, is curious for its brevity.

D. College, N.C.

Jan’y. 19th 1855

This is to certify that Mr. S. D. Ramsour of Lincolnton, N.C. studied Algebra with me from Fractions through Quadratics, and also eight books of [Adrien Marie] Legendre’s Geometry.

He thoroughly mastered the principles in those branches and has now a mind trained to grapple with the difficulties of the more advanced Mathematics.

D. H. Hill

Prof. Math²⁵

On February 6, 1855, Representative Burton Craige wrote to Brig. Gen. Joseph G. Totten, chief engineer of the army and inspector of the Military Academy, nominating Ramseur to represent his congressional district. Craige received confirmation three days later. Ramseur eagerly accepted the appointment on February 14.²⁶

In his remaining time at Davidson, Ramseur focused on preparing himself for the academic rigors of West Point. Defending the career upon which he was about to embark, he wrote to his confidant, David Schenck:

[March 17th 1855]

I am devoting my time and attention to Mathematics alone. I am reviewing Algebra and Geometry, and studying Trigonometry. This is rather preparatory to the West Point course. And I will say here, that, as I am to serve my Country! I intend to try to live and act in such a manner that my Country will be proud of me. Yes! Dave, my days of idleness and pleasure are over. I feel now that Life is real! Life is earnest!²⁷ and I feel too, that the time is approaching for me to work and to work diligently. God grant that I may be able to perform my whole duty, with a willing hand and a bold heart. Dave, you have always discouraged me in the course I am about to pursue. I know you always did this with the best motives, and altho’ I always respect your opinion and have frequently followed your advice, yet in this matter, I beg leave to differ from you, for who knows but that I may write my history with my sword as the illustrious Scott once said.²⁸…

Well Dave, I have nearly filled the last two pages with fooling and I think as I suppose you do that it is time to stop such. I saw in the Western Democrat today that Jim Caldwell is the Whig candidate for Congress.²⁹ I feel very much interested in this election. I want Mr. Craige to be elected again. I suppose the Know-Nothings will vote for Jim. If so I think he will be elected. I am very much afraid this will be the case. Burton Craige has performed his duty faithfully, he deserves the office again. I hope he may be elected, although in the present uncertain and distracted state of the Parties, the result is exceedingly doubtful.³⁰

The young man who left North Carolina as an eighteen-year-old to attend West Point in May was described long after by a close friend and relation by marriage.

In person, General Ramseur was of medium height, his figure was slender but well proportioned, very erect and of fine martial bearing. His brow was large, prominent, well rounded—his eye[s] large and black and the whole expression open, winning, and striking. His face indicated in a most remarkable manner loftiness of character and purity of sentiment. He was a fine horseman, sitting his horse with grace, and managing him with skill.³¹

2 Wearing the Military Uniform of the United