Thomas E. G. Ransom

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Thomas Edwin Greenfield Ransom
11th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment
Battles/warsAmerican Civil War

Thomas Edwin Greenfield Ransom (November 29, 1834 – October 29, 1864) was a surveyor, civil engineer, real estate speculator, and a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Biography

Ransom was born in

brevet colonel. Thomas Ransom entered Norwich University in 1848, where he remained three years. After graduating in 1851 he went to Illinois, where he engaged in civil engineering and real estate speculation. He initially lived with his uncle, George Gilson, then mayor of Peru, an Illinois River town in LaSalle County. Ransom was known as the "boy surveyor" of LaSalle County. During that period, he was joined by his close friend and fellow Norwich University graduate, Grenville M. Dodge, who would later win fame as a Civil War general and the chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad
.

As the Civil War began, Ransom was in the employ of the Illinois Central Railroad, living in Fayette County.

In response to President

XVII Corps
.

Ransom was wounded four times: in a skirmish near

Battle of Sabine Cross Roads, Louisiana, on April 8, 1864. His wounds at the latter engagement were so severe that he was evacuated to Chicago
for treatment.

At various times, he commanded divisions of

brevet
promotion to major general on September 1, 1864 and died a few weeks later.

Burial

General Ransom is buried in

Rosehill Cemetery
in Chicago.

Ransom's memory was cherished by many prominent Union Generals including

Sherman. The historian Edward G. Longacre notes that the stoic Grant wept upon hearing of young Ransom's death.[3]
Ransom's close friend, Grenville Dodge, recalled how, even years later, President Grant would frequently talk about young Ransom with great affection and respect. Sherman kept a photograph of General Ransom on the wall of his office 20 years after the war.

After his death, the community of

Ransom County in North Dakota
are named after him.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Norwich, Vermont". City-Data.com. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
  2. ^ Goddard, M. E. and Henry V. Partrigde, A History of Norwich Vermont, Hanover, NH: Dartmouth Press, 1905, p. 243.
  3. ISBN 9780306812699
    .

References

  • Benedict, G. G., Vermont in the Civil War. A History of the part taken by the Vermont Soldiers And Sailors in the War For The Union, 1861-5. Burlington, VT.: The Free Press Association, 1888, ii:789.
  • Goddard, M. E. and Henry V. Partrigde, A History of Norwich Vermont, Hanover, NH: Dartmouth Press, 1905, pp. 242–3.
  • Peck, Theodore S., compiler, Revised Roster of Vermont Volunteers and lists of Vermonters Who Served in the Army and Navy of the United States During the War of the Rebellion, 1861-66. Montpelier, VT.: Press of the Watchman Publishing Co., 1892, pp. 729, 739.

Further reading

  • Huffstodt, Jim. Hard dying men: the story of General W. H. L. Wallace, General T. E. G. Ransom, and their "Old Eleventh" Illinois Infantry in the American Civil War (1861–1865), Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1991.
  • W. T. Sherman, General W. T. The Vermont Boy Who Volunteered in 1861, Served Bravely, was Wounded Grievously, and Died for the Union, Eulogy of General T.E.G. Ransom given before Ransom Post No. 131, Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), St. Louis, Missouri, June 20, 1884, Washington National Tribune, June 1884.

External links

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