Better Know an Officer -- Lieut. Henry Ransing

Detail of Sword Presented to Lieut. Henry Ransing (Sold on Heritage Auctions in 2014)

Lieut. Henry Ransing
(79th PA Officers Oval)

Name: Henry Ransing
Birth: September 15, 1838 (Holland)
Occupation: Attended Lancaster city public schools; Worked in cotton mill from age 13
Church/Religion: Roman Catholic
Term of Service: Enlisted in Company G, 79th Pa, on 10/3/1861. Promoted to 1st Sgt., 2nd Lt, dates unknown.
Notable Events: All battles with 79th Pa.; Clothing perforated by 16 bullets at Bentonville; Chickamauga monument committee
Post-war:  Watchman; Mill overseer, Grocer, Hotel Keeper
Death: May 19, 1900 (St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Cemetery)

Yesterday, blog reader Glenn Benner contacted me to let me know that he had documented the grave of Lieut. Henry Ransing of Company G, 79th PA, on Find a Grave.  Not knowing anything about Ransing, I entered his name as a Google search and was surprised to see his presentation sword scheduled for auction today by Heritage Auctions (it sold for almost $6,000).

So, to give Lieut. Ransing his due, here is his Biographical Annals entry, accompanied by some pictures of the sword.  (Source: Biographical Annals of Lancaster Co., Pa., 1903 by J. H. Beers & Co., page 1129-1130.)

CAPT. HENRY RANSING (deceased) was a son of George Hiram Ransing, who died in Holland, and whose widow came to the United States when Henry was a lad of two years of age. She became the owner of the land between East Orange, Plum, Marion and Center streets, and this land she sold little by little as the march of improvement took its course in that direction.

Henry Ransing was educated in the Lancaster public schools, and at the age of thirteen years entered a cotton mill, where he worked until the breaking out of the Rebellion. At that time he enlisted as a private in Co. G, 79th P. V. I., and at the end of his first term of enlistment, he re-enlisted for the war. He rose rapidly and presently attained the rank of captain. When the company came back in which he first enlisted, he was its captain, though only nine of the original members survived the dangers of war. He was in twenty-seven battles and eighteen skirmishes in the Western Army, but was never wounded. though at the battle of Bentonville his clothing was perforated by sixteen bullets. After the war Capt. Ransing was presented by the members of his company with a magnificent sword, sash, belt and epaulets, the sword bearing this inscription: "Presented to Capt. Ransing by the members of Company G, 79th regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry, as a token of respect and friendship; and for the gallantry displayed in all the battles in which he participated." Capt. Ransing was a member of the Committee on the Monument to the memory of the men of the 79th P. V. I, who fell at Chickamauga.

The war ended, Capt. Ransing became an overseer in the Lancaster Fulton Cotton Mills, where he remained until the factory was partially destroyed by the explosion of the boiler. After this he gave up his position in the mill, on account of the objection of his wife to his being in what she regarded as a dangerous place, though he was in the line of promotion to the superintendency. Capt. Ransing engaged in business, opening a small grocery, which soon assumed large proportions under his close and careful management, soon necessitating the construction of the fine brick building on East Orange street, where for ten years a successful business was carried on. At the end of that time this building and business was converted into a hotel, for which he secured a license, and established the "East End Hotel." After a prolonged absence from the hotel, and a residence in another part of the city, Capt. Ransing finally returned to it, where he died May 19, 1900, deeply regretted far and wide. The following poem was published in the New Era, shortly after his death:

IN MEMORY OF A GALLANT SOLDIER.

We mourn. but we comfort feel.
When of our friend we're thinking.
That when on him Death pressed the seal
He died brave and unshrinking.

He feared not death: Why should he fear?
He who with musket's rattle
And shot and shell and wildest cheer
Feared not the bloody battle!

No mocking yell his soul could quell;
He fought to save the Union;
Stood like a rock while others fell,
Stood firm against disunion.

He rose from private rank to lead
The gallant volunteers.
He rose from merit and with speed,
Rose with his comrade's cheers.

They honored him by act and word,
And to attest their feeling,
They gave to him a handsome sword,
Their deep love thus revealing.

The war was o'er. His sword was sheathed.
And doing good to others,
No gentler, kindlier heart e'er breathed,
Beloved by all his brothers.

For all the world to his kind heart,
Were just like sisters, brothers;
He never failed to do his part,
In lending help to others.

His soul's at rest; his battle's done.
He's done with care and striving;
He left a light like noonday sun
To comfort the surviving.

To danger he was first to go,
None quicker in advancing,
No braver man e'er met a foe.
Than gallant Captain Ransing.

Capt. Ransing was married in 1866, to Rose Roth, who survives him, as does his only son, Henry Edward. The latter was born Sept. 16, 1877, and after securing a partial education in St. Anthony's parochial school, finished his education in Franklin and Marshall College, but was compelled to leave school before graduation that he might assist his father, who became seriously ill three years before his death. Henry E. Ransing has since succeeded to the hotel business. He was married Sept. 20, 1900.

Capt. Ransing was a devout Catholic, having taken his first communion at old St. Mary's Church when twelve years old. In his later years he was associated with St. Anthony's Church. He was the founder of St. Michael's Catholic Benevolent Society, and was chief marshal of the great parades that attended the laying of the corner stone of St. Anthony's Church, at the dedication of St. Anthony's Institute, and at other notable Catholic occasions in this city, besides leading his society frequently to other cities to participate in prominent events. Few men indeed were better known in Lancaster than Capt. Henry Ransing, and none more esteemed.

The Lancaster County Regiment at Stones River

An overdue post on the 79th Pennsylvania at Stones River. Be sure to also read accounts of the battle on the "Battle Files" page.

Kurz and Allison illustration of the Battle of Stones River (Source)

After successfully checking the Confederate invasion of Kentucky at the Battle of Perryville, the Union army pursued the Confederates south and celebrated Christmas in Nashville, Tennessee.  Under pressure from Washington to create positive headlines after the disaster at Fredericksburg, Gen. William S. Rosecrans, the new commander of the Union army which was renamed the Army of the Cumberland, led his army out of its camps at Nashville on December 26, 1862.  The 79th Pennsylvania found itself towards the rear and center of the army as part of Col. John C. Starkweather's brigade of Maj. Gen. Lovell Rousseau's division of Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas's center wing.

The Lancaster County Regiment experienced its first excitement of the campaign on December 30 when Confederate Gen. Joseph Wheeler's cavalry brigade attacked the wagons of Starkweather's brigade.  The Fortunately for the Pennsylvanians, luck and Quartermaster Lewis Zecher's good management saved the regiment's wagons from capture, and Starkweather ordered a countermarch and formed his brigade to drive off the Confederate cavalrymen.

Starkweather then proceeded to the battlefield the next day--December 31, the first day of the Battle of Stones River--passing bands of Union soldiers retreating from the battlefield who spoke of disaster.  Sergt. Sigmund E. Wisner wrote that although the Lancasterians were skeptical that the battle was lost, the men marched silently and "despondency was depicted upon each countenance."  The brigade arrived on the battlefield in the evening, taking a position in woods in the center rear of the Union lines where they would spend the night without blankets or fire.

New Years Day passed without either army making a move.  Starkweather's position changed little, occupying wooded terrain between General Johnson's division and the Nashville and Murfreesboro turnpike.

Map of Battle of Stones River, Jan. 2, 1863
The 79th Pa was part of Thomas' Corps positioned
at the Union center near the Nashville Turnpike.

Shortly after dawn on January 2, Rousseau's artillery came under fire and Confederates began to stir across from the Union center.  Starkweather's brigade was ordered up to the front lines to support the artillery. While moving forward to this position, a rebel artillery shell tore through Company G, killing Corp. Mark Erb and wounding Pvts. Samuel Pickel and Isaac Quigley. 

The 79th Pennsylvania spent the rest of the day lying in deep mud behind Battery A, 1st Michigan Light Artillery.  Blankets and rations were scarce, and almost every account of the battle mentions how they survived the couple days on meat from the dead horses.  Several of the accounts even reviewed the meat as surprisingly good.  Elsewhere on the battlefield, Confederates attacked the Union left but were decisively repulsed by a line of artillery and Union counterattack.

Companies C, E, H, and I, 79th Pennsylvania, spent a quiet but nervous night on the picket line, enduring cold and rain without fires.  As dawn broke on January 3, the Lancasterians were surprised to find that Confederate infantry and artillery had advanced overnight, and began to open fire on the 79th Pa pickets at an uncomfortably close distance of 300 yards.  Three men from Company E were wounded in the retreat back to the main line, which now occupied (along with knee-deep mud) trenches dug by army engineers.  

Later that day, as one of the last actions of the battle, Starkweather's brigade supported an effort led by Rousseau to clear the woods to their front of annoying sharpshooters.  As the 79th Pa advanced toward one group of sharpshooters, Pvt. John Shroy of Company A was killed.

That night, Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg withdrew his Confederate army from the battlefield, fearing additional Union reinforcements and the threat of a rising river that could split his command.  Rosecrans moved his victorious army into Murfreesboro, where it camped for most of the rest of the winter and spring.

Nationally, the battle provided sorely needed good news after the Army of the Potomac's setbacks.  For the 79th Pennsylvania, it served as an introduction to the miseries of trench warfare, even if the regiment suffered much lighter casualties than it had at Stones River.  Several weeks after the battle, Lieut. W. Wilberforce Nevin (bio) documented this new type of warfare:

The space between the town [of Murfreesboro]and our lines was won inch by inch, crawling now, and now charging through a sheet of flame.  Many a brave men fell merely in gaining a few furrows.  All the area of strife was covered by sharpshooters, and in the din of conflict their rifles were unseen and noiseless messengers of death.  A convulsive plunge, and a stretched corpse with a little red spot in the forehead told the tale.  Somebody had fallen, as unconscious as his neighbors of the direction of the fatal ball.  All the fighting ground, for the most part ploughed fields, was ancle deep in mud, or worse.  Charging was no more an impetuous dash, but just a steady march into the jaws of death.  On this slippery, swimming ground, we had to eat and sleep.  In the centre the approaches were covered by trenches dug secretly, and occupied by night.  These, of course, under the rain became knee deep in a few  hours with cold and dirty water, but in them night and day lay our indomitable troops, relieving each other, regiment by regiment, in the night.  Too low to stand up in, to wet to sit down in, the wretched occupants had to remain bent and strained, or to kneel over thighs in water.  A single peep over the embankment was a signal for a dozen bullets.  In our eyes, scientific warfare is simply torture. 

79th Pennsylvania Casualties at Stones River

Alleged image of William K. Patton
Sold in 2007 by Heritage Auctions

Killed in Action

Corp. Mark Erb, Company G (1/2/1863)  Erb is listed in the 1860 census as a 19 year-old laborer on the farm of Emanuel Landis near Soudersburg, East Lampeter Township. 
Pvt. John Shroy, Company A (1/3/1863)  John F. Shroy is listed in the 1860 census as a 16 year-old plasterer living with Samuel and Elizabeth Shroy (presumably his parents) in Lancaster Township.

Mortally Wounded

Pvt. William K. Patton, Company H (1/3)--Died 1/13/1863
Pvt. Michael Brandt, Company E (1/3)--Died 1/20/1863

Wounded

Pvt. Samuel Pickel, Company G (1/2)
Pvt. Isaac Quigley, Company G (1/2)
Pvt. Benjamin Bones, Company E (1/3)
Sergt. J. H. Friday, Company E (1/3)
Corp. E. W. Hollinger, Company E (1/3)

Died of Disease

Pvt. William R. Kochel, Company E

The Capture of Capt. Kendrick's Detail

Capt. William G. Kendrick (WGK)

On May 2, 1862, Capt. William G. Kendrick (bio), the regiment's senior line officer, and his detached detail serving with the the telegraph corps near Pulaski, Tennessee, were interrupted by Confederate cavalry under the notorious John Hunt Morgan (bio).  The rebel horsemen approached unrecognized to within twenty yards of the detail before leveling their rifles at Capt. Kendrick, who was in no position to resist.  Kendrick recounted

The first thing I knew twenty rifles were leveled at me by a desperate gang of Guerillas swearing they wold kill me if I moved.  One snapped his piece.  Had it gone off I might not be now writing this letter.  Such is the fortune of war.  I took supper with Capt. Morgan.  He and all his officers treated me as a gentleman.  I had not one unkind word spoken to me after I got in the town by the Rebel soldiers.  The ladies were very jubilant over our Capture.  I had my album and the little boys ambrotypes with me.  An old lady asked if I had children.  I showed the little boys.  She shed tears over them saying poor, dear little fellows, their father a prisoner and so far from them.  There was quite a rush of ladies to see them, nearly all pronouncing them the handsomest of children they ever saw.  I soon had a number of friends amongst the women, who pitied me for the sake of my dear little boys.  [WGK 5/3/1862]

John Hunt Morgan (Source)

Word of the capture of Capt. Kendrick and ten or fifteen others from the Lancaster County Regiment quickly got back to Negley's brigade camp thirty miles north in Columbia and caused much excitement.  Around midnight, four companies--Companies C, E, I, and G--of the 79th Pennsylvania with some cavalry and artillery set out in the darkness to find out what was going on.  As a corporal in Company E, correspondent Elias H. Witmer made the forced overnight march of thirty-one miles.  When the expeditionary force came within five miles of Pulaski, they ran Kendrick and the others, who had been lumped in with 200 prisoners from Gen. Mitchell's division and paroled.  

The incident clearly elicited the fighting spirit of the men in the 79th Pennsylvania.  Witmer, the Mountville storekeeper, concluded his letter by creatively asserting, "A dead codfish could as easily climb a greased sapling, tail foremost, with a loaf of bread in his mouth, as a band of these marauders to whip the Lancaster Co. Regiment."  His entire letter describing the expedition, published in the May 14, 1862, Daily Evening Express, is here: (alternate link)


As paroled prisoners, Capt. Kendrick and the other men returned from the front lines. I'm not sure how the exchange process worked, but Kendrick sat out the rest of 1862 and would rejoin the army as a key staff officer for Gen. Negley.

Better Know an Officer: Lieut. William Wilberforce Nevin

Lt. W. Wilberforce Nevin (taken 7/14/1862)
Don Wisnoski Collection, USAMHI

Name: William Wilberforce Nevin, 1st Lieut., Company G
Born: March 1, 1836, Allegheny, PA
Education: Franklin and Marshall College: Valedictorian, Class of 1853
Occupation: Lawyer since 1859. Before that, teacher in Sewickley, PA. 
Political Beliefs: Republican
Term of Service: Enlisted September 23, 1861. Promoted to Captain, August 23, 1862. Assistant Adjutant General on May 26, 1863.
Post-war: Lawyer, newspaper editor, railroad man. 
Death: September 27, 1899.  Buried in Woodward Hill Cemetery. 

Continuing the trend of 79th Pennsylvania line officers having immediate family members at the forefront of education in Lancaster (i.e., McCaskey and Wickersham), this post introduces Lieut. William Wilberforce Nevin (bio) of Company G, 79th Pennsylvania, hailed as "a patriot, a scholar, a gentleman."  The son of a distinguished German Reformed theologian and future president of Franklin and Marshall College, Wilberforce Nevin graduated at the top of his class at F&M in 1853.  His occasional letters as an officer in the 79th Pennsylvania to the Daily Evening Express exhibit enviable eloquence and reflect a distinguished career that spanned education, law, newspapers, and railroads.

Service Card of W. W. Nevin, PA Card File

Nevin joined the 79th Pennsylvania in September 1861 as one of three lawyers who recruited and led what became Company G.  After the war, Nevin continued his work as a lawyer in Lancaster, and his name appears regularly between 1865 and 1867+ as an active participant in Republican politics and veterans organizations, as well as working pro bono as a lawyer for veterans.  He became a journalist for the Lancaster Daily Evening Express and later for the well-respected Philadelphia Press.  Nevin spent the years 1879 and 1880 traveling in Europe and published his travel memoirs, Vignettes of Travel.  You can view a particularly interesting chapter, Chapter 5 beginning on p. 36, comparing Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as he knew it with Lancashire, England.  Later, Nevin moved to New York to work on behalf of railroads until shortly before his death in 1899.

Although I don't know much about Nevin's religious beliefs, his father is very interesting for having played a central role in one of the major conflicts of religion in America: the mid-nineteenth century clash between confessionalists and pietists that would help determine the character of Protestant denominations.  Loosely speaking, confessionalists advocated a more conservative understanding of the key theological formulations of the Reformation, while pietists favored a more "American" approach that emphasized revivals, conversion stories, and modern ways of expressing faith typical of the Second Great Awakening.  While this may sound dull, it's actually a very fascinating topic to watch unfold, especially for anyone trying to understand Christianity in all of its forms today.  I'll have more about this debate--especially as it relates to addressing the issue of slavery--when the Lutherans' national body convenes in Lancaster in May 1862.

Dr. John Williamson Nevin
Father of W. W. Nevin

Anyway, Wilberforce's father, John Williamson Nevin, made a name for himself as a "High Church Calvinist" while a seminary professor in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.  During the 1840s, Nevin and a colleague attracted attention as proponents of what became known as the "Mercersburg Theology."  A bitter adversary at this time was a man named John Winebrenner, who essentially seceded from the German Reformed Church to create the Church of God, a more evangelistic, Baptist-like organization.  Winebrenner operated mostly out of Harrisburg with many churches in Lancaster, as well as the Church Advocate newspaper.  Wrapping up this tangent, this is the newspaper to which many soldiers wrote, including F. J. Bender regularly and E. H. Witmer on two occasions.  So, when trying to understand the religious world in which Civil War soldiers lived, it's important to recognize them as the children of the generation that faced many high-level choices and conflicts about the direction of Christianity in America.  

Grave of W. W. Nevin
Woodward Hill Cemetery

Back to W. Wilberforce Nevin, I hope you enjoy reading his letters as the secondary correspondent (to E. H. Witmer) to the Daily Evening Express, and are impressed by the authority with which he yielded his pen.  It looks like there will be two more over the next two months.  Apparently, a collection of W. W. Nevin's private letters to family members are housed in the Library of Congress, but I have yet to view them despite a deep desire to do so.  By the way, you might also be familiar with the sculptures of Wilberforce's sister, Blanche, including the Reservoir Park lion in Lancaster and the horse drinking fountain at the corner of W. Orange and King Streets. 

Further Reading:

• W. W. Nevin's October 28, 1861, Daily Evening Express Letter
• W. W. Nevin's Vignettes of Travel 
• Dies irae: nine original English versions translated by W. W. Nevin
• Passionate pilgrims: the American traveler in Great Britain, 1800-1914 by Allison Lockwood
• History of Franklin and Marshall College, 1903
• See my Google Books library for books written by John Williamson Nevin.
• John Winebrenner and the Church of God by Richard Kern
• John Williamson Nevin: American theologian by Richard E. Wentz
• "John Winebrenner: From German Reformed Roots to the Churches of God" by J. Harvey Gossard
  

'Our Present Duty is to Work': A Letter from Camp

From Hardtack and Coffee

Today's letter introduces us to a fourth semi-regular correspondent from the 79th Pennsylvania to Lancaster's newspapers, Lieut. William Wilberforce Nevin.  You might (rightly) recognize the surname "Nevin" for its connections to other aspects of Lancaster's history, but I'll postpone my biography of Wilberforce Nevin for another week.

On October 24, the Lancaster County Regiment boarded trains in Louisville and traveled a little over 50 miles south on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, passing camps along the way to arrive at Camp Nevin (no relation).  They arrived late at night, prepared fires, and spent the night on the ground before laying out camp the next day.  Their six-week stay at Camp Nevin allowed the regiment's soldiers their first real taste of army life, including their first issuance of ammunition, target shooting, and various drills overseen by Col. Hambright.  [WTC] 

From the November 1, 1861, Daily Evening Express: (alternative link)