A Loss Remembered

Ramseur’s daughter, Mary, is seventh from the left; at her right sits Henry A. du Pont

“Approaching the bed I said, ‘Ramseur, do you know me…?’ Speaking with the greatest effort he said to me: ‘Du Pont, you don’t know how I suffer,’ and then relapsed into silence and closed his eyes—not however before extending his hand and firmly grasping and holding mine… Strange as it may seem… he turned with content and satisfaction to the one person present who though officially a foe, was still… the steadfast friend of former days.”

—Henry A. du Pont, speaking at the dedication ceremonies, September 16, 1920

On September 16, 1920, a monument was dedicated to the memory of General Stephen Dodson Ramseur, a young and promising Confederate officer from North Carolina. Ramseur had been mortally wounded the afternoon of October 19, 1864, during the Union counterattack and later captured. Ramseur was brought to Belle Grove and died the next day, but not before several West Point classmates, who were fighting for the Union at Cedar Creek, paid their respects. George Armstrong Custer and Henry A. du Pont were two of these men. Among those attending the monument dedication was Ramseur’s only child, a daughter who was only a few days old when her father died.