Last updated: April 28, 2023
Article
Parallel Lives and Deaths of Ramseur & Lowell
NPS Photo
There are monuments to two Civil War army officers in Middletown, Virginia: Stephen Dodson Ramseur and Charles Russell Lowell. Both men died at the Battle of Cedar Creek in 1864. Foes on the battlefield, the two men lived and died in close parallel.
Stephen Dodson Ramseur
Stephen Dodson Ramseur was born on May 31, 1837, in Lincolnton, North Carolina, located approximately forty miles northwest of Charlotte. Ramseur was the eldest son of Jacob A. Ramseur and Lucy Mayfield Dodson. He was a devout Presbyterian. Ramseur set his eyes set on West Point the United States Military Academy in New York. He did not secure appointment to the academy in 1853 and went on to Davidson College, 25 miles east of Lincolnton. While at Davidson he found a mentor in his math professor, Daniel H. Hill. Hill was a West Point graduate and recommended Ramseur for appointment to West Point. Ramseur made his way to West Point in late June 1855.
West Point was the perfect training for the leader Ramseur was about to become. Before North Carolina seceded from the Union, he resigned his commission with the United States Army and headed to Mobile, Alabama the new Confederate capital to offer his services. During his four years he participated in some of the most important battles of war. After being seriously wounded at Malvern Hill when a bullet hit his arm he was appointed to brigadier general on November 1, 1862. He returned to his command in January 1863. At Chancellorsville Ramseur was wounded in the shin. He continued to lead with determination at Gettysburg, the Wilderness and was wounded again for the third time during the fierce fighting at the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania. Cold Harbor was another intense battle for the young commander. On June 4, 1863 Ramseur was promoted to rank of major general, the youngest West Pointer to achieve this rank at the age of 27.
Ramseur spent some time recuperating in Milton, North Carolina, after his first wounding at Malvern Hill. During this period of convalescence, he fell in love with his cousin Ellen Richmond. Ellen, known as Nellie, accepted his proposal of marriage. They were married on October 28, 1863, at Nellie's home at Woodside in Milton, North Carolina.
Charles Russell Lowell
A man very similar to Ramseur, but who fought for the Union was Charles Russell Lowell, Jr. Born on January 2, 1835 to Charles Russell Lowell, Sr. and Anna Cabot Jackson. The Lowell and Jackson families connected through business and marriage had been major forces in New England. The families gained great wealth and became part of high society in Boston. Lowell's father Charles, Sr. proved to be an inefficient manager of Lycoming Coal and declared bankruptcy in 1840. In reaction to her husband's inability to provide for the family, Anna Lowell decided to open a school.
This school is where young Lowell first received his education. When Lowell was nine, he attended Boston Latin School. After completing four years at the Latin School, Lowell went on to the English High School. After high school Lowell attended Harvard. During Lowell's four years at Harvard he remained in the top two positions in his class and at the July 1854 commencement Lowell gave the valedictory address.
Lowell wanted nothing more than to help rebuild his family's finances. After Harvard he became a merchant, "from there he launched himself on a promising career in the forefront of iron manufacture." The industry destroyed his health and in October of 1856 Lowell was diagnosed with Tuberculosis. Lowell's Uncle Dr. James Jackson tried to convince him that he would end up an invalid if he did not change his lifestyle and ambitions. Lowell felt the plan was unnecessary and he changed his career by going to work for J.M. Forbes & Co. John Murray Forbes became one of the most important people in Lowell's life.
Lowell's health continued to deteriorate and with his family’s insistence he went to Europe. After two years in Europe, Lowell made his way to Paris to visit a pathologist where Lowell was diagnosed as being in remission. Armed with the positive news about his health, Lowell returned to the States. In 1860 Lowell was offered a position as ironmaster of the Mount Savage Iron Works near Cumberland, Maryland. When Lincoln called for volunteers, many young men of upper-class New England society went to enlist. Lowell had the same sense of duty as his peers, and made his way to Washington D.C. on April 21, 1861, to enlist.
After being commissioned Colonel in the spring of 1863, the younger sister of his friend Rob Shaw, Effie, caught his eye. In a sequence of events that paralleled Ramseur's romance, there was an awakening, a whirlwind courtship and an engagement, with the wedding date to be set subject to military necessity. Josephine Shaw and Charles Russell Lowell, Jr. were married at Staten Island's Unitarian Chapel on October 31, 1863, three days after the Ramseurs.
Ramseur’s News
Just before the battle of Cedar Creek, Ramseur received wonderful news. From the signal station at Signal Knob on the Massanutten Mountain, Ramseur found out that Nellie had given birth to their first child. Ramseur did not know if he had a son or a daughter as the message simply said, "The crisis is over and all is well." Ramseur wanted a furlough to get home to his wife and new child. He hoped the upcoming battle would afford him the opportunity. On the morning of battle, he was "…dressed with unusual care in full uniform, a flower in his lapel to honor his new child…" Lowell's wife Effie was also expecting their first child in November.
Lowell Struck
As the Federal troops prepared for their counterattack at Cedar Creek, Lowell was conferring with another officer when a Minie ball struck him in the chest. It embedded itself in the muscle above the right lung without breaking the skin. All wanted him to go to the rear, but he refused. Believing himself to be simply stunned and that he would be fine shortly. Lowell was most concerned that without his leadership, the position that his men had held for five hours might be lost. Even though he could not speak above a whisper, Lowell remained with his men. Lowell's lung had not been in good working order since having had tuberculosis.
Lowell knew he wanted to die, "at the head of his regiment: that is the time to die when one is happiest." He recognized that even if he had not received a mortal wound, his collapsed lung would ruin his life and it would be a slow death.
Around 3 p.m., Lowell was lifted and strapped onto a horse. He was very weak. At 4:15 p.m. the counterattack finally commenced with Lowell at the head of his brigade. His aides called out the orders because he could not speak above a whisper. Over 3,000 horses responded and into a volley they headed. The cavalry began to trot, then gallop and quickly to charge. Lowell was hit again, and he was carried to the rear to a doctor and then on to the hospital. After the Federal counterattack succeeded, Lowell was moved into a house in Middletown. He was paralyzed and felt no pain. Lowell slept that night and the following morning his officers came to see him. He said to one of the officers, "My only regret is that I cannot do something more for our cause." At 9 a.m., Lowell's labored breathing finally ceased.
Ramseur Mortally Shot
While Lowell's saw action on the Federal left, Ramseur was in the thick of battle on the Confederate left near the Miller house. The Federal soldiers, reinvigorated with Sheridan's return, were ready to regain what they had lost that morning. The Confederate soldiers, tired from their long march the night before and their great victory of the morning, were fighting to keep their gains. An intense battle raged.
Robert R. Hutchison, on Ramseur’s staff, described his commander’s fate in a letter written to Nellie the day after the battle:
“He received his mortal wound yesterday afternoon, between 5&6 p.m., at the post of honor and of danger where he always was. Our troops had fallen back a short distance, but had reformed and were stubbornly contesting a position on a hill which the enemy attacked from three sides. He exposed himself to every shot cheering and encouraging all. I was not far from him when I saw his horse shot, he procured another, which was shot also and immediately after he received his fatal wound (the second) all in a space of a very few moments. I ran over to him, got some men, and bore him the rear…[in] the ambulance I had brought up.”
During the Confederate retreat, Union Cavalry captured Ramseur’s ambulance. They took him to Belle Grove, where doctors soon proclaimed his wound mortal.
While on his death-bed, Ramseur was visited by several of his former West Point classmates who were now officers with the Union army; including Brig. Gen. George A. Custer, Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt and Capt. Henry DuPont.
Fifty-six years later, on September 16, 1920, at the dedication of a monument on the Cedar Creek battlefield honoring the gallant Ramseur, Senator Henry DuPont, spoke of visiting his former classmate during his final hours at Belle Grove:
“Ramseur was at once installed in one of the most commodious bedrooms in the house and all possible steps taken…to mitigate his sufferings… The room was absolutely still. Ramseur, clad in his major general’s uniform, lay on his back in the bed his eyes closed.… Approaching the bed I said: “Ramseur, do you know me?” …he opened his eyes, in which I saw recognition and apparently a gleam of pleasure…. Speaking with the greatest effort he said to me:
‘Du Pont, you 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. I was deeply moved. Strange as it may seem—illogical, if you please—in that supreme moment he turned with content and satisfaction to the one person present who officially a foe, was still, as he instinctively felt, the steadfast personal friend of former days!”
Ramseur died the next day, thus leaving Nellie a widow, and his new daughter, Mary Ramseur, fatherless.
Monuments to Promising Lives Cut Short
Stephen Dodson Ramseur and Charles Russell, two young men of great promise, both died two weeks short of their first wedding anniversary. Ramseur died just days after his daughter Mary was born. Lowell died weeks before his daughter Carlotta was born. Their deaths represent just two of over 620,000 American war deaths, and their impacts on those at home.
On September 16, 1920, the North Carolina Division of the Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated a monument on Cedar Creek battlefield to the memory of Stephen Dodson Ramseur. Among those attending the dedication was Ramseur’s only child, a daughter who was only a few days old when her father died.
On Main Street in downtown Middletown stands a marker honoring Charles Russell Lowell.