Last updated: June 18, 2015
Person
Edward Hastings Ripley
Vermont Office of the Secretary of State
Quick Facts
Significance:
Union Brevet Brigadier General
Place Of Birth:
Center Rutland, VT
Date Of Birth:
November 11, 1839
Place Of Death:
Mendon, VT
Date Of Death:
September 14, 1915
Place Of Burial:
Rutland, VT
Cemetery Name:
Evergreen Cemetery
From the Peninsula to Maryland: Ripley's role in the summer of 1862
Edward H. Ripley was commissioned Captain of Company B, 9th Vermont Infantry Volunteers on June 20, 1862 and mustered into United States service on July 9. He and his regiment began the summer of 1862 building fortifications in Winchester, Virginia but were reassigned to the Harpers Ferry garrison by September. During the Battle of Harpers Ferry, Ripley described the Union's plight with the phrase: "We are as hapless as rats in a cage." Indeed, the Federals were completely surrounded by Confederate forces by September 15, the day in which 12,700 Union soldiers, including Ripely, would surrender. Ripley and his men were paroled and sent to Camp Doulas, Illinois until they were exchanged in January of 1863.
Ripley would rise to the rank of Brevet Brigadier General by the summer of 1864. He was among the first officers to enter Richmond after the surrender of the Confederacy in April of 1865.