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Brigadier General Robert Ransom, Jr. CSA

He was commissioned Captain of cavalry, C. S. A., and then first Colonel of the First North Carolina cavalry (9th Regiment NC State Troops). They saw their first action in a skirmish at Vienna, Virginia, 26 November 1861. He was promoted Brigadier General on 6 March 1862.

In the Antietam Campaign
Commanded Ransom's Brigade in Walker's Division in Longstreet's Command.

The remainder of the War:
He was in command of the division at Fredericksburg, and then served with his division in North Carolina until May 1863. He was promoted Major General and commanded the district including the Appomattox and Blackwater in Virginia. He was then in command at Richmond until July. In October 1863, he was in east Tennessee commanding Cavalry there until April 1864. He then served again in the defenses of Richmond. In June he was in command of Early's cavalry in the expedition through Maryland against Washington. In August he was relieved on account of illness and served in administrative posts in Kentucky and at Charleston, SC before surrendering 2 May 1865.

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God Bless "The Old North State" & Dixie!
Reb_Smilie

ï¿½Happiness Is A North Bound Yankee ï¿½ Reb_Smilie

ï¿½ & A South of the BORDER Bound Illegal ï¿½ C.S.A._Flag

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Gen. George Washington Custis Lee CSA

Gen. G.W. Custis Lee; after the war in 1907 at a reunion of Confederate Veterans in Richmond.

Gen. Robert E. Lees' eldest son
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God Bless "The Old North State" & Dixie!
Reb_Smilie

ï¿½Happiness Is A North Bound Yankee ï¿½ Reb_Smilie

ï¿½ & A South of the BORDER Bound Illegal ï¿½ C.S.A._Flag

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R.Adm. / B.Gen. RAPHAEL SEMMES, CSN

Served as head of the Confederate Lighthouse Services; as Captain of the CSS ALABAMA; Responsible for 55 prizes; Captured and sunk more than any other Confederate cruiser; Also sank the USS HATTERAS (A warship) in Richmond in 1865.
HIGHEST RANK ACHIEVED: Rear Admiral and Brigadier General
(Later appointment never made official).

Raphael Semmes was born on September 27, 1809, in Charles County, Maryland. He was appointed a midshipman in 1826, and rose through the ranks as he studied law between cruises, being admitted to the bar in 1834. Serving in the Mexican War, he barely survived drowning when his ship capsized. In 1849, he moved to Mobile, Alabama, and wrote about his war experiences in "Service Afloat" and "Ashore During the Mexican War." Promoted to commander in 1855, he resigned his commission in the US Navy when Alabama seceded. A commander in the Confederate States Navy, he was appointed head of the Confederate lighthouse Service. Semmes felt that the Confederacy's small navy needed to include commerce destroyers. With support from Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory, he brought a steamer from New Orleans and converted it into the cruiser, the "Sumter," the first Confederate commerce destroyer. He spent six months at sea, during which he captured 17 American merchant ships. The ship was decommissioned and sold in 1862, and the Confederacy obtained more cruisers. Semmes was assigned to one of these, the CSS "Alabama." From August 1862 to June 1864, the ship helped capture and sunk 55 ships, more than any other Confederate cruiser. Admired among Confederates, Semmes was viewed as a pirate by the Union, and US Navy Secretary Gideon Welles made his capture a top priority. Semmes' efforts on behalf of the Confederacy contributed to a decline in his health. In a battle with the USS "Kearsarge" near France, the "Alabama" was defeated and 19 of its crewmembers were killed or drowned. Semmes was rescued, however, and promoted to rear admiral. When he saw little naval action, he organized his sailors and naval cadets into a brigade; and Confederate President Jefferson Davis made him a brigadier general, although the appointment was not made official. Semmes and his sailors were serving with Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston when the army surrendered at Durham, North Carolina. Arrested and brought to Washington on December 15, 1865, he was tried for treason and piracy, and was investigated for charges of mistreating prisoners and violating rules of war. All charges were dropped, and he was released after being detained for three months. Nevertheless, he was unable to keep his positions as college professor and newspaper editor, apparently due to harassment from the government. He returned to Mobile, Alabama; practiced law and published "Memoirs of Service Afloat During the War Between the States." Semmes died in Mobile, on August 30, 1877.

http://www.multied.com/bio/CWcGENS/index.html
_________________

God Bless "The Old North State" & Dixie!
Reb_Smilie

ï¿½Happiness Is A North Bound Yankee ï¿½ Reb_Smilie

ï¿½ & A South of the BORDER Bound Illegal ï¿½ C.S.A._Flag

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Edmun Ruffin was an aged and outspoken defendeder states rights and Southern independence.
Born in Virginia, he dedicated his life to awaken Southern citizens to their true destiny. A destiny that would allow them a country of their own, seperated from a goverment that did not serve their interests or treat them as an equal.
It is said that it was he who pulled the lanyard of the cannon that fired the first shot of the Civil War on the shore of Charleston Harbor, April 12th, 1861.
Though he served the Confederacy in whatever capacity he could, his age and failing health kept him from serving in the armed forces.
On July 18, 1865, a month after the last shot was fired for the war of Southern Independence, Edmund Ruffin wrapped himself in a Confederate flag and killed himself. He left behind a note. It was a fitting epithat for not only his departed soul but also for the Southern Confederacy that died with him.

"I here declare my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule- to all political, social and business connection with the Yankees and to the Yankee race.
Would that I could impress these sentiments, in their full force, on every living Southerner and bequeath them to every one yet to be born!
May such sentiments be held universally in the outraged and downtrodden South, though in silence and stillness, until the now far-distant day shall arrive for just retribution for Yankee usurpation, oppression and atrocious outrages, and for deliverance and vengeance for the now ruined subjugated and enslaved Southern States!
And now with my latest writing and utterance, and with what will be near my latest breath, I here repeat and would willingly proclaim my unmitigated hatred to Yankee rule--to all political, social and business connections with Yankees, and the perfidious, malignant and vile Yankee race."