Ramseur did not wait until North Carolina
seceded from the
Union, joining the
Confederate States Army in Alabama, but quickly transferred to the 10th North Carolina Militia. He became the
lieutenant colonel of the 3rd North Carolina Infantry on May 27, 1861. He was injured with a broken collarbone while being thrown from his horse in July and was out of service until the following spring.
Peninsula Campaign At the start of the
Peninsula Campaign in 1862, Ramseur commanded artillery in
Brig. Gen. John B. Magruder's
division, but he was elected
colonel of the
49th North Carolina Infantry on April 12, 1862. In the
Seven Days Battles, Ramseur saw his first significant action at the
Battle of Malvern Hill, where he led a futile charge against the strong
Union defense and was severely wounded in the right arm. The arm mangled and paralyzed, Ramseur returned home to recuperate. After the
Battle of Antietam, he returned from leave as commander of a
brigade of four North Carolina regiments in Brig. Gen.
Robert E. Rodes's division of
Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's
corps. Promoted to
brigadier general on November 1, 1862, he became, at 25 years old, the youngest general in the Confederate army at that time. This was a remarkable accession to rank for someone who had missed so many battles, but Gen.
Robert E. Lee had been very impressed by Ramseur's aggressive performance at Malvern Hill.
Chancellorsville In the
Battle of Chancellorsville, Ramseur's was the lead brigade in Jackson's famous flank march of May 2, 1863, against the Union right. Maj. Gen.
J.E.B. Stuart, in temporary command of the corps after Jackson was mortally wounded, ordered three cheers for the brigade's aggressive assault and recommended that Ramseur be promoted to
major general; this would not come to pass for another year. Ramseur's performance was actually overly aggressive because his brigade moved out in front of the other brigades too quickly, became exposed, and ran out of ammunition. They had to have reinforcements rush in from the neighboring brigade to help consolidate their gains. His brigade had higher casualties in the battle—more than 50%—than any other Confederate brigade. On the following day, he was wounded again, this time in the leg. General Lee wrote about Ramseur's brigade after the battle:
Gettysburg In the
Battle of Gettysburg, on July 1, 1863, Ramseur's brigade was one of five Rodes led in an assault south from Oak Hill against the right flank of the Union
I Corps. Ramseur started in reserve, but the failed attacks by the brigades of Brig. Gens.
Alfred Iverson and
Edward A. O'Neal required him to move forward to keep the assault from petering out. Rather than repeating their direct assaults, he swung around to the left, across the Mummasburg Road, and hit the defenders in the rear, routing them and driving them back through the town. (This assault was not as difficult as Iverson's and O'Neal's because the Union defenders had now only one brigade in position instead of two and they were low on ammunition.) Ramseur was dismayed when ordered to halt the pursuit of his foe at the foot of
Cemetery Hill. This was the last fighting at Gettysburg for Ramseur; Rodes's division sat idle just northwest of Cemetery Hill for the next two days and retreated to Virginia with the rest of the
Army of Northern Virginia. Ramseur returned home on leave to marry Ellen E. "Nellie" Richmond and they spent three months together in the Confederate army winter encampment.
The Wilderness In the
Wilderness, the start of Lt. Gen.
Ulysses S. Grant's 1864
Overland Campaign, Ramseur was once again kept in reserve. On May 7, 1864, his brigade was called forward and smashed into Maj. Gen.
Ambrose Burnside's
IX Corps, which was attempting to outflank Ramseur's corps. Both Lee and corps commander Lt. Gen.
Richard S. Ewell wrote in admiration of his gallant attack, which drove Burnside's troops back over a half mile. At
Spotsylvania Court House, his brigade counterattacked the
II Corps of Maj. Gen.
Winfield S. Hancock after its assault on the Mule Shoe at the "Bloody Angle". Desperate hand-to-hand fighting, some of the most intense of the war, lasted for over 20 hours. He was wounded again in this attack, shot from his horse in the right arm, but refused to leave the field.
Major General Ramseur assumed command of
Jubal A. Early's division when that general took over from Ewell after Spotsylvania. He received a temporary promotion to major general on June 1, 1864, becoming at 27 the youngest West Point graduate to ever be promoted to major general in the Confederate Army. He fought at
Cold Harbor and was the first division to intercept Grant before he could capture
Petersburg.
1864 Valley Campaign In June 1864, Ramseur and the rest of Early's corps was sent by Lee to the
Shenandoah Valley to draw Union forces away from Petersburg, in the
Valley Campaigns of 1864. They conducted a long and successful raid down the Valley, into
Maryland, and reached the outskirts of
Washington, D.C., before turning back. Maj. Gen.
Philip Sheridan was sent by Grant to drive Early from the Valley. On September 19, 1864, Sheridan attacked the Confederates at the
Battle of Opequon, also known as the Third Battle of Winchester. Ramseur's division was routed by a strong Union assault near Stephenson's Depot; Ramseur allegedly wept openly and immaturely blamed his men for the retreat. His colleague Rodes was mortally wounded.
Cedar Creek and death In a surprise attack a month later, Early routed two thirds of the Union army at the
Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19, but his troops were hungry and exhausted and fell out of their ranks to pillage the Union camp; Ramseur managed to corral a few hundred soldiers out of his division and stood with them in the center of the line as Sheridan counterattacked. They held off the Union assault for an hour and a half. Ramseur displayed great bravery in rallying his troops, but he was mounted conspicuously on horseback and drew continuous fire. He was wounded in the arm and his horse was shot out from under him. A second horse was also killed. On his third horse, he was struck through both lungs and fell, later to be captured by Union soldiers of the
1st Vermont Cavalry. Dodson Ramseur died the following day near
Middletown, Virginia, at Sheridan's headquarters in the Belle Grove Plantation. His last words were, "Bear this message to my precious wife—I die a Christian and hope to meet her in heaven." The day before the battle, word reached Ramseur of the birth of a baby daughter. He is buried near his birthplace,
Lincolnton, in St. Luke's Episcopal Cemetery. Jubal Early's account of Ramseur at Cedar Creek sums up the man and his accomplishments: ==Legacy==