Resolute Rebel: General Roswell S. Ripley, Charleston's Gallant Defender
440
Resolute Rebel: General Roswell S. Ripley, Charleston's Gallant Defender
440Hardcover
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Overview
Roswell S. Ripley (1823-1887) was a man of considerable contradictions exemplified by his distinguished antebellum service in the U.S. Army, followed by a controversial career as a Confederate general. After the war he was active as an engineer/entrepreneur in Great Britain. Author Chet Bennett contends that these contradictions drew negative appraisals of Ripley from historiographers, and in Resolute Rebel Bennett strives to paint a more balanced picture of the man and his career.
Born in Ohio, Ripley graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and served with his classmate Ulysses S. Grant in the Mexican War, during which Ripley was cited for gallantry in combat. In 1849 he published The History of the Mexican War, the first book-length history of the conflict. While stationed at Fort Moultrie in Charleston, Ripley met his Charleston-born wife and began his conversion from unionism to secessionism. After resigning his U.S. Army commission in 1853, Ripley became a sales agent for firearms manufacturers. When South Carolina seceded from the Union, Ripley took a commission in the South Carolina Militia and was later commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate army. Wounded at the Battle of Antietam in 1862, he carried a bullet in his neck until his death. Unreconciled in defeat, Ripley moved to London, where he unsuccessfully attempted to gain control of arms-manufacturing machinery made for the Confederacy, invented and secured British patents for cannons and artillery shells, and worked as a writer who served the Lost Cause.
After twenty-five years researching Ripley in the United States and Great Britain, Bennett asserts that there are possibly two reasons a biography of Ripley has not previously been written. First, it was difficult to research the twenty years he spent in England after the war. Second, Ripley was so denigrated by South Carolina's governor Francis Pickens and Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard that many writers may have assumed it was not worth the effort and expense. Bennett documents a great disconnect between those negative appraisals and the consummate, sincere military honors bestowed on Ripley by his subordinate officers and the people of Charleston after his death, even though he had been absent for more than twenty years.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781611177541 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of South Carolina Press |
| Publication date: | 06/14/2017 |
| Pages: | 440 |
| Sales rank: | 714,905 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d) |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
About the Author
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations, Maps, and Patents ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv
Chapter 1 Family and Early Years 1
Chapter 2 West Point 9
Chapter 3 Prelude to War 16
Chapter 4 Mexico, 1846 21
Chapter 5 Mexico, 1847 27
Chapter 6 Postwar, 1848-1849 37
Chapter 7 Florida, 1849-1850 43
Chapter 8 Twilight of a Career 47
Chapter 9 A New Life in South Carolina 52
Chapter 10 Secession 63
Chapter 11 The Bombardment 73
Chapter 12 Robert E. Lee in Command 84
Chapter 13 General John C. Pemberton 96
Chapter 14 Peninsula Campaign 108
Chapter 15 Maryland Campaign 122
Chapter 16 Return to Charleston 137
Chapter 17 The Impending Storm 148
Chapter 18 Attack of the Ironclads 158
Chapter 19 The Defense of Morris Island 168
Chapter 20 Attacks on Battery Wagner 179
Chapter 21 Siege and Bombardment 190
Chapter 22 The H. L. Hunley Arrives 202
Chapter 23 Ripley Rebuked 212
Chapter 24 The H. L. Hunley Lost at Sea 221
Chapter 25 Ripley Returns and Reacts 228
Chapter 26 Ripley in Crisis 238
Chapter 27 Death of the Confederacy 251
Chapter 28 Chaos and Flight to England 263
Chapter 29 England, 1866-1869 271
Chapter 30 Financial Struggles, 1869-1873 285
Chapter 31 Literary Career, 1874-1875 293
Chapter 32 An Eventful 1875 302
Chapter 33 Ripley's "The Situation in America" 311
Chapter 34 Inventor 323
Chapter 35 Return to America 339
Chapter 36 Death in New York and Honors in Charleston 349
Epilogue 357
Notes 361
Bibliography 387
Index 399
What People are Saying About This
An Ohio native who fought for the Confederacy, Roswell S. Ripley commanded Confederate batteries that initiated the Civil War at Fort Sumter, led a brigade during the Peninsula and Antietam campaigns before returning to Charleston to command the city's defenses. Respected by his subordinates but maligned by his superiors, Ripley's war legacy has been properly restored by Chet Bennett's well written, finely researched work that reveals new details of the general's extensive career. Forgotten in earlier Civil War writings, Bennett's biography properly restores General Ripley to his place in the pantheon of Civil War history.
This often-maligned but under-scrutinized Confederate commander finally receives the attention he deserves in this deeply researched and closely argued study. General Roswell S. Ripley emerges from the margins of Civil War history thanks to the able pen of Chet Bennett.
Roswell Ripley was born in Ohio, but risked his life for the Confederacy. After he drove federal forces from Fort Sumter, South Carolina governor Francis W. Pickens claimed, 'South Carolina will never forget the services you have rendered.' However, today few South Carolinians remember their former defender. Thanks to Chet Bennett, Ripley—and Civil War readers—has finally received the biography he deserves.