Thomas Edward Greenfield Ransom was born on November 29, 1834, in Norwich, Vermont, to Truman Ransom and Margaret Greenfield. His father was an educator who died in the Battle of Chapultepec during the Mexican American War. Ransom enrolled at Norwich University in 1848 and remained there for the next three years. He moved Illinois in the early 1850s, earning a living as a surveyor and civil engineer. By 1860, he was living in Fayette County, Illinois, and working for the Illinois Central Railroad.

 

Ransom enlisted in the Union army almost immediately after the Civil War began, mustering in as a captain in Company E of the 11^th Illinois Infantry on April 30, 1861. According to his enlistment records, he was 5 feet, 11 inches tall, with light hair and gray eyes. He earned a rapid series of promotions, becoming a major later that spring, a lieutenant colonel on July 30, 1861, and a colonel on February 15, 1862. He was wounded at the Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862 and received a severe head wound in the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862.

 

He eventually recovered, and he received a commission as a brigadier general on November 9, 1862. He took part in the siege of Vicksburg and the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads, where he received another severe injury. He spent several months recovering in Chicago, Illinois, but he finally rejoined his men in Georgia in October 1864. He fell ill with dysentery soon afterward, and he died near Rome, Georgia, on October 29, 1864.

 

Image: Thomas Edward Greenfield Ransom (courtesy Wikicommons)

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