Ambrose Robert Hite Ranson was born on April 12, 1831, in Jefferson County, Virginia (present-day West Virginia), to James and Frances Ranson. His father was a farmer who owned $61,200 of real estate in 1850. He grew up in Jefferson County, and he attended the Virginia Military Institute in the late 1840s. He settled in Baltimore, Maryland, in the late 1850s. He married Elizabeth Frane in 1854, and they had at least five children.

 

Ranson sided with the Confederacy, and he received a commission as a 2^nd lieutenant in the Provisional Army of the Confederacy. As he explained in May 1861, his “future is with the South,” and he hoped to beat “back the Northern barbarians.” Union forces captured him in the Battle of Rich Mountain in July 1861. He was exchanged soon afterward and promoted to major. He served on the staff of General John Pegram. He surrendered on April 9, 1865, as part of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

 

Ranson returned to Baltimore after the war and earned a living as a grain merchant. He also wrote several books about his Civil War experiences. His wife eventually died, and he married Lucy Glenn around 1879. Their daughter Miriam was born around 1884. By 1910, he employed at least three servants. He died of “acute indigestion” in Baltimore on May 12, 1919.

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