Richard joined the Confederate Army on March 12, 1864 at Camp Holmes near Raleigh. He signed up in Company G of the 57th. North Carolina Infantry for a three year enlistment. Richard Ransom was on the muster rolls through May , 1864. He was captured and made a prisoner of war July 20, 1864 by General Crook near Winchester, Virginia. He was confined to a military prison at Wheeling, Virginia (Atheneum Prison).He was transferred to Camp Chase Ohio July 28, 1864. He left there for City Point (Boulware's and Cox's Wharves on the James River) ,Virginia on March 10-12, 1865 for a prisoner exchange. He may have surrendered at Appomattox April 9, 1865 or he may have been paroled after the prisoner exchange on March 12, 1865.
His unit served in the Petersburg Virginia campaign. For information about Petersburg check out
He married Semira Tilitha Newsom May or March 13, 1868 in Forsyth County North Carolina (m. bond # 000141023).
He was a farmer with dark hair, dark eyes and he was 6-feet, 1-inch tall. Semira's parents were Thomas Turner Newsom, born November 8, 1791 in Halifax County Virginia. Thomas married Lettie Richie about 1825. Lettie was born in 1805. Thomas died October 12, 1864. Lettie died June 23, 1880 and is buried in the Newsom Cemetery in Tobaccoville North Carolina. Thomas Newsom fought in the War of 1812.
Richard and Semira had the following children:
Martha M. (Rumley), Lettie(Robertson), Thomas (died in infancy), Mary (died in infancy), Fannie L. (Ott), Isabell(died in infancy), Stella (Estes), Lucy (died in infancy), Hulby, and Euell Tartar was a ward.
Richard died August 8, 1904 and is buried in the Blackwater Chapel Graveyard in Pettis County Missouri with his infant children. His wife died September 14, 1925 and is buried at King (Stokes County) North Carolina in the old Newsom Cemetery near Tobaccoville, North Carolina. She returned to North Carolina to care for their ward, Euell Tartar.
Semira's sister was Sarah (Sally) Ann who married John Rumley on July 17, 1856 in Tobaccoville (Forsyth County) North Carolina. John died June 9, 1881 in Knob Noster, Missouri and is buried in Mt Zion Church yard Cemetery , near Dunkensburg, Johnson County, Missouri. She was born October 7, 1840 in North Carolina. She died September 6, 1914 and is buried in Mt. Zion Church Yard near Dunkensburg north of Knob Noster, Missouri (Johnson County). John and Sarah had the following children:
Semira Jane (Bryant), Marshall McNeally (murderd in his blacksmith shop in May, 1880, Ulysses Grant, Amanda Turner (Strickland), Mary Emmaline (Bowling), James Henry, Martha Helen (Strickland), and Johnnie Estelle(Whitlock).
Larry Heisserer salheiss@juno.com, the great-great-great nephew to Richard Ransom and great-great-grandson to John Rumley and Sarah Newsom., is a civil engineer with the Construction Assistance Division of the Arkansas Department of Environmetal Quality. He lives in Bryant, AR with his wife, Sherri Lynn, and youngest son, Daniel. His oldest son, Jason, is graduated and teaches at a highschool in St. Louis. The above genealogical information was obtained from Elsie Cobb Rumley of Coalgate, Oklahoma, who married Marshall Rumley January 22,1947 in Caddo County Oklahoma. He is the great-grandson of John Rumley and Sarah Newsom.