Battles of Manassas • Tour the Battlefield • Monuments • Facts • The Armies
The Lieutenant Ramsey marker is on the Henry Hill walking tour north of the Manassas National Battlefield Visitor Center.
Text from the marker:
Lieutenant Ramsey
of Ricketts’ Battery
was killed here July 21, 1861.
Battle of First Manassas
(Bull Run)
About Lieutenant Ramsey
Andrew Douglas Ramsey was the son of William Ramsey, a Captain in the United States Navy, and Elizabeth Margaret Peter Ramsay. Andrew was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the First United States Artillery on June 7, 1855. Just before the Civil War broke out the battery was serving at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Ramsey was promoted to First Lieutenant on February 25, 1861, after his battery returned to Washington D.C.
At the Battle of Bull Run Lieutenant Ramsey was second in command of Battery I, First United States Artillery, known as Rickett’s Battery. The battery, newly equipped with six 10 Pounder Parrott Rifles, was overrun on Henry Hill when Confederate infantry were allowed to approach too closely due to confusion over their blue uniforms (both sides had militia uniforms of both blue and grey). The guns were overrun and a deadly seesaw fight broke out over their possesion. Lieutenant Ramsey attempted to recover the guns during a Union counterattack and was killed by a Confederate sharpshooter.
Location of the marker
The Lieutenant Ramsey marker is on the Henry Hill walking tour about 550 feet north of the Manassas National Battlefield Visitor Center. (38° 48.86′ N, 77° 31.372′ W)