Reflections on a Fatherless Fourth

By Bob Ferris

A young Bill Ferris at boarding school.

I lost my father about a year ago and so he is on my mind in little and big ways as we near the Fourth of July.  For instance, I used to have a place where I stacked the books I read that I would later ship off to my father.   We did not have long lingering discussions about these books.  We were not a book club, but whenever I asked I asked if he wanted me to continue the practice he invariably said: Keep ‘em coming.

My father and me in 1952.

On the larger front, I think I am similar to most sons in that I look for pieces of my father in myself. Not so much big ears or knobby knees but more along the lines of behavior or tendencies.  And one thing that seems to be fairly true in our family is an essence of pugnaciousness particularly when placed within an authoritative system.  Which is really interesting given our family’s long history in the military.

An excerpt from a recollection by Elizabeth Ferris talking about her grandfather Joseph Gales Ramsay and grandmother Anne Morris Ramsay.

This last line of thought was triggered when one cousin asked me whether or not I had seen a series of family posts sent around by another cousin.  I had not and so contacted him.  Turns out most of this revolved around letter written by my grandmother (Elizabeth Gouverneur Morris Ramsay Ferris) about a sword her grandmother (Anne Ritchie Morris Ramsay) had been given by a Russian admiral when her husband (Joseph Gales Ramsay) had basically been one of the last men standing at a party held for military officers of various countries sitting around Sitka waiting for the purchase of Alaska to be finalized.

Joseph Gales Ramsay's final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Now I have tended to overlook Joseph or J. Gales as he seems to get lost in family lore somewhere between his father General George Douglas Ramsay and his son Major William Gouverneur Ramsay of DuPont fame.  After looking at his history, particularly as it applies to this thread of authority bucking, this was an oversight on my part.

A lot of this history recently came to me in some materials from still another cousin who has put together an annotated timeline which starts to flesh out Joseph along with some other closely related players.   Before I go back to the pugnaciousness, some background is needed.

A young Joseph Gales Ramsay about the time of his joining the volunteers early in the Civil War.

Joseph did not go to a military academy like his father or his older half-brother Francis Munroe Ramsay, but did sign-up as a volunteer in 1861 a few months after the start of the Civil War.  He quickly jumped into artillery (i.e., the family business of making things go “boom”) spending time in the South that included a short stint on General W.T. Sherman’s staff.   In 1864 he ended up at Fort McHenry in Baltimore where his commanding officer was Brigadier General William Walton Morris who was a classmate of his father’s at West Point graduating in 1820.

Anne Ritchie Morris "the Daughter of the Regiment."

In the last half of 1865 Joseph mustered out of the volunteers and joins the regular army which is rare as most volunteers return to civilian life.  He also marries the General’s daughter Anne Ritchie Morris.  And he gets transferred along with his unit to the Presidio in San Francisco.   About a month after his son William Gouverneur Ramsay is conceived at the Presidio, General Morris died at Fort McHenry.

Joseph’s subsequent career was pretty remarkable.  He spent time in Alaska where he got the sword. He was at Fort Riley and Fort Leavenworth in Kansas which served as light artillery schools until the units were absorbed by the cavalry.  This change put Joseph under George Armstrong Custer for a period.  His second child was born during this time and it is believed that Libbie Custer could have been present at George Douglas Ramsay’s birth.  It is interesting to note that these two forts were named after the leaders of a campaign against the Arikara in the summer of 1823 where the artillery of the force was commanded by a young 2nd Lieutenant named William Walton Morris.

Joseph eventually became a Lt. Colonel and ended his career in the East.  But there were bumps in the road which brings us back to the pugnaciousness.  Joseph was tried by a general court martial in 1866 for having his sergeants beat an enlisted man which would have been overlooked in war time, but not in peace time.  He lost his rank and position for six-months as a result.  He was tried again in 1871 for coming to blows with a subordinate officer after the two strongly disagreed during a court martial proceeding they sat on in Nevada.

Joseph Gales Ramsay in his later years.

In 1879 Joseph was caught in the pincers of politics as he lost his command.  Much likely contributed to this event from congressional maneuvering on military budgets to the de-emphasis of light artillery in favor of larger, more stationary guns—particularly in coastal emplacements.  I am not certain how much Joseph’s system-bucking contributed, but I am sure there is a paper trail somewhere that would yield hints.  This is also the year that he lost his son and namesake.

Anne Morris Ramsay in her later years.

The restoration of his command was favored by some and opposed by others most notably General Sherman who wrote a letter in opposition.  Eventually, it was returned with the intersession of a few Congressmen and Ulysses S. Grant who actually helped get Joseph the appointment in the first place.  Here too I think the fact that Joseph’s father was a general and his grandparents dined with George Washington as well as Anne’s having a father who was a general, a grandfather who served in the Revolution and a great grandfather and great-great uncle who signed the Declaration and who wrote a large part of the US Constitution respectively all helped too.

“A friend of President Lincoln's, he was selected for his new post over the objections of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who had previously been irritated by Ramsay's independence” From a short biography of General George Douglas Ramsay father of Joseph Gales Ramsay 

In the above narrative of Joseph, I do see bits and pieces of my father who eventually became a major, but continually bucked authority.  My father was not above telling his commanding officer or boss what he thought. He had a low tolerance for ineptitude as he saw it and he often paid a price for bringing the obvious to light.  I see myself here too.   Being right does not always mean winning, but it is the hill many of us charge up time after time.  We seem trapped and enthralled in this whole Scotch-Welsh mess and bear in our own myriad ways.

My father and me in Friday Harbor in 2011.  He will be interred at Arlington this October.