Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/208

182 led his regiment in the assault upon Fort Donel- ion where he was again severely wounded, yet would not leave the field till the battle was ended. He was promoted colonel for his bravery and skill. At Shiloh he was in the hottest part of the battle, and, though wounded in the head ear- ly in the action, remained with his command through the day. He served aschief of staff to i leu. John A. McCler- nand and inspec- tor-general of the Arm y of the Ten- nessee, and Mili- sequently on the staff of Gen. Grant, and in January, 1863. was made a brigadier-general, his commission dat- ing from 29 Nov.. ls(i'! He distinguished himself at Vicksburg, and was at the, head of a division in the Red River campaign, taking command of the corps when Ceil. McClernand fell ill. In the battle of Sabine Cross-Roads he received a wound in the knee, from which he never recovered. He com- manded a division,- and later the 17th corps, in the operations about Atlanta, and, though attacked with sickness, directed the movements of his troops in the pursuit of Gen. John B. Hood's army until he sank under the disease. Gen. Ransom was buried in Hose Hill cemetery, Chicago. He was brevetted major-general on 1 Sept., 1864. Both Grant and Sherman pronounced Ransom to be among the ablest volunteer generals in their commands. A Grand army post in St. Louis was named in his honor, and a tribute to his memory was delivered at Chicago on Decoration-day, 1886, by Gen. Will- iam T. Sherman. See "Sketches of Illinois Offi- cers," by James Grant Wilson (Chicago, 1862).

RANSONNIER, Jean Jacques (ran-son-yay). clergyman, b. in the county of Burgundy in 1600 ; d. in '1640. He finished his studies in Malines, en- tered the Society of Jesus in 1619, and at his own request was sent to Paraguay in 1625. After la- boring successfully among the Indians for several years, he visited the tribe of the Itatines in 1632, converted them, and became their legislator as well as their apostle. He spent the remainder of his life among them. His letters were published under the title " Littera? Aumue 1626 et 1627, provincia^ Paraguariae. Societatis Jesu" (Antwerp, 1836). Pinelo asserts that Ransonnier's letters were merely translations from the manuscript of an Italian missionary.

RANTOUL, Robert, reformer, b. in Salem, Mass., 23 Nov.. 1778; d. in Beverly, Mass., 24 Oct., 1858. His father, Robert, a native of Kinross- shire, Scotland, was descended from an ancient family prominent in the ecclesiastical and literary annals of Scotland, came to America at the age f sixteen, and settled in Salem. The son became ; i druggist at Beverly in 1796. He sat in the legisla- ture from 1809 till 1820, in the state senate from 1821 till 1823, and in the house of reptvseniai i.-, again till 1833. He was a member of the State constitutional conventions of 1820 and 1853. After taking part in the militia and coast-guard set-vice of 1812-'15, he became a member of the Ma- sachusetts peace society. He enlisted, as early as, in movements to suppress the common use of ardent spirits, and became a life member of the Massachusetts state temperance society at its in- ception in 1812. While in the legislature he raised a question as to the expediency of capital punish- ments, prompted by the hanging for arson on Sa- lem neck, in 1821, of a lad of seventeen, and the continued agitation of this question by himself and his son has done much to ameliorate the criminal legislation of the country. He was a pioneer in the liberal religious movements of the first years of the nineteenth century, and when these took form, in 1819, in Dr. William E. Channing's Balti- more sermon he became a pronounced Unitarian, and soon after conducted a correspondence on the subject of popular beliefs with Rammohun Roy, of Calcutta. In 1810 he took part in establishing at Beverly a charity-school which was the first Snn- day-scnool in America. His sister, Polly, was the mother of Dr. Andrew P. Peabodv. He was an ac- tive member of the Massachusetts historical society. His son, Robert, statesman, b. in Beverly, Ma>-.. 13 Aug., 1805 ; d. in Washington. D. C., "7 Aug., 1852. was graduated at Harvard in 1826, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1829, and began practice in Salem, but transferred his practice in 1830 to South Reading, Mass. In 1832 lie removed to Gloucester. He was elected to the legislat mv in 1834, serving four years, and assuming at once a position as a leader of the Jacksonian Democracy, in which interest he established at Gloucester a weekly journal. In the legislature he formed a friendship with John G. Whittier, who wrote a poem in his memory. He sat upon the first com- mission to revise the laws of Massachusetts, and was an active member of the judiciary committee. He interested himself in the establishment of lyce- ums. In 1836-'8 he represented the state in the first board of directors of the Western railroad, and in 1837 became a member of the Massachusetts board of education. In 1839 he estab- lished himself in Boston, and in 1840 he appeared in de- fence of the Jour- neymen bootma- kers' organization, inilieied for a con- spiracy to raise wa- ges, and procured their discharge on the ground that a combination of in- dividuals to effect, by means not un- lawful, that which each might legal- Iv do, was not a criminal conspira- cy_. He defended in Rhode Island two persons indicted for complii n in the Dorr rebellion of 1842. Daniel YV, l^i. r u ing the opposing counsel. He was appointed I". S. dis- trict attorney for Massachusetts in 1S45. ami held that office till 1849, when he resigned, lie de- livered in April. 1 s ">n. at Coiieord the address in commemoration of the outbreak of lie Iu olution. In 1850 he was the organizer and a corporator of the Illinois Central railroad. Daniel Wel>-tir having withdrawn from the senate in Iv'iii. ,,n being appointed -enviary of slate, ,-nnl having been succeeded by Robert C. Wiutlirop. Mr. 1,'an- toul was elected. MTV ing nine days. He a- ehuM-n ii- an opponent of the extension of shivery liy a