A Civil War Biography
James Wolfe Ripley
Ripley was born 10 December 1794 in Windham County, Connecticut. He
entered West Point in May 1813 and received his commission 12th in
the class of 1814 the following June. The class was rushed through
in order to serve in the War of 1812. Ripley was assigned to the
artillery.
After the war he fought Creek and Seminole Indians under Andrew
Jackson, served at numerous garrisons, and did surveying work in
Florida. In 1832 Ripley was transferred to the newly independent
Ordnance Department and assigned as a captain to garrison duty in
Charleston, South Carolina. He was assigned command of the
Springfield Armory in Massachusetts in 1841 and remained in command
there until 1854 except during his service in the war with Mexico.
Shortly after the Civil War broke out Ripley, by then a lieutenant
colonel of ordnance, returned from a foreign inspection trip. He was
promoted to colonel and named chief of ordnance on 23 April 1861
replacing the 70 year old Henry K. Craig. Ripley was brevetted
brigadier general in the regular army on 2 July 1861 then promoted
to that rank on 3 August 1861. Although his tenure as Chief of
Ordnance is often noted for many accomplishments including restoring
administrative order to the Ordnance Department that had become
disorganized and mired in red tape; protecting the government from
purchasing impractical inventions; increasing the output of the US
armories; and standardizing weapons and ammunition, Ripley is most
noted for his resistance to change.
After repeated clashes with Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War
Edwin M. Stanton regarding Ripley's opposition to innovation he was
replaced on 15 September 1863 by Colonel George D. Ramsay who would
have his own problems with Stanton. Ripley was appointed Inspector
of Armaments of Forts on the New England Coast. He retained that
position until the end of the war. Following the war he remained in
the army and was named inspector of government armaments. He died 15
March 1870 in Hartford, Connecticut. Ripley was the uncle of
Confederate Brigadier General Roswell Sabine Ripley.
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