as Sheridan counterattacked. They held off the Union assault for an hour and a half. Ramseur displayed great bravery in rallying his troops, but he was mounted conspicuously on horseback and drew continuous fire. He was wounded in the arm and his horse was shot out from under him. A second horse was also killed. On his third horse, he was struck through both lungs and fell, later to be captured by Union soldiers of the 1st Vermont Cavalry. Dodson Ramseur died the following day near Middletown, Virginia, at Sheridan's headquarters in the Belle Grove Plantation. His last words were, "Bear this message to my precious wife—I die a Christian and hope to meet her in heaven." The day before the battle, word reached Ramseur of the birth of a baby daughter. He is buried near his birthplace, Lincolnton, in St. Luke's Episcopal Cemetery. Jubal Early's account of Ramseur at Cedar Creek sums up the man and his accomplishments: Legacy The town of Ramseur in eastern Randolph County, North Carolina is named in Ramseur's honor. A monument on the Cedar Creek battlefield commemorates Ramseur's death in the Belle Grove House. By chance, Henry A. Dupont, his friend from West Point, was present at Cedar Creek, and years later described his death bed scene . In Popular Culture In MacKinlay Kantor's 1961 alternate history book If the South Had Won the Civil War, Ramseur appears as one of several prominent people who would have campaigned for the abolition of slavery in an independent Confederacy and eventually achieved it by 1885. In Ralph Peters's 2015 fictionalized account of the Valley Campaigns of 1864, "Valley of the Shadow," General Ramseur is a significant character up until his death near the end of the book. See also List of American Civil War generals (Confederate) Notes References Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. . Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. . Tagg, Larry. The Generals of Gettysburg. Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing, 1998. . Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. . Further reading Gallagher, Gary W. Stephen Dodson Ramseur: Lee's Gallant General. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985. . External links 1837 births 1864 deaths People from Lincolnton, North Carolina Confederate States Army