First Lieutenant Rufus Ricksecker

First Lieutenant Rufus Ricksecker

Lieut. Ricksecker was born April nineteenth, 1842, in Canal Dover, Ohio [now known simply as Dover]. After having graduated in the public school of the same place, he entered the jewelry store of his father [Isreal Ricksecker, 1813-1872], and had gained a thorough and practical knowledge of the jewelry business, at the breaking out of the rebellion. He was possessed of fine social qualities; his many friends will remember with pleasure the musical evenings he enlivened, by his splendid bass voice and performances on the violin.

When the mutterings of war were heard in 1861, a home company, called the "Dover Light Guards" was organized and begun the play of soldier, which afterwards proved such a terrible reality. In this company Rufus Ricksecker was Orderly Sergeant. Afterwards, when the mutterings had swelled into a long deafening roar, he donned the sky-blue uniform of his country, and went forth to battle for the preservation of its unity.

He enlisted the latter part of June, 1862, as a private, with Captain O. W. France. This he did from purely patriotic motives, and though not strong and robust, he said, "I feel that it's my duty to go and help what I can to squelch this rebellion;" and though his father was amply able and willing, in fact anxious to retain him at home, as he was afraid he could not endure the hardships of a soldier's life, yet he went and was mustered into the service of his country, at Steubenville, Ohio.

Shortly after being mustered in, and before leaving Steubenville, he was made commissary Sergeant of the Regiment, which position he ably filled, being an expert penman and accountant. While serving in this position, he made many warm friends in the Regiment by many acts of kindness. For a time he seemed subject to all diseases of camp life. At Cumberland, Maryland, he had a severe spell of lung fever, and at Martinsburg, Virginia, he lay so low with typhoid fever for six weeks, that his life was despaired of, but by careful nursing from his comrades and close attention of the surgeon and chaplain; he finally recovered, and from that time on he enjoyed better health than ever before. On the twenty-seventh day of June, 1864, he was commissioned First Lieutenant by Gov. Brough, and was assigned to company G, being the company with which he enlisted, and was the commanding officer of that company until his death.

In the severe battle of Opequan [Third Winchester], on the nineteenth day of September, 1864, while gallantly leading his company in an assault on the enemy's lines, he received his mortal wounds, by three balls from the enemy piercing him in quick succession, one penetrating the hand, another the neck, and the third the abdomen; either of the latter were fatal wounds. Immediately after receiving these wounds, our forces were obliged to temporarily fall back, when he was heard by some of his company, asking them to take him along and not leave him to fall into the hands of the rebels, but when some of them attempted to carry him back, he said, "it's no use boys, I'm going to die, save yourselves."

Kind friends removed two rings from the hand that was wounded, a small breastpin, his sword and pocketbook, which was saturated with the life blood of our young hero. He was rudely covered with a blanket and left to die the death of a soldier, not alone, for the dead and dying were not a few, but no father, sister, or brother, was there to minister consoling words or deeds. Among the many lives that were sacrificed to achieve that victory, none were more nobly offered up. The body was buried where it fell, without any mark to designate the place, and rests in an unknown grave. As the dead, known and unknown, were removed from the field of Opequan to the National Cemetery at Winchester, it is probable his body lies in that cemetery.