Eleazar Wheelock Ripley

Eleazer Wheelock Ripley (April 15, 1782 – March 2, 1839) was an American soldier, lawyer, and Democratic politician who served as a brigadier general in the War of 1812 and later as a U.S. representative from Louisiana from 1835 until his death in 1839. He was also a slave owner. Ripley was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, into a prominent New England family closely associated with Dartmouth College. He was the grandson of Eleazar Wheelock, the college’s founder, and the nephew of John Wheelock, its president. His father, Sylvanus Ripley, taught at Dartmouth in the 1780s. Ripley’s family lineage in New England extended back to his earliest known ancestor in America, Ralph Wheelock, who arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England around 1636 during the Great Migration.

Ripley received a classical education and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1800. After completing his studies, he read law and was admitted to the bar. He established a legal practice in what was then the District of Maine, practicing in Kennebec County and later in Portland. His legal career quickly intersected with public life, and he became active in politics in the years immediately preceding the War of 1812.

Ripley first held elective office in Massachusetts, of which Maine was then a part. He served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1810 to 1811 and was elected to the Massachusetts Senate in 1812. With the outbreak of the War of 1812, he left state politics for military service. In August 1812 he organized the 21st United States Infantry Regiment, composed largely of soldiers from Massachusetts and Maine, and entered federal service with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was promoted to colonel in March 1813 and led his regiment in several major engagements, including the battles of York, where he was wounded, Sacketts Harbor, and Crysler’s Farm.

In April 1814 Ripley was promoted to brigadier general and given command of the Second Brigade of Major General Jacob Brown’s Left Division on the Niagara frontier, a command that included his former regiment, the 21st Infantry. He played a prominent role at the Battle of Lundy’s Lane, where his brigade captured and held the British artillery until the American forces withdrew. In the confusion of the withdrawal the captured guns were lost, and Brown blamed Ripley for their loss, prompting Ripley to demand a court-martial to clear his name. During the subsequent Siege of Fort Erie, Ripley briefly commanded Brown’s division after Brown was wounded at Lundy’s Lane, before being superseded by Brigadier General Edmund Pendleton Gaines. Ripley was conspicuous in the successful repulse of a British assault on August 16, 1814, and in an American sortie on September 17, during which he was again wounded. For his distinguished wartime service he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest form of recognition at the time and a precursor to the Medal of Honor.

Following the war, Ripley moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1815 and continued his military service for several more years before leaving the army in 1820 to resume his legal and political career. His postwar life in Louisiana included both legal practice and land and business interests, and, like many members of the regional elite, he was a slave owner. His name later appeared in a significant legal dispute with the federal government that reached the United States Supreme Court. In United States v. Ripley (1832), the Court held that he owed the United States a sum of money he had expended while serving as a major general by brevet. The building at issue in that litigation is regarded as the oldest building in Uptown New Orleans.

Ripley entered Louisiana politics as a member of the Democratic Party and was elected to the Louisiana State Senate, in which he served in 1832. Building on his state-level prominence, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat from Louisiana’s Second Congressional District. He served in the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Congresses and was reelected to the Twenty-sixth Congress, holding office from March 4, 1835, until his death on March 2, 1839. As a member of the Democratic Party representing Louisiana, Eleazer Wheelock Ripley contributed to the legislative process during three terms in office, participating in the democratic process during a significant period in American history and representing the interests of his constituents in a rapidly expanding slaveholding republic.

Ripley died in office on March 2, 1839, while still serving as a U.S. representative from Louisiana. His military reputation endured long after his death and was commemorated in numerous place names across the United States. The village of Staunton, Ohio, was renamed Ripley, Ohio, in his honor, and several military installations and localities also took his name, including Fort Ripley and Camp Ripley, as well as Ripley County, Indiana; Ripley County, Missouri; Ripley, New York; Ripley, Tennessee; Ripley, Mississippi; and Fort Ripley, Minnesota. His career as a lawyer, legislator, and general, combined with his role as a slaveholding member of the antebellum Southern political class, situates him among the notable but complex figures of early nineteenth-century American public life.