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No biography exists
for Ranney in the National
Archives. Below is my biography. Entries in blue are references
and my additions
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Henry Joseph Ranney was born in
Maryland in 1807. He became a civil engineer and worked on the
laying of the third section of the Baltimore & Ohio RR in the late
1820's. He moved to New Orleans in the 1830's and became the Chief
Engineer of the New Orleans & Nashville RR while it was under
construction. He went to England in 1835 to buy strap rails for the
road, which was never completed. Details of his life have not been
found, but he represented part of New Orleans in the Louisiana
Legislature and was a member of the Assistant Aldermen (City
Council) of New Orleans. In both positions, he was very active. By
the time the war started, he was very wealthy, partly by being the
lessee of the New Canal in New Orleans, which he took from near
bankruptcy to high profitability. He owned a schooner in the late
1850's. In 1858, his home in the city had a 600 foot front on his
street, while all his neighbors had 30 to 40 foot fronts. He has not
been found in the 1860 Census, though he was in New Orleans. |
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Ranney took the Presidency of the
New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern RR in 1860. He found the road
well built, but with great debt, partly from the purchase of many
locomotives and much rolling stock that the road did not need. When
New Orleans fell, he moved the operations of his road to the other
end of the line, Canton, Miss. As the war progressed, he ran his
road from Meridian, Miss. |
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As the war closed, Ranney was
sent by his doctor to Lewisburg, La., on Lake Pontchartrain, to
improve his health. The cure did not work and he died there May 1,
1865. |
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Ranney was appointed by the
Secretary of War to "regulate" the RR traffic from Richmond to
Chattanooga in October, 1861. Little has been found of his
actions in that position and he did not give up his position with
his RR. His title of "Major" was pre-war and related to his position
on the railroad. |
| February 6, 1861 |
His report to the
Governor published
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| February 15, 1861 |
Signed as surety for
a bond
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| March 1, 1861 |
Made Annual Report
to Stockholders for his railroad
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| April 20, 1861 |
Offers road's
services to the Government
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| September 5, 1861 |
While in Richmond,
received payment for troop movement on his RR
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| October 23, 1861 |
Appointed to
regulate traffic from Richmond to Chattanooga
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| October 26, 1861 |
Ordered to
investigate commissary stores sent from Nashville to Manassas in
August
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| November 2, 1861 |
QMG orders him to
not buy cars for the Orange & Alexandria RR
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| January 10, 1862 |
East Tennessee &
Georgia RR asks for two of his locomotives
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| January 14, 1862 |
QMG asks him to find
sugar shipment and sent it to Richmond
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| January 16, 1862 |
Writes QMG about
freight on sugar and molasses
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| March 1, 1862 |
Made Annual Report
for his railroad
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| March 17, 1862 |
Promises full
cooperation with Beauregard
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| April 10, 1862 |
Wrote QMG about
preventing delays in Government freight
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| July 13, 1862 |
Ranney was included
in plan for recapturing New Orleans
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| August 21, 1862 |
Was included in plan
to recapture Baton Rouge
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| October 9, 1862 |
Writes QMG for car
wheels and axles
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| October 22, 1862 |
Recommends a man
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| October 30, 1862 |
Shipping priority
provided by Pemberton
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| November 28, 1862 |
Protests Pemberton's
seizure of a train
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| January 19, 1863 |
Pemberton required
road to ship certain cotton
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| May 1, 1864 |
Ordered to repair his
line from Canton to Lake Ponchatoula
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| May 1, 1865 |
Died
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| March 1, 1866 |
The Annual Report of the
railroad details wartime operations
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