DOB:  March 1846 DOD:  November 5, 1938 Comments: Ralph was born in Rutherford County and belonged to the family of William Ledbetter who eventually commanded Company I “Rutherford Rifles” of the 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment.  He states on his pension record that he went to the army with William in May 1861, the year Ralph would have turned 15 years old. It is uncertain how he ended the war because William Ledbetter was wounded at the Battle of Franklin November 30, 1864 and captured on December 3, 1864 trying to make his way home to recover.  William was sent to a prison camp and Ralph would not have been taken with him.  Most likely Ralph just returned to the family farm after William was captured.  Following the war, Ralph does not pop up again until the 1880 Census where he is a farmer living with wife Elvira, two sons, two daughters, and his niece.  His oldest son is listed as being 12 years old so it is safe to assume Ralph and Elvira married sometime between 1865 and 1868. By the 1900 census, Ralph has moved to Davidson County where he is a farm laborer, married to a new wife, Sophia, and appears to have had at least four more children with her.  By 1910, Sophia has passed away and Ralph is working odd jobs still living in Davidson County.  By 1920, Ralph has no job and is living with his son.  In 1921, he took advantage of the Confederate pensions being offered to former body servants.  On his application he states his only asset is and 75ft by 180ft lot with a shack on it.  A few years later Ralph applied to and was accepted to live in the Old Soldier’s Home near the Hermitage.  He stayed there until 1933 when the home closed due to lack of tenants (most veterans had died by then).  The men still living in the home were moved to the infirmary at the Tennessee Industrial School, but at the time of Ralph’s death he was living with his daughter.  He passed away of Uremia on November 5, 1938.  The Katie Litton Hickman Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy performed a ceremony at his funeral.  He is the only former slave buried in the Tulip Grove Confederate Cemetery near the Hermitage. 

Left: Ralph’s Obituary Right: Ralph’s tombstone at Tulip Grove.  This tombstone has errors and was obviously created by someone who did not know him.  He was born in 1846 on all records, he died in 1938 (confirmed on obituary and death certificate), and he was a body servant in Co. I, not Co. D, of the 1st Tennessee Infantry.