James Wolfe Ripley

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James Wolfe Ripley (December 10, 1794 – March 16, 1870) was an American soldier, serving as a brigadier general in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was instrumental in the early days of the war in modernizing the artillery's ordnance.

Ripley was born in Windham County, Connecticut. He graduated at West Point in 1814, was commissioned second lieutenant of artillery, and took part in the defense of Sacketts Harbor. In 1817–18 he served under Jackson during the Seminole War and the invasion of Florida.

In 1832-33, Ripley commanded the Federal forces in Charleston harbor at the time of the nullification movement in South Carolina. He was promoted captain (1832), major of ordnance (1838), and brevet lieutenant colonel (1848). In 1854 he was transferred to the Watertown Arsenal as commandant of the facility.

With the outbreak of the Civil War in early 1861, Ripley was commissioned brigadier general and appointed chief of ordnance of the army. As the Federal forces had then no heavy rifled cannon, he immediately ordered the conversion of old smoothbores and the manufacture of Parrott guns.

From 1863 to the year of his death, he was inspector of fortifications on the New England coast, having retired from active service. In 1865 he had been brevetted major general in the regular army. He died in Hartford, Connecticut, where he is buried.

His nephew, Roswell S. Ripley, was a Confederate general during the Civil War.