R. Bruce Ricketts

Robert Bruce Ricketts (April 29, 1839 – November 13, 1918) distinguished himself as an artillery officer in the American Civil War. He is best known for his battery's defense against a Confederate attack on Cemetery Hill on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Elijah Ricketts was a merchant and farmer in Orangeville in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. He married Margaret Leigh Lockart (1810–1891) in 1830. Robert Bruce Ricketts was the fifth of nine children of this union, born on April 29, 1839. An older brother, William Wallace Ricketts (b. 1837), attended the United States Military Academy; but he died in 1862. Bruce Ricketts was educated at the Wyoming Seminary near Wilkes-Barre. When the war broke out, he was studying law and considering the possibility of a university education.

The First Pennsylvania Light Artillery (otherwise known as the 43rd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers) was organized in 1861. The regiment left for Washington, D.C. in August of that year. Battery F was formed under Capt. Ezra W. Matthews. Bruce Ricketts joined the service on July 8, as a private of that year, and he was commissioned as first lieutenant in that battery about a month later. The regiment was split up, with individual batteries serving with different divisions of the Army of the Potomac. Battery F first saw combat at the Battle of Dranesville on December 20, 1861. Ricketts' section had one gun disabled in that action. Later the section served in the defense of Hancock, Maryland, against a foray by Stonewall Jackson.

Battery F served in the Army of Virginia in the corps of Major General Irwin McDowell, joining it on March 21, 1862, at Warrenton, Virginia. In that context it was involved, under Ricketts' leadership, in a reconnaissance expedition to Rappahannock Station, Virginia, that left on April 7, of that year. This force advanced and then withdrew, having accomplished its information-gathering purpose. Thereafter the battery was involved in the campaign culminating in the Second Battle of Bull Run. Battery F was seriously engaged in the Battle of Cedar Mountain on August 8, helping McDowell cover the retreat of the corps of Major General Nathaniel Banks. The battery helped defend Henry House Hill at Second Bull Run, and it was present at the Battle of Chantilly though not engaged. It also participated in the "artillery hell" of the Battle of Antietam. Lt. Ricketts missed most of these actions while serving on recruiting duty. He returned to the Army of the Potomac on September 23, 1862.

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