E9 Row E, place 9

BENJAMIN RINGGOLD

Corporal, Co. G, 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery (Colored) · c. 1840–1909

The stone reads

BENJAMIN RINGGOLD
[Co. G.] 14th R.I. H. Art.
[lower lines below ground]

Transcription from the photograph of October 30, 2026; square brackets mark letters not legible or below ground. The right-hand portion of the stone is under earth, so whether a rank or a date of death is cut on it cannot yet be seen. The survey sheet reads: Benjamin Ringgold, 14th R.I.H.A., Co. G, Corporal. [1]

Life

Benjamin Ringgold was born in Baltimore, Maryland, about 1840. [2][12] He was a farmer, twenty-five years old, when he enlisted at Providence in October 1863 in Company G of the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery, a regiment of Black soldiers that the War Department later renamed the 11th United States Colored Heavy Artillery. [2][4] He was made a corporal on June 23, 1865, and mustered out on October 2, 1865. [3][10]

By 1870 he was living in Providence with his wife Louisa, who was born in Virginia. [5] They had no children. [11] He worked as a domestic servant in 1870, a steward in 1875, a life insurance agent in 1880, a janitor in 1885 and a waiter in 1900. [5][6][7][9][11] In June 1885 he and Louisa opened a joint account at the Providence Institution for Savings; they then lived at 17 Walker Street. [9] In 1890 he told the census that he had come out of the war with kidney disease. [10] By 1900 the couple were renting at 55 South Main Street and taking in boarders. [11]

Louisa died before him. [12] He died at 55 South Main Street on January 5, 1909, at about seventy, of tuberculosis, and was buried at North Burial Ground. [12] The city's register of his death gives his name as "Benjamin Johnson or Ringgold" and his parents as Robert and Hannah Johnson. No other record found so far explains the second name. [12]

The records

• Headstone photograph (shown above) — Headstone of Benjamin Ringgold, grid E9, Prescott Post lot, photographed October 30, 2026; partly under earth. [1]

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What we don't know

• When exactly was he born? The descriptive book (25 in October 1863) and the death register (70 in January 1909) put it about 1838; the censuses of 1870–1885 put it 1840–1842; the 1900 census alone says November 1832. [2][5][6][7][9][11][12]
• Why does the 1909 death register call him "Benjamin Johnson or Ringgold" and name his parents as Robert and Hannah Johnson? [12] Was Johnson a birth name, a family name, or a name he used in Providence? A pension file, if one exists, is where he or Louisa would have been asked to explain it. No pension index card has yet been found; the index should be searched under both surnames.
• Was he free or enslaved in Baltimore before the war? A free Black household headed by a Benjamin Ringgold appears in the 1840 census of Baltimore's 8th Ward, and a Benjamin Ringgold is indexed in Baltimore County in 1860; neither has been tied to him, and the Johnson parentage weighs against assuming a connection. [13][14]
• A Benjamin Ringgold, 24, Black, laborer, married, born Maryland, was registered for the draft at Quakertown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in June 1863, four months before our man enlisted at Providence. [15] Is this him? If so, he had a wife before Louisa. The record does not settle it.
• When was he enlisted? The descriptive book says October 20, 1863; the Register of Rhode Island Volunteers gives October 29 (mustered November 4); he told the 1890 census October 17. [2][3][10]
• What did Company G do in the war, and where was he? His compiled service record beyond the descriptive book card, and Chenery's regimental history, have not yet been read against his dates. [2][13]
• When did Louisa die, and where is she buried? Her birth is given as Orange County, Virginia, maiden name Smith, about 1841; her age varies across the censuses. [5][6][7][9][11]
• Where did the couple live in 1875 and 1880? The street names are on the census pages but have not yet been read. [6][7]
• Did he belong to a Grand Army post, and did the post bury him?
• What does the City's interment record for January 1909 say, and under which name?

Sources

1. Gravestone of Benjamin Ringgold, grave E9, Prescott Post plot, North Burial Ground, Providence, Rhode Island. Photograph by Bernard Brennan, October 30, 2026; Prescott Post plot survey sheet, grave E9, compiled by Bernard Brennan, 2026.
2. Company Descriptive Book card, "Benjamin Ringold," Co. G, 11th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery, Compiled Military Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers Who Served with the United States Colored Troops: Artillery Organizations, National Archives microfilm publication M1818, roll 208, frame 568; Records of the Adjutant General's Office, Record Group 94, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
3. Historical Data Systems, abstract of Register of Rhode Island Volunteers 1861–1865 for Benjamin Ringgold, Co. G, 14th Heavy Artillery, in U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861–1865 (Ancestry.com, 2009), record 976963, accessed November 1, 2026. Secondary; to be verified against the printed Register.
4. National Park Service, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Database, "Ringgold, Benjamin," 11th Regiment, U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery, Company G, private to corporal; index to National Archives microfilm M589, roll 73; https://www.nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm, accessed October 31, 2026.
5. 1870 U.S. census, Providence County, Rhode Island, population schedule, Providence, 7th Ward, p. 1, family 45, lines 3–4, Benjamin and Louisa Ringold; enumerated June 2, 1870, by Charles R. Chase; National Archives microfilm M593.
6. Rhode Island state census, 1875, Providence, Ward 6, District 48, lines 33–34, Benj. and Louisa Ringold; Rhode Island State Archives, Providence; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed November 1, 2026.
7. 1880 U.S. census, Providence County, Rhode Island, population schedule, Providence, Supervisor's District 121, Enumeration District 29, p. 24, dwelling 219, family 244, lines 41–44, Benjamin and Louisa Ringgold; enumerated June 10, 1880, by Lucian J. Arnold; National Archives microfilm T9.
8. Providence, Rhode Island, militia enrollment list, 1882, p. 181, "Ringgold, Benj'n," Ward VI; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed November 1, 2026; original repository to be confirmed (Providence City Archives).
9. Providence Institution for Savings, signature book 13 (1884–1886), p. 141, entry no. 9, June 30, 1885, Benjamin Ringgold or his wife Louisa Ringgold; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed November 1, 2026; original repository to be confirmed.
10. 1890 U.S. census, special schedule, surviving soldiers, sailors, and marines, and widows, etc., Rhode Island, Providence, Supervisor's District 139, Enumeration District 10, p. 1, line 12, Ringgold, Benj.; enumerated June 1890 by Clinton Hale; National Archives microfilm M123, roll 92.
11. 1900 U.S. census, Providence County, Rhode Island, population schedule, Providence, Ward 1, Enumeration District 9, sheet 10B, lines 59–62, Benj. and Louisa Ringgold; enumerated June 13, 1900, by Michael McBrennan; National Archives microfilm T623.
12. City of Providence, Deaths Registered in the City of Providence, R.I., for the year ending December 31, 1909, p. 112, line 34, Benjamin Johnson or Ringgold, January 5, 1909; Charles V. Chapin, City Registrar; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed November 1, 2026; original at Providence City Archives.
13. William H. Chenery, The Fourteenth Regiment Rhode Island Heavy Artillery (Colored) in the War to Preserve the Union, 1861–1865 (Providence: Snow & Farnham, 1898), 212. Entry not yet read against the records above.
14. 1840 U.S. census, Baltimore City, Maryland, 8th Ward, p. 24, "Benj. Ringgold," free colored household; enumerated by Wm. C. Clayton; National Archives microfilm M704. And: Ron V. Jackson, Accelerated Indexing Systems, Maryland Census, 1772–1890, entry for Benjamin Ringgold, 1860, Little Gunpowder District 11, Baltimore County, p. 820, in Maryland, U.S., Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1776–1890 (Ancestry.com), record 11271737. Candidates only; not attributed to him.
15. Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registrations, Class I, Pennsylvania, 5th Congressional District (Bucks County and Philadelphia wards 22–25), June 1863, p. 102, line 7, "Ringgold Benjamin," Quakertown; Records of the Provost Marshal General's Bureau, Record Group 110, National Archives, Washington, D.C. Candidate only; not attributed to him.

Credits

Researched by Bernard Brennan. Records courtesy City of Providence, Department of Parks, North Burial Ground. Revised 2026-11-01.