Men in Ohio’s Virginia Military District, many of Scotch-Presbyterian ancestry, became forerunners of the abolition movement that culminated in the Civil War, linking the anti-slavery cause of the American Revolution to that of the Civil War era. Leaving homes in Virginia, the Carolinas, and other slave states, leaders including Senator Alexander Campbell in 1803, Colonel James Poage in 1804, Rev. James Gilliand in 1805, and Rev. John T. Rankin in 1821 came to this region, freed their slaves, and devoted themselves to liberty. Among the men who wrought for liberty were Rev. John T. Rankin, Rev. James Gilliland, U.S. Senator Alexander Campbell, Col. James Poage, Thomas McCague, Thomas Collins, Dr. Alfred Beasley, Theodore Collins, Samuel Kirkpatrick, John Parker, Dr. Greenleafe C. Norton of Decatur, Rev. Jesse Lockhart of Russelville, and Rev. John B. Mahan of Sardinia, leaders of a large host who cooperated in the abolition movement. Their descendants and others then fought for liberty on land and sea in the Civil War. Before Fort Sumter fell, a meeting at the Third Street Methodist Church was underway when a courier entered announcing Sumter’s fall, and a company was organized at once. Soldiers and sailors from Ripley served in every great battle under the flag of freedom, and the community also sent General Ulysses S. Grant, Brigadier General Jacob Ammen, Brigadier General Augustus V. Kautz, Brigadier General Granville Moody, Rear Admiral Albert Kautz, Rear Admiral Joseph Fyffe, Rear Admiral Joseph N. Hemphill, and Rear Admiral Edward R. Moore, as well as two companies of infantry, two batteries of artillery, one troop of cavalry, and many river men who enlisted in the Navy.