Fanny Lawrence was the daughter of J. Sharpe Lawrence. In January 1856 she married a distant relative on her maternal side, James B. Ricketts, who was then a captain in the First U.S. Artillery Regiment. Captain Ricketts was stationed on the Rio Grande and Fanny accompanied him there. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Captain Ricketts was ordered to Virginia, and in July 1861 Fanny traveled from the Rio Grande to Washington, D.C., where she made her temporary home. After the First Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861), Fanny was informed that her husband had been killed, but two days later she was informed that he had survived, but seriously wounded and a prisoner. Fanny immediately hired a carriage and driver and got a pass to the extent of the Union lines. Then, reaching the Confederate lines, she was allowed to proceed to the battlefield, to find her husband. They remained there for two weeks before her husband was ordered to Richmond. Fanny was allowed to accompany him on the train, and when they reached Richmond the wounded prisoners were sent to the Poorhouse. Fanny accompanied her husband there and, although the conditions were poor, several women brought them baskets of good food and delicacies. In the fall of 1861, her husband was transferred to Libby Prison (also in Richmond) and she accompanied him there. In the end of December 1861, her husband was exchanged and they returned to the Union lines. Fanny stayed with him for several months, where he was serving in Virginia, and he had been promoted brigadier general. Fanny eventually returned to Washington, but in the fall of 1864, her husband was seriously wounded again and she came to him, staying with him for many months while he recovered. Source: WOMEN OF THE WAR; THEIR HEROISM AND SELF-SACRIFICE by Frank Moore (Hartford: S.S. Scranton & Co., 1866), pp. 17-35.
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Daughter of Maj. Gen. James Brewerton Ricketts and Frances Ann Livingston Pyne Lawrence, his wife.