Changes

==Background==

==Background==

Born in Hocking County in southern [[Ohio]], Ratcliff was the sixth of ten children of Elias Ratcliff and the former Elizabeth Dutcher. The family, including his younger sister, Mary, moved in 1844 to Moniteau County, [[Missouri]],|publisher=Moniteau.net|accessdate=January 31, 2014}}</ref> near the capital city of [[Jefferson City]] in central Missouri. Elias died when Benjamin was ten years of age.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.moniteau.net/cemetery/unitedbaptist/ratcliff-elias-chalked.JPG|title=Elias Ratcliff tombstone|publisher=Moniteau.net|accessdate=January 31, 2014}}</ref>

Born in Hocking County in southern [[Ohio]], Ratcliff was the sixth of ten children of Elias Ratcliff and the former Elizabeth Dutcher. The family, including his younger sister, Mary, moved in 1844 to Moniteau County, [[Missouri]], near the capital city of [[Jefferson City]] in central Missouri. Elias died when Benjamin was ten years of age.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.moniteau.net/cemetery/unitedbaptist/ratcliff-elias-chalked.JPG|title=Elias Ratcliff tombstone|publisher=Moniteau.net|accessdate=January 31, 2014}}</ref>

In 1861, at the beginning of the [[American Civil War]], Ratcliff at nineteen enlisted in the Missouri Home Guard Service.<ref name=transcript>Transcript of the Triple Murder Trial of Benjamin Ratcliff. Defendant testimony as given on July 18, 1895, Buena Vista,  Chaffee County, [[Colorado]].</ref> A private in Company A of the 43rd Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia, Ratcliff fought in the Battle of Shiloh, a Union victory in western [[Tennessee]] in early April 1862. While headed three weeks later to the Siege of Corinth in Corinth in northern [[Mississippi]], Ratcliff's horse fell, tossed him from the saddle, and rolled onto his hip and legs. The accident caused a painful and permanent injury. During his life, Ratcliff had recurring hip problems, kidney stones,<ref name=transcript/> and a dislocated shoulder sustained in an 1880 [[cattle]] roundup in Fairplay, the seat of Park County, Colorado.<ref>''The Flume'' (Fairplay, Colorado), July 15, 1880.</ref>

In 1861, at the beginning of the [[American Civil War]], Ratcliff at nineteen enlisted in the Missouri Home Guard Service.<ref name=transcript>Transcript of the Triple Murder Trial of Benjamin Ratcliff. Defendant testimony as given on July 18, 1895, Buena Vista,  Chaffee County, [[Colorado]].</ref> A private in Company A of the 43rd Regiment Enrolled Missouri Militia, Ratcliff fought in the Battle of Shiloh, a Union victory in western [[Tennessee]] in early April 1862. While headed three weeks later to the Siege of Corinth in Corinth in northern [[Mississippi]], Ratcliff's horse fell, tossed him from the saddle, and rolled onto his hip and legs. The accident caused a painful and permanent injury. During his life, Ratcliff had recurring hip problems, kidney stones,<ref name=transcript/> and a dislocated shoulder sustained in an 1880 [[cattle]] roundup in Fairplay, the seat of Park County, Colorado.<ref>''The Flume'' (Fairplay, Colorado), July 15, 1880.</ref>