| If this website has been useful to you, please consider
making a Donation.
Your support will help keep this website free for everyone, and will allow us to do
more research. Thank you for your support! |
Civil War Soldiers - Rosecrans
| Rosecrans, William S., major-general,
U.S. Army, was born at Kingston, Ohio, Sept. 6, 1819, and was
graduated fifth in the class of 1842, at the West Point military
academy. He entered the U. S. engineer corps, as second lieutenant by
brevet, serving for a year in the construction of fortifications at
Hampton Roads, Va. He was assistant professor of natural and
experimental philosophy, and then of engineering, for four years, at
the U. S. military academy. He was next the superintending engineer at
Fort Adams, Newport, R. I., and of several surveys in eastern New
England, and at the Washington navy yard, until April 1, 1854. Having
attained the rank of first lieutenant, he resigned from the army and
began business life at Cincinnati, Ohio, as civil engineer and
architect. From 1853 to 1860 he was in charge of the Cannel coal
company in western Virginia, and in 1856 became the president of the
Coal river navigation company. In 1857 he organized the Preston coal
oil company for the manufacture of kerosene. At the beginning of the
Civil war he entered the service as colonel of the 23d regiment U. S.
Ohio volunteer infantry. Within a month he was made brigadier-general
in the U. S. regular army, and ordered to accompany Gen. George B.
McClellan to West Virginia, where he commanded a provisional brigade
of three-months' volunteers until July 23, 1861, when he succeeded
Gen. McClellan in command of the Department of the Ohio. In September,
when the Confederates, Floyd and Wise, sought to get possession of the
Great Kanawha valley, Gen. Rosecrans marched 110 miles, defeated Floyd
at Carnifix ferry, and ultimately compelled their retreat through the
mountains to Dublin, on the Southwestern Virginia & Tennessee railway.
He received, shortly after, resolutions unanimously framed by the
legislatures of West Virginia and Ohio, thanking him for his
successful military operations and civil administration. In April,
1862, he received the command of Paine's and Stanley's divisions of
the Mississippi army, and took part in the siege of Corinth. With two
divisions of the Army of the Mississippi, on Sept. 19, he fought and
won the battle of Iuka, against the forces of Gen. Price, and on Oct.
3 and 4, with the remnants of those two divisions, and McKean's and
Davis's, he also routed the forces of Price and Van Dorn at the battle
of Corinth, and pursued them until he was recalled by Gen. Grant. On
Oct. 30 he assumed command of the Department of the Cumberland, and on
Dec. 31, following, the sanguinary battle of Stone's river began. It
was fought on that day and on Jan. 1 and 2, 1863, and it ended with
the retreat of the Confederates along the line of Duck river. In view
of this victory the U. S. congress unanimously passed a joint
resolution of thanks, as did the legislatures of Ohio and Indiana. On
June 23 Gen. Rosecrans began his next movement, drove the Confederates
out of their camps at Shelbyville and Tullahoma, and in fifteen days
forced them to retreat to the south side of the Tennessee river, with
headquarters at Chattanooga. Demonstrations toward Decatur, Ala.,
deceived Bragg, and Rosecrans crossed the Tennessee, threatened
Bragg's communication with Atlanta, and compelled him to withdraw from
Chattanooga to Lafayette. Rosecrans then got between Bragg and
Chattanooga, concentrated his forces on the roads leading to
Chattanooga, and after the sanguinary battle of Chickamauga held
possession of the roads, and on Sept. 21 took and held possession of
Chattanooga. On Jan. 27, 1864, he was placed in command of the
Department of the Missouri, and although previous commanders had
encountered insuperable obstacles in administration, in the face of
these difficulties he so managed and concluded a campaign against the
Confederate Gen. Price, that his army was defeated and driven out of
the state. On Dec. 10, 1864, he was placed on waiting orders at
Cincinnati, Ohio, and was mustered out of the U. S. volunteer service,
Jan. 15, 1866. He resigned from the U. S. regular army March 28, 1867,
having been brevetted major-general, U. S. A., on March 13, 1865, for
gallant and distinguished services at the battle of Stone's river,
Tenn. In the year 1868 Gen. Rosecrans was appointed U. S. minister to
Mexico, and reached that country in November. In 1880 he was elected
to the U. S. house of representatives from the state of California,
and served until March 4, 1885. In June, 1885, he was appointed
register of the U. S. treasury, at Washington, D. C., which office he
held until 1893. On Feb. 27, 1889, by act of Congress he was
re-appointed brigadier-general, U. S. army, and was placed on the
retired list on March 2, following. Gen. Rosecrans died on March 11,
1898. Source: The Union Army: A History of Military Affairs in the Loyal
States 1861-1865, Volume 8 Biographical, 1908
|
|
Whats New
Bibliography
About Us |