CIVIL WAR INDEX
Primary Source Material
on the Soldiers and the Battles
Home The Armies The Soldiers The Battles Civilians Articles
 
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

Copyright 2010 by CivilWarIndex.com
A Division of Pier-Pleasure.com