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William Starke Rosecrans Biography

William Starke Rosecrans Image

ROSECRANS, William Starke (1819-98). A distinguished American general, born at Kingston, Ohio. He graduated at West Point in 1842, entered the United States Engineer Corps, and served for a year as assistant to Colonel De Russey at Fortress Monroe. He then returned to West Point, where he served until 1847 as an assistant professor. In 1854 he resigned from the army and settled in Cincinnati, where he engaged in business as an architect and civil engineer. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War he was appointed colonel of the Twenty-third Ohio and in June, 1861, became a brigadier general in the regular army. He took part in General McClellan's West Virginia campaign as commander of a brigade of Ohio and Indiana troops and on July 12, 1861, won the battle of Rich Mountain. Shortly afterward, when General McClellan was summoned to Washington, Rosecrans was put in command of the Federal forces in western Virginia. With them, on September 10, he routed General Floyd at Carnifex Ferry, thus clearing the Kanawha valley of the Confederates. In the following year he commanded the right wing of the Army of the Mississippi in the advance on Corinth, fought the battle of Iuka, Sept. 19, 1862, and in October successfully defended Corinth against Generals Van Dorn and Price. On the twenty-sixth of the same month he relieved General Buell as commander of the Army of the Cumberland. He advanced upon Nashville and on December 31 and January 2 forced General Bragg to retire in the battle of Murfreesboro, or Stone River. In the following June he moved into east Tennessee and on September 19 and 20 was defeated by Bragg in the battle of Chickamauga (q.v.). The Federal army then fell back to Chattanooga, where it was besieged until relieved by General Grant. On October 23 Rosecrans was succeeded by Thomas, and after a short period of service in charge of the Department of Missouri he was relieved of all command. Concerning his military ability there has been much controversy. The weight of opinion, however, inclines to the view that "notwithstanding some faults of temper and military vacillation, General Rosecrans was undoubtedly a splendid fighter and a good strategist." Up to the time of the unfortunate battle of Chickamauga he had been uniformly and even brilliantly successful. At the close of the war he resigned from the army; in 1868 he served as Minister to Mexico and from 1869 until 1881 devoted himself to railroad and industrial enterprises, mainly in Mexico. He was elected to Congress in 1880 and again in 1882, as a Democrat, and served as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. From 1885 to 1893 he was Register of the United States Treasury. In 1889 Congress passed an Act restoring him to the rank and pay of a brigadier general. Consult: W. D. Bickham, Rosecrans' Campaign with the Fourteenth Army Corps (Cincinnati, 1863); T. B. Van Horne, History of the Army of the Cumberland (ib., 1875); H. M. Cist, Army of the Cumberland (New York, 1882); Johnson and Buel (eds.), Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (ib., 1887); John Fiske, The Mississippi Valley in the Civil War (Boston, 1900).