Rosecrans to Stanton about his victory at Tullahoma: "I beg in behalf of this army that the War Department may not overlook so great an event because it is not written in letters of blood."

William Rosecrans ..	William  Rosecrans ..	William  Rosecrans ..	Tombstone in Arlington ..	William S. Rosecrans ..
Fortress Rosecrans Murfreesboro	William Rosecrans ..	William Rosecrans ..	Rosecrans seated 4th from left	William Rosecrans ..

William S. Rosecrans was born  on 6 Sept. 1819 in Kingston, Ohio. The family came originally from Holland and settled in Pennsylvania before moving to Ohio. He was the son of Crandell Rosecrans and Jane Hopkins and the great-grandson of Stephen Hopkins, colonial Governor of Rhode Island and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Hopkins also co-authored with John Adams the draft of the Articles of Confederation. Roserans graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. in 1842. Among his classmates were James Longstreet, Richard H. Anderson, Abner Doubleday, John Newton, George Sykes, Seth Williams, Lafayette McClaws, Alexander P. Stewart, John Pope, D.H. Hill, and Earl Van Dorn. He was the roommate of James Longstreet and A.P. Stewart. After a brief service in the engineer corps he returned to the Military Academy as a professor,  remaining there until 1847. It was during this period that he became a Catholic. His brother,
Sylvester Harden Rosecrans, later first Bishop of Columbus, sought instruction and converted also to Catholicism after William wrote to him of his own conversion.

Rosecrans resigned from the Army after 12 years of service in 1854, and became an architect and a civil engineer. His rise in business was astounding. He took over direction of mining in western Virginia (West Virginia today) where his geological surveys pointed with remarkable accuracy to profitable new veins of coal. He became
President of a navigation company formed to transport coal. In 1857 he organized the Preston Coal Oil Co. in Cincinnati, OH. He was also an inventor. Numbered among his inventions were odorless oil, a round lamp wick, a short practical lamp chimney, and a new and economical method of manufacturing soap. While in the laboratory a safety lamp exploded and burned him terribly. He was bedridden for 18 months. Just as he was recovering from the burns the Civil War broke out, and he immediately offered his services.

His first duties in the war were for the state of Ohio when he became the drillmaster for the "Marion Rifles", after which he became the engineering officer that laid the plan for Camp Dennison, Ohio and eventually became the Commanding Officer of the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which which among its members Rutherford B. Hayes, William McKinley, and Stanley Matthews, a future Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Rosecrans was soon appointed a Brigadier General in the regular Army in which capacity he defeated Robert E. Lee at Rich Mountain, Virginia. Rosecrans developed and carried out the plans which gained the victory at Rich Mountain, but McClellan did not give him any credit in the official reports. Thus Rosecrans refused to stay with McClellan and requested a transfer to the west where he was placed in charge of the left wing of Grant's Army of the Mississippi at the battles of Iuka and Corinth.

At both battles he did well, driving Price from Iuka and repulsing the attack of Price and Van Dorn on Corinth. Grant absented himself and part of his forces from both battles. After Corinth, animosities between Grant and Rosecrans arose. Grant blamed Rosecrans for not pursuing the Confederate army after Iuka and Corinth, and then for pursuing too long, and Rosecrans placed blame on Grant for not sending reinforcements during the battle of Corinth. Rosecrans also felt that he could have destroyed the army of Price and Van Dorn at Tupelo, Miss. and gone on to take Vicksburg, thus shortening the war, but Grant probably wanted the laurels of Vicksburg for himself. Like McClellan, perceiving in Rosecrans a potential rival, Grant gave no credit to Rosecrans for the victories* and did his best to keep Rosecrans's star from rising too high. To escape this bitter climate and probable censure Rosecrans gladly accepted the offer of 24 Oct. 1862 to take command of the Army of the Cumberland. Grant later wrote in his Personal Memoirs: "I was delighted at the promotion of General Rosecrans to a separate command because I still felt that when independent of an immediate superior the qualities which I, at that time, credited him with possessing, would show themselves. As a subordinate I found that I could not make him do as I wished, and had determined to relieve him from duty that very day." By some coincidence Grant found fault with every subordinate commanding officer who was successful or displayed initiative.

Once in Tennessee Rosecrans put the organization of the Army of the Cumberland on an even higher level. Upon receiving reports that Bragg was moving toward Nashville, Rosecrans confronted him and fought competently at the very costly but indecisive battle of Murfreesboro (Stones River) on 31 Dec. 1862 and 2 Jan. 1863, for which Congress later accorded him the Thanks of the Nation. About this time, perhaps as a reaction to the casualties at Murfreesboro, Rosecrans's earlier aggressive quality gave way to caution, and he thus came into conflict with the War Department which demanded action and quick victories of him. Finally, on 23 June 1863, after six months of preparation in the face of official pressure to take the offensive, he began the Tullahoma campaign, a military masterpiece which forced back Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg a hundred miles and into Chattanooga, Tenn. at the cost of only 500 casualties. However, he was as ambitious as many another Civil War general, and he suffered from the lack of recognition he received for this victory about which he wrote the following reproach to Stanton: "I beg in behalf of this army that the War Department my not overlook overlook so great an event because it is not written in letters of blood."

He then maneuvered Bragg out of Chattanooga without a battle. There Rosecrans's caution vanished, and he followed Bragg precipitously and against Thomas's repeated warnings to first consolidate in Chattanooga. Bragg then turned upon him and brought on the bloody battle of Chickamauga (19-20 September 1963). An ill-advised move the morning of the second day opened a gap in Rosecrans's lines and allowed Southern forces to pour through and put to rout part of his army, which was driven back into Chattanooga.

Only the strong stand of Gen. George H. Thomas with 25,000 men on the Union left on Snodgrass Hill against the entire Confederate army numbering about 60,000 averted complete destruction. At nightfall the evening of 20 Sept. 1863 Thomas retired in good order and was not pursued. The defeat was mitigated, however, by the fact that the Union army retained control of Chattanooga. Rosecrans, who had joined in the flight to Chattnooga, seemed to have been demoralized by the defeat and became irresolute, although he did lay the groundwork for lifting the state of siege in which his army found itself, and for the following Union victory in the battle of Chattanooga (23-25 Nov. 1863). A month later Thomas replaced Rosecrans, ending any important role for him in the war.

However, his reputation with the public remained intact. On June 1, 1864, James Garfield telegraphed from Baltimore asking if he would accept the Republican nomination for Vice President on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln.  He had always been a strong Democrat and while he was intensely loyal and prosecuted the war with all his power, he doubted whether be could accept all principles of Republican Party. He hesitated and finally sent Garfield his consent, but it was too late. Rosecrans served in minor capacities for the remainder of the war and resigned in 1867.

He then moved to Los Angeles, CA and became an advocate for railroad building  in the West and Mexican trade, and in 1868 he was appointed Minister to Mexico. During the next two years he served in this capacity and took an active interest in affairs of that country. During the 1870's he developed mines in Nevada, the Southwest, and Sonora, Mexico. From he represented California as  democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives where he became Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. In 1885 Grover Cleveland appointed him register of the U.S. Treasury,  and he held the office until 1893, in which function he applied his signature to many a currency note. In 1889 Congress restored him to the rank and pay of a brigadier general of the regular army on the retired list. He retired to a ranch near Los Angeles in 1893 and died on 11 March 1898 in Redondo, Calif. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

* Grant sent on 9 Oct. 1862 the following telegraph to Lincoln: "Your dispatch received. Cannot answer it so fully as I would wish. Paroled now 813 enlisted men and 43 commissioned officers in good health; 700 Confederate wounded already sent to Iuka paroled; 350 wounded paroled still at Corinth. Cannot tell the number of dead yet. About 800 rebels already buried. Their loss in killed about nine to one of ours. The ground is not yet cleared of their unburied dead. Prisoners yet arriving by every road and train. This does not include casualties where Ord attacked in the rear. He has 350 well prisoners, besides two batteries and small-arms in large numbers. Our loss there was between 400 and 500. Rebel loss about the same. General Oglesby is shot through the breast and the ball lodged in the spine. Hopes for his recovery. Our killed and wounded at Corinth will not exceed 900, many of them slightly." Not one word about Rosecrans who had just  won 2 battles.

Reports: Battle of Iuka; Battle of Corinth; Battle of Murfreesboro (Stones River); Battle of Chickamauga

The are stored and catalogued in the Department of Special Collections at the Library of the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).

No event of the war for the last year has so amazed the people as the sudden removal of Gen. Rosecrans from the command of the Army of the Cumberland. By his ability as a military leader; by his brilliant successes at Rich Mountain, Corinth, and Stone River (sic); he had gained the confidence and admiration of the entire loyal masses, and his praise was in every mouth. To be sure the repulse at Chickamauga disappointed many, but when it was ascertained that the enemy, by means of their interior
lines of communications, had massed their forces in such superior numbers against him, no wonder was expressed that his noble army should experience a check. But a few weeks elapsed and his removal was announced, when immediately slanders of the vilest and even most improbable character was uttered against him. The Tribune, never too slow in finding fault with our generals, had him asleep in Chattanooga during the bloody fight of Chickamauga. The Times makes him out an inveterate opium-eater, while the Washington Chronicle finds every fault with him. The gallant General, in his Cincinnati speech, does not seem to wax wroth at his removal, but simply leaves his case with his brave army and to the American people, very casually
denying the opium-eating charge.

How different the conduct of Rosecrans from that of McClellan when summoned to give up his command. From the former we have no string of glittering generalities, such as the latter favored the Army of the Potomac with. There was no ostentatious display of self and staff before the several corps for days, as with "Little Mac". The hero of Stone River (sic) simply yields up his command and depart quietly for his home.

Though time and investigation may show that there was the best of reasons for the removal of Gen. Rosecrans, and that the national safety required it, yet his patriotism and his courage will never be forgotten by his countrymen. The coolness, the daring, the bravery, which won the hard-fought field of Murfreesboro, when both victors and vanquished had given it up as lost to the Federal arms will be sure to find appropriate place and commendation in the history of the rebellion.

We would not find fault with the Executive, for we have in common with the great body of loyal men, the utmost confidence in his honesty and intention to do what is best in this terrible crisis, but mayhap in this case he has blundered in the Missouri controversy. We hope not.

At any rate, until Gen. Rosecrans has had a hearing, it is bnt (sic) fair that the common charity of men should be extended him. Upon this point we like the language of a recent article in the Army and Navy Journal: "We fling away as false and cruel the general charges made by the daily press against Gen. Rosecrans, of unmilitary conduct and vicious habits. Some of the charges we know to be untrue, and all of then are in their nature so antagonistic to his established character - which is austere, dignified, calm, self-possessessed (sic), and, in a word, soldierly to a rare degree - as to carry their refutation their face to all who know Gen. Rosecrans. But the whole matter, in all its bearings, will, we have reason to believe, speedily come up for investigation
before the proper court; and until the charges then are made known, and the facts elicited brought to light, we advise his detractors, as well as a fluctuating public, to restrain themselves from indulging in random charges and harsh criticism against one who, during the last two years, has certainly done his country enough service to entitle him to honorable
consideration, and to shield him from the poisoned shaft of unpatriotic malice."

Read more about Rosecrans in Van Horne's "Life of Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas", part 1.