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WILLIAM STARKE ROSECRANS.

ILLIAM STARKE ROSECRANS was born in Kingston, Delaware county, Ohio, December 6th, 1819. His father emigrated to Ohio from the Wyoming valley, in 1808. His mother, Jemima Hopkins, was the daughter of a Revolutionary soldier. His early life was passed in close application to study, and in his eighteenth year he entered the United States military academy at West Point; whence he graduated, third in mathematics and fifth in general merit, in 1842. He received the brevet of second-lieutenant of engineers, July 1st; served that year at Fortress Monroe as first assistant-engineer, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel R. E. De Russey; and was ordered to duty at West Point, in September, 1843, as assistant professor of engineering. From August, 1844, until August, 1845, he served as assistant professor of natural and experimental philosophy at the military academy, and in 1845, '46, and '47, in the engi neering department as assistant and first assistant professor. He also served as post-quartermaster at West Point for some months.

In 1847, Lieutenant Rosecrans was assigned to duty at Newport, Rhode Island, to reconstruct the large military wharves destroyed by a storm-an appointment regarded as an official recognition of his great ability as an engineer. Here he remained until 1852, when he was charged with the survey (made under act of Congress) of New-Bedford harbor, Taunton River, and Providence harbor. From April till November, 1853, he served as constructing engineer at the Washington navy-yard, when, on account of ill health, he tendered his resignation to the secretary of war, Jefferson Davis. His resignation was not accepted; but he was given leave of absence, with the understanding that if, upon the expiration of the leave, the resignation was insisted upon, it would be accepted. In April, 1854, therefore, Lieutenant Rosecrans again tendered his resignation, and retired from the service.

For the next year he occupied an office in Cincinnati, as consulting engineer and architect; and in June, 1855, became president of the Canal-Coal Company, and superintended its work on Coal River, Virginia, where it was engaged in the construction of locks and dams, and in the endeavor to effect slack-water navigation. This position he relinquished to assume control of the business of the Cincinnati Coal-Oil Company, in which he was directly interested.

When General McClellan was placed at the head of the Ohio volunteers, he appointed Rosecrans acting chief engineer, with the rank of major; and the legislature of Ohio soon after created, purposely for him, and with the rank of colonel, the office of chief engineer of the state. Governor Dennison appointed him, June 10th, colonel of the twenty-third regiment Ohio volunteers, and in that capacity he went to Washington, and arranged for the payment and maintenance of the troops from his state.

Colonel Rosecrans was appointed a brigadier-general of the United States army, June 20th, 1861. Placed at the head of a brigade, composed of the eighth and tenth Indiana and the seventeenth and nineteenth Ohio regiments, he participated in the earliest advance into Western Virginia; was in command at Parkersburg; proceeded thence to Grafton, and by Buckhannon, with the other part of McClellan's force to Rich Mountain, where a portion of the rebel General Garnett's force, variously stated at two and four thousand, and commanded by Colonel Pegram, were intrenched at the foot of the hill, on the western slope. Before this position some of General Rosecrans's men had a sharp skirmish with the enemy on the 10th of July, and it was then discovered that their work at the foot of the hill was a very strong one, and was in a position well chosen for defence; it was also learned that they had a much less considerable work on the summit of the hill. It was therefore arranged that, while General McClellan made his preparations to attack the larger work in front, General Rosecrans with his brigade should reach the rear of the rebels, carry their work on the summit of the hill, and participate from that side in the attack on the main fort.

In pursuance of this plan, General Rosecrans left his camp at Roaring Run, two miles west of Rich Mountain, at daylight on July 11th, and advanced by a pathless route through the woods along the south-western slope of the mountain. Compelled very often to cut the way, and even to build a road for the artillery, their progress was necessarily slow. Much rain had previously fallen, and the bushes were still very wet; this, with the cold, and the toilsome march, made the service an unusually severe one. Yet they pressed on, silently and resolutely, and, after a circuit of eight miles, reached a point on the road in the enemy's rear, at three P. M. Although this movement had been projected as a surprise, the enemy was aware of it, and prepared: yet, after a hard fight of three quarters of an hour, he was driven out, and his position taken.

This success decided the fortunes of the rebels at Rich Mountain; for those in the work at the foot of the mountain abandoned their position in the night, and retreated to Laurel Hill. Nearly all the killed and wounded of the Union men at this place were in General Rosecrans's brigade. General McClellan immediately pushed on to Beverly, to cut off the retreat of the force at Laurel Hill; while General Rosecrans, passed on the road, followed at leisure: and other

portions of McClellan's command went toward Laurel Hill, and followed the retreat of Garnett to Carrick's Ford.

Immediately after the destruction of the rebel force at Rich Mountain and Laurel Hill, General McClellan began to make active preparations to co-operate with General Cox, on the Kanawha, against the rebels under Wise; but the preparations were delayed by news of the national defeat at Bull Run. McClellan was ordered to Washington; and his army, then at Beverly, was countermarched to Webster, a few miles south of Grafton, where he left it, July 23d, and the command of the department of the Ohio devolved upon General Rose

crans.

Preparations for the campaign on the Kanawha were continued, but they were now retarded by the necessity for the reorganization of the army, which was composed in a great degree of men enlisted for three months. Meantime, head-quarters were established at Clarksburg; and from that place, on August 20th, General Rosecrans issued an address to the loyal inhabitants of Western Virginia. "Contrary to your interests and your wishes," he said, the Confederates "have brought war upon your soil..... Between submission to them, and subjugation or expulsion, they leave you no alternative. They have set neighbor against neighbor, and friend against friend; they have introduced among you warfare only known among savages. In violation of the laws of nations and humanity, they have proclaimed that private citizens may and ought to make war. Under this bloody code, peaceful citizens, unarmed travellers, and single soldiers, have been shot down, and even the wounded and defenceless have been killed; scalping their victims is all that is wanting to make their warfare like that which, seventy or eighty years ago, was waged by the Indians against the white race on this very ground. You have no alternative left you but to unite as one man in the defence of your homes, for the restoration of law and order, or be subjugated, or expelled from the soil. I therefore earnestly exhort you to take the most prompt and vigorous measures to put a stop to neighborhood and private wars. . . . . Citizens of Western Virginia, your fate is mainly in your own hands. If you allow yourselves to be trampled under foot by hordes of disturbers, plunderers, and murderers, your land will become a desolation. If you stand firm for law and order, and maintain your rights, you may dwell together peacefully and happily as in former days.'

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General Rosecrans marched from Clarksburg, August 31st, and once more put himself at the head of his army for active operations. On the 10th of September, he reached the rebel intrenchments in front of Carnifex Ferry, and, after a slight skirmish, succeeded in routing General Floyd, and capturing “a few prisoners, two stand of colors, a considerable quantity of arms," together with some military stores.

Soon after this action, he established his headquarters at Wheeling, and commenced preparations for the campaign that was to be opened in the following spring; but in March, 1862, on the creation of the "Mountain Department," and the appointment of General Fremont to its command, General Rosecrans was relieved from duty in Western Virginia, and repaired to Washington, preparatory to entering the field at the West.

After the evacuation of Corinth by the rebels, he was appointed to the command of the army of the Mississippi, and during the summer, with his headquar ters at Corinth, he employed his troops in strongly fortifying that place. But in the fall he began more active operations, and moved upon the rebel forces, under General Price, south of Iuka. It was just before dark, on the nineteenth of September, that he attacked the enemy, and for nearly two hours had a sharp fight with them. The following day he renewed the fight, and compelled them to make a rapid retreat, losing one of their generals, besides two hundred and sixty-two officers and men killed, four hundred severely wounded, and six hundred taken prisoners.

General Rosecrans now returned to Corinth, which was attacked on the third of October by the rebel General Earl Van Dorn. On the first day's fight our forces were driven from their line of defences into the town, but, on the following day, succeeded in repulsing the rebels and again taking possession of the works. It was here that General Rosecrans again displayed those abilities which ranked him as a brave and skilful commander. The defence made by his troops was most determined and obstinate; and the after-attack upon the rebels was such as to cause their complete rout, and the loss of an immense number of officers and men, besides leaving behind them more than two thousand prisoners, fourteen stands of colors, two pieces of artillery, three thousand three hundred stand of small arms, and forty-five thousand rounds of ammunition, etc. The rebels were pursued for forty miles, and in such a way, under General Rosecrans's skilful direction, that they were intercepted at various points, losing more men, and having their army completely broken up.

Soon after this, General Rosecrans was appointed a Major-General of volunteers, his commission dating from March twenty-first, 1862, and, on the twentysixth day of October, he was placed in command of the army of the Ohio, relieving General Buell. His troops at this time were massed at Bowling Green and Glasgow, Ky., with their base of supplies at Louisville; but, soon after assuming command, he marched on Nashville, and compelled the rebels to retire from their investment of that place. At this time, all the region of country south of the Kentucky line, and portions of North-Alabama and Georgia wherein the Union army could operate, was formed into the Department of the Cumberland, over

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