ROSECRANS, WILLIAM STARKE Amer ican soldier, was born in Kingston (0.), on Sept. 6, 1819, and graduated in 1842 from the U.S. Military Academy. After serving (1843-47) as assistant professor at West Point, he re signed (April 1854) and went into business in Cincinnati. On the outbreak of the Civil War he volunteered for service under Mc Clellan and helped raise the Ohio "Home Guards," with which he served in the West Virginian operations of 1861 as brigadier general. He was second in command to McClellan during this campaign, and succeeded to the command when that officer was called to Washington. In the latter part of 1861 he conducted further successful operations in the same region, and early in 1862 was transferred to the West as a major general of volunteers. He took part in the operations against Corinth, and when Gen. John Pope was ordered to Virginia, Rosecrans took over com mand of the army of the Mississippi, with which he fought the successful battles of Iuka and Corinth. Soon afterwards he replaced D. C. Buell in command of the forces. In December he advanced against Gen. Braxton Bragg, and on Dec. 31 to Jan. 3 fought the bloody, indecisive battle of Stone river (Murfrees boro), after which Bragg withdrew his army to the southward.
In 1863 Rosecrans, refusing to advance until the isolation of Vicksburg was assured, did not take the offensive until late in June. The operations thus begun were most skilfully conducted and Bragg was forced back to Chattanooga, whence he had to retire. But Rosecrans sustained a great defeat at the battle of Chickamauga (q.v.), and was soon besieged in Chattanooga. He was then relieved from his command. Later he did good service in Missouri, and in March 1865 was made brevet-major general U.S.A. He resigned in 1867, and in 1868 became minister to Mexico. He was a representative in Congress from California, 1881-85, and register of the treasury, 1885-93. Under an act of Congress he was, on March 2, 1889, restored to the rank of brigadier general and retired. He died near Redondo (Calif.), March 11, 1898. On May 17, 1902 his body was reinterred with military honours in the National Cemetery at Arlington.
See Edward Channing, History, vol. vi.; J. B. McMaster, History of the People During Abraham Lincoln's Administration (1927).