Description:

Rosecrans William



William Rosecrans, Civil War General, Identifies with Greek Revolutionary Markos Botsaris

 

1p TLS signed by Brigadier General William Rosecrans (1819-1898) as "W.S. Rosecrans" at lower right. Written in Washington, D.C. on February 19, 1891. On an oblong slip of watermarked onion paper, 6.875" x 6.75". A few uneven edges and expected minor wrinkles, else near fine. Lightly pencil-inscribed verso.

 

Retired army general William Rosecrans wrote to Joseph Patterson Smith (1856-1898) in the winter of 1891. Smith, the owner and editor of Urbana Daily Citizen, a Republican-leaning daily newspaper, had apparently inquired what the general's favorite poem was.

 

In part:

 

"Dear Sir:

 

After sending you my note of yesterday naming as my favorite poem, Marco Bozzaris by Fitz-Greene Halleck, I wrote out from memory the most of it and then sought a school book for the rest, only to find that it had less than I had written. Subsequently, in an encyclopedia of poetry, I found what appears to be the poem in full, and had a copy made, which I enclose herewith…"

 

American poet Fitz-Greene Halleck (1790-1867) had published "Marco Bozzaris" in 1825. The poem recounted the exploits of Greek freedom-fighter Markos Botsaris (ca. 1788-1823), who was killed at the Battle of Karpenisi during the Greek Revolution in August 1823. General Rosecrans does not elaborate on why "Marco Bozzaris" was his favorite poem. Yet one can assume its appeal was rooted in Halleck's glorification of the martial experience, and his reverent treatment of the dying hero. General Rosecrans probably identified with the sentiment expressed in the third stanza, for example: "Strike! -- till the last arm'd foe expires; / Strike! -- for your altars and your fires; / Strike! -- for the green graves of your sires; / God, and your native land!"

 

William Rosecrans, nicknamed "Old Rosy", was an 1842 West Point Academy graduate who specialized in engineering. At the onset of the Civil War, the Ohio-born Rosecrans volunteered his services to the Union Army; he later commanded an Ohio infantry regiment and was promoted to Brigadier General in the spring of 1861. Rosecrans distinguished himself in the Western Theater as Commander of the Army of the Cumberland until the devastating 1863 Battle of Chickamauga. Rosecrans was then dismissed by his commanding officer, Major General U.S. Grant, and dispatched west to Missouri. Following the Civil War, Rosecrans was involved in various commercial ventures and even wrote a book. He also served as U.S. Minister to Mexico in the late 1860s, a California congressman, and a university administrator.

 


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