Rosecrans, William Starke (1819–1898), a United States army officer. He was born in Delaware County, Ohio, and graduated from West Point in 1842. He resigned from the army in 1854 to become a civil engineer. When the Civil War began he helped to organize Ohio volunteers, and became a brigadier general in the West Virginia campaign.
Transferred to the West, Rosecrans won the battle of Iuka and successfully defended Corinth in 1862. Commanding the Army of the Cumberland, he defeated Braxton Bragg at Murfreesboro. He then maneuvered Bragg out of Chattanooga, but was badly defeated at Chickamauga in 1863 and was relieved of command. He was minister to Mexico, 1868–69; congressman from California, 1881–85; and register of the U.S. Treasury, 1885–93.
