Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-04-05
PIONEER ENGINEER Of
n. P. ROAD IS DEAD
LAST OF The GREAT SOUTHERN
TROOPERS PASSES TO LAST
REWARD.
Gen. Rosser Was Well Known In the
Northwest Where He Was Pioneer
Engineer on tho N. p.

Arthur A. Brundage, an old time
resident Of this section, sends tae
Tribune clipping from the Richmond
Times-Dispatch, with reference to
General Thos. l.. Rosser, pioneer en-.
gineer of the N. P. railway, and well
known to old timers of the north
west. The Dispatch says of the deat1
of General Rosser:
The last of the great Southern
troopers passed into history when
General Thos. Lafayette Rosser died
Tuesday night. All Of the others aad
gone; Stuart died before the war was
ended, and Ashby fell before the
strife was we'll begun. After the war
Forrest, the prince of them all, lived
only until men learned to marvel at
his daring and to hold him up as one
Of the great commanders of all time.
The others passed until Fitz Lee and
WHEELER and Rosser alone were left.
All three, comrades in arms, enlisted
in the service when war was declared
with Spain, and fought for the cause
against which the three had fought
so valorously in other days. Lee died,
Wheeler died. Rosser alone surviv-
ed.
It was peculiarly fitting that the
major-general who fought his way out
from Appomattox should be the last
Of the great cavalry leaders to die.
AS he bore the flag Of the Confeder-
acy when every Other leader in the
east had surrendered, it was a favor
of fortune that left him, with Mum
ford, as the last to tell the story of
the daring deeds wrought by the men
Of the bugle and sabre when the con-
federacy gasped its last.
General Rosser was at the head of
troops whose fame will shine out as
long as the memory Of the Confeder-
acy lives. His first regiment was the
Fifth of Virginia cavalry-famous on
hundred fields and gallant in a
hundred bold attacks. From this po-
sftfon he came to command, in time,
the famous Laurel brigade, at the
head of which Turner Ashby had rid
den to- his death near Winchester.
This brigade was made up in large
part of boys-lads who had known
the rifle from youth and had been
trained on horseback from childhood.
When their bugles sounded "boots and
saddles" woe to the Yankee who met
their advance. Brave, cool, and
never fau1tering in the face of dan.
ger, they have been described by
Lieutenant-Co1o Henderson as the
best PARTISAN cavalry ever put in the
field. These men Rosser command
ed, and no greater compliment could
be paid him than to say that he was
a worthy leader Of his band.
General Rosser was the last sur
viving major-general of the Confeder-
ate service from Virginia, with the
Of General L. l.. Lomax
and General G. w. c. Lee. OF the
fifteen that held this high rank, Pc.
gram fell during the war. Slowly
through the years the others have
died-Heath, johnson, Samuel Jones.
Kemper, Fitz Lee, Rooney" Lee.
Malone, Maury, Picket,
Stevenson and Taliafeero. What a
gallant company they were, these
Virginia division leaders! For daring,
for genius, for courage in battle. for
in victory, and for hon
or In defeat, their equils were never
seen In the crowded annals of a trous-
and years Of war. Rosser was the
peer of any, and that is honor enousht'
or one man. 1