Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

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Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Gordon and Rosser Family Papers, Accession #1171-c , Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

The collection was given to the University on November 10, 1975.

Biographical/Historical Information

Thomas Lafayette Rosser was born on October 15, 1836, on his father's farm in Campbell County, Va., the eldest son of John and Martha Melvina (Johnson) Rosser. The family moved to the Sabine River region of Texas when Thomas was thirteen. In 1856 he entered West Point, where George A. Custer became an intimate friend.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Rosser resigned from West Point, and entered the Confederate army as a first lieutenant in the Washington Artillery. Rosser was severely wounded in May, 1862. Upon his recovery, General Stuart gave him command of the 5th Virginia Regiment. In May 1863 he also took command of the legendary Laurel Brigade. Among the major engagements in which General Rosser participated were Catlett's Station, First and Second Manassas, South Mountain, Buckland Mills, Trevilians, Woodstock, and Five Forks.

On May 28, 1863, he married Betty Barbara Winston of Hanover Courthouse. After the war he struggled for several years to support his family, before taking a position in 1871 with the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad and in 1872 with the Northern Pacific Railroad. He soon became chief engineer of the latter and superintended construction of its tracks west to Livingston, Montana. From 1881 to 1886 he was chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. He then purchased the "Rugby" property near Charlottesville and settled down as a gentleman farmer. In 1898 he commanded a brigade of American volunteers at Chickananga during the Spanish-American war. In 1905 Rosser was appointed postmaster of Charlottesville. He died March 29, 1910, and was survived by his wife, his son Thomas, Jr., and two daughters, Elise and Marguerite.

For more complete biographical information, see the Dictionary of American Biography.

Scope and Content Information

This addition to the papers of the Gordon and Rosser families contains ca. 300 items 1764(1834-1910)1969, largely consisting of correspondence. The earlier portion of this correspondence includes primarily letters addressed to Elizabeth Gordon from her sister, Lucy, and her sister-in-law, Elizabeth Lindsay Gordon, 1816-1857. The Gordon family later came to be related to the Rossers through Elizabeth Lindsay Gordon's granddaughter, Harriet Hart Gordon, who married Thomas Rosser, Jr. The second portion of the correspondence contains Rosser family correspondence, largely that of Thomas Lafayette Rosser and Thomas L. Rosser, Jr., 1862-1931. Rounding out the collection are several wills, including that of Barbara Winston (the great-grandmother of Mrs. Elizabeth Winston Rosser) and Thomas L. Rosser; other legal agreements; some eulogies and memorials; several essays; a small number of receipts and financial papers, 1863-1934; surveys; stories and poems.

The pre-Civil War correspondence between the Gordon sisters, who lived in Central Virginia on their respective estates at Germanna, Lindsay Stone and Edgeworth, is not particularly extensive (some 60 items), but provides an interesting portrait of early nineteenth century domestic life. Elizabeth Lindsay Gordon's letters to her sister-in-law Elizabeth describe not only family affairs but her home manufacturing activities as well. Among the important figures mentioned in Thomas L. Rosser's Civil War correspondence with his fiancée and wife Elizabeth Winston (Rosser) are Confederate Generals R.E. Lee, J.E.B. Stuart, H.B. McClellan and Early. Interspersed among the personal letters of 1862, 1863, and 1864 are secret military orders sent to Rosser, mainly from J.E.B. Stuart. Rosser's own letters to his wife contain not only descriptions of troop movements, preparations for battle and glimpses of "the enemy" in Central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, but also recurrent discussions of the possibilities for promotion, denials in mid-1863 of rumors that Rosser had earlier been married to another woman, and promises to his wife that he will give up the vice of drinking.

Most of the post-Civil War correspondence, particularly the correspondence of Thomas Rosser, Jr., is devoted to personal matters and the activities of family and friends in Virginia and in Minneapolis. Among the imortant figures General Thomas L. Rosser corresponded with are Theodore Roosevelt (1900) and Virginia Senator John W. Daniel (1898). Of particular interest are an 1890 letter to Thomas, Jr., form George Gordon Battle describing how to acquire financing for investing in Minnesota coal lands, and two 1899 letters to Rosser, Sr., from a "Mr. Fitzlee" in Cuba, describing land speculation possibilities.

Arrangement

The Rosser collection has been organized according to the type of manuscripts it contains. First, the collection contains the correspondence, which has been organized chronologically. Letters relating to the Gordon family occupy folders for the years 1816-1857, and the Rosser correspondence begins in 1862. Following the correspondence are legal and financial documents (also organized chronologically), and these are in turn followed by essays, surveys, newspaper clippings and miscellaneous papers.