Thomas L. Rosser Ambrotype ca. 1858

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
160 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Brenda Gunn
Phone: (434) 924-1037
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968

Summary

Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

This item, ca. 1858, is an ambrotype of Thomas Lafayette Rosser (1836-1910) as a West Point cadet. He was born in Campbell County, Virginia, but his family had moved to Panola County, Texas, when he was thirteen. Rosser was nominated to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, by Congressman Lemuel Dale Evans (1810-1877) who was afterward chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court.

Rosser enrolled at the Academy on July 1, 1856, and his photograph depicts him during his sophomore year when his standing was 42 out of a class of 52. He was physically described as having black hair and dark brown eyes with a height of six feet two inches. West Point had a five year curriculum for its cadets during Rosser's enrollment, but he resigned on April 22, 1861, two weeks before the graduation of the class of 1861. He joined the Confederacy, and during the Civil War was eventually promoted to the rank of major general. Afterwards he settled in Charlottesville during the 1880's, became its postmaster, and later served as a brigadier general during the Spanish-American War.

This photograph was reproduced in Millard Kessler Bushong's and Dean McKoin Bushong's Fightin' Tom Rosser, C.S.A.(Shippensburg, Pennsylvania: Beidel Printing House, Inc.,1983) on page twelve.

Acquisition information:
The ambrotype was a gift to the Library from Mrs. Brenton S. Halsey of Richmond, Virginia, on November 23, 1987.
Physical description:
This collection consists of 1 item.