Confederate Biography :  L. S. ROSS, Brazos Co, TX

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Submitted by Susie McFarland Lemin slemin@yahoo.com
11 October 2001
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson, p. 94

Lawrence Sullivan Ross, of Waco was born in Davenport, Iowa, 
Sept. 27, 1838.  He was only a few months old when his parents removed 
to the Indian village of Waco in the Republic of Texas.  He attended 
Baylor University, and in 1859 was graduated with distinction from 
the Wesleyan University at Florence, Ala.  During the summer vacation 
in 1858, with a few followers, he had a battle with the Comanches, in
which 9 Indians were killed, 350 horses captured, with a little white 
girl, whose parents were never known, but whom Ross reared and 
educated, giving her the name of Lizzie Ross.  The heroic young 
captain was dangerously wounded in this action.  When he returned to 
Texas after his graduation in 1859, Gov. Sam Houston put him, boy as 
he was, in supreme command of the frontier, and well did the "boy 
captain" ratify the judgment of the governor.  He captured and 
destroyed the principal village of the Comanches, killed a great number, 
captured over 400 head of horses and rescued Cynthia Ann Parker who had 
been a captive for thirty yeaars among them.  Her son by her Indian 
husband, Quanah Parker, is now head chief of the Comanches.  In this 
fight the chief, Pete Nocona, was killed in a hand-to-hand combat with
Ross.  This ended the Indian troubles in Texas for some time.  
Learining of the victory, Gen. Winfield Scott wrote Ross a letter, 
tendering him a commission in the U. S. army, which, however, he 
declined.  In 1861 he entered the Confederate army, joining his 
brother's company as private.  He was soon made a major of the
regiment, then lieutenant-colonel, and six months later a colonel.  
In 1862 he was made a brigadier-general.  He participated in 135 
engagements of more or less importance.  After the war he was a planter 
in the Brazos bottom.  In 1875 he was a member of the constitutional 
convention, and in 1881 was chosen state senator.  In 1886 he was 
elected governor of Texas and re-elected in 1888.  In 1891 he became
president of the A. & M. college at Bryan and held this office until 
his death in 1896.  There was no more popular and beloved man in Texas 
than Gov. Ross.