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William Starke Rosencrans

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment

Database Record Change Request

Name at Enlist

William Starke Rosencrans

Birth Name

William Starke Rosecrans

Lived

6 Sep 1819 – 1898

Birth Place

Ohio

Birth Country

USA

Rank at Enlistment

General

Death Location

California

Mother

Jemima Hopkins

Father

Crandall Rosecrans

Father Lived

30 Aug 1874

Spouse

Anna Elizabeth Hegeman

Married On

24 Aug 1843

Marriage Location

St. Paul’s Episcopal Chapel, New York City, NY

William Starke Rosecrans was born the second son of Crandall Rosecrans and Jemima Hopkins on September 6, 1819. Crandall was born to Dr. Daniel Rosecrans and Thankful Wilcox Rosecrans in Wilkes-Barre, PA on August 30, 1794. Crandall served in the War of 1812 and the Siege of Detroit. He was in the Light Horse Battalion. Captain Daniel Rosecrans was a great-grandfather to William and a Revolutionary War soldier.

William was also a descendant of Herman Hendricksen of Bergen, Norway. Herman Hendricksen was known to have married Magdalena Dircks in NY in 1657. In 1659, they moved to Esopus, NY, where Hendricksen was taken prisoner by Indians, but managed to escape. He died in Rochester, New York in 1697.

William went to West Point Academy with Don Carlos Buell between 1838 and 1842. He then moved to NY where he met and married Anna Elizabeth Hegeman. They married on August 24, 1843 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Chapel in New York City. They had 4 children. Between 1847 and 1852, he was an engineer and supervised the fortifications being built in Newport, RI. In 1853, he was also a civil and constructing engineer at the Washington Navy Yard.

When the Civil War started, he joined the WI 15th Infantry as a General. He was Commander of the Army of the Cumberland. Colonel Hans C. Heg and the WI 15th served under Rosecrans at Chickamauga. After the war, he served as Minister to Mexico, Congressman from CA, and Register of the Treasury under President Cleveland. He died in 1898 in California.

Sources: Rygg, p.53 [Photo at Vesterheim, Decorah IA]; William Mathias Lamers, The Edge of Glory, (Louisiana State University Press, 1961), pgs. xii, 8-17.