| dc.description.abstract | Lawrence Sullivan Ross (better known to his contemporaries and to posterity as Sul Ross) died when he was only a few months past his fifty-ninth birthday, but he spent most of his adult years in service of the Lone Star State. As soldier, statesman, and educator, his influence in Texas exceeded his lifetime. Born in Bentonsport, Iowa, in 1838, Ross came to Texas as a babe in arms. Although his early ambition was to be an Indian fighter like his father, young Sul recognized the value of education and attended Baylor University and then the Wesleyan University in Florence, Alabama. While home for summer vacation his junior year, the youth signed on with the army as leader of a band of Indian auxiliaries. During the ensuing campaign against the Comanches in October, 1858, he won the praise of regular army officers. Back in Texas following his graduation he enlisted in the Texas Rangers and in 1860 received permission from Governor Sam Houston to raise a company of his own. It was his aggressive boldness in pursuing a Comanche raiding party in December, 1860, which resulted in the battle of Pease River and the recapture of Cynthia Ann Parker. With the coming of the war he resigned from the rangers, but he put off enlisting in the Confederate Army until September, 1861, acting in the meantime as a state peace commissioner to various Indian tribes. Once he had donned the gray, he rose from private to brigadier general, winning renown and the praise of his superiors on 135 battlefields. The cessation of hostilities found him in Texas trying to regain his health. He spent the next eight years farming near Waco with his wife and family. In 1873 the citizens of his county desperately needed a brave and energetic sheriff, and ex-General Ross was their choice. Resigning after two eventful years, Ross served in the constitutional convention where he urged needed reforms. Service as a delegate gave him a taste for further public office and he ran successfully for two terms as state senator. From the senate it was an easy step to the governorship; he was elected in 1886 and served until 1891. When Ross left the statehouse he stepped into the presidency of Texas A. and M. College. By the time of his sudden death in 1898 the suffering institution was once more stable and growing. The purpose of this study is to examine in detail Ross's family background, his early life and training, and especially his military service as Indian fighter and Confederate so1dier and to show how the years he spent as soldier in the service of Texas prepared him for his later public service career as statesman and educator. | |
