Author, David Moore at Historical Society

David Moore, travel guide and Rosecrans historian will address the Big Walnut Area Historical Society at 7:30 Tuesday, April 11 in the Myers Inn Meeting Room. His talk is open to the public and admission is free.

How did Moore become interested in Rosecrans? "I stumbled upon William S. Rosecrans quite by accident. I was in Mt Olivet Cemetery in my hometown of Washington DC looking for the grave of Lincoln conspirator Mary Surratt. While searching for her grave, I came upon the grave of Eliza Rosecrans the General's wife. So where was the General buried?" wondered David Moore. Why weren’t they buried together?

Moore knew nothing about Rosecrans except his name and that he was considered a very good general. He learned the General is buried in Arlington National Cemetery and looked for a guide book on Arlington (this was pre-internet) and read that Lincoln had offered Rosecrans the vice presidency in 1864. " This spurred me to learn more about Rosecrans which led me to the only biography of Rosecrans at the time "Edge of Glory" by William Lamers wrote Moore.

Although Moore’s original objective was to confirm the vice presidency story, he began to learn about the man who outgeneraled Robert E. Lee in 1861; who won the battles that made the Vicksburg Campaign possible; who won a victory without which Lincoln said "the nation could scarcely have lived over;" and who conducted the most brilliant campaign of the Civil War. The murky vice president story became less important.

So Moore resolved to write a book about William Rosecrans and the political machinations that involved him and other generals. His book "William S. Rosecrans and the Union Victory" was published in 2014.

During his research, Moore learned - via the internet- of the effort of citizens in Sunbury Ohio to erect an equestrian statue of the General on the Sunbury Village Square. Polly Horn was researching General Rosecrans for the BigWalnutHistory.org website when Moore contacted her and they joined forces with Tom Wolke of Virginia who was also researching Rosecrans. Moore came to Columbus for the February 11, 2011, Gala at the Ohio Statehouse for the Statue campaign.

Two and a half years later Moore, Wolke and Frank Varney who also wrote a book about Rosecrans were on Sunbury Square for the unveiling of the Rosecrans Equestrian Statue of Alan Cottrell. Moore hopes one day a statue of General Rosecrans will be built in Washington – something that his soldiers wanted.

Moore has been a history guide in Washington DC for over 25 years. "I work primarily with schools including some from the Columbus area and Delaware County. He continues to research General Rosecrans and plans to write some articles that will tell of what he has learned since the publication of his book.

(03/29/2017)