Texas Confederate General Lawrence "Sul" Ross

After the war Ross farmed near Waco through Reconstruction. In 1873 McLennan County elected him sheriff, and he helped form the Sheriffs' Association of Texas. He was a delegate to the convention that wrote the Constitution of 1876, went to the state Senate in 1880, and served as governor from 1887 to 1891, when public land sales paid for the new Capitol. He then became president of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, where enrollment and buildings grew, and died at College Station on January 3, 1898.

What the plaque says

Texas Confederate General Lawrence "Sul" Ross College named for Texas Confederate General Lawrence "Sul" Ross. Lawrence Sullivan Ross 1838-1898 Entered Confederate service a private in 1861. Made Colonel, 6th Texas Cavalry May 1862. Commended for outstanding role in withdrawal from Corinth, Miss., October 1862. Made Brigadier General December 1863. Led famed Ross Cavalry Brigade composed chiefly of Texans in almost continual action in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee until war's end, with major battles at Lawrenceburg, Harpeth River, Murfreesboro. In 135 engagements, having 5 horses shot from under him. A memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy. Erected by the State of Texas 1963

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of the Big Bend — steps away
  The museum of the Big Bend region and northern Mexico on the Sul Ross State University campus in Alpine, back since 2007 in its native-stone building of 1937.
• Marfa Lights Viewing Area — 15 mi
  The roadside viewing area on US 90 nine miles east of Marfa, where people gather after dark to watch the horizon toward the Chinati Mountains for the Marfa lights.
• Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens — 16 mi
  The Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute's grounds south of Fort Davis, with an 18-acre botanical garden, a cactus museum and trails into the desert foothills.
• Fort Davis National Historic Site — 22 mi
  A frontier post of 1854 to 1891 on the San Antonio-El Paso Road, garrisoned after the Civil War by Black regiments, with its buildings restored to their 1880 look.

More markers nearby

• Texas Confederate Colonel Henry P. Brewster (1816-1884) — 0.7 mi
• Burgess' Water Hole — 0.8 mi
• Brewster County — 7.1 mi
• Ancient Rocks Boundary — 7.1 mi