Victor M. Rose

Rose co-edited and published the Victoria Advocate from 1869 to 1873, later edited the Laredo Times, and about 1891 took over the Emory Star in Rains County. His books are Ross' Texas Brigade in 1881; Some Historical Facts in Regard to the Settlement of Victoria, Texas in 1883, reprinted in 1961; and The Life and Services of Gen. Ben McCulloch in 1888. He was at work on a history of Henry McCulloch when he died, and the manuscript was left unfinished. The plaque gives the titles in slightly different form.

What the plaque says

Victor M. Rose (1842-1893) Son of Victoria County judge. From boyhood wrote stories and poems. Left college to join Confederate Army in the Civil War. Fought in Ross' Brigade, in many of the hardest battles in history. Was wounded twice and spent many months as a prisoner of war. Edited "Victoria Advocate" and several other Texas news- papers. Became a distinguished author. His books include a history of Victoria County, "History of Ross' Brigade" and "Life of General Ben McCulloch". Men actually fighting -- as Rose was -- wrote most of Civil War news reaching Texas. Lack of manpower and paper made professional war correspondents scarce. Only one Texas paper is known to have had a full time reporter stationed on the fighting front. Of 80 newspapers in Texas in 1860, only 20 survived by 1862; for war news most of these depended on mail from soldiers. It took 10 or more weeks for letters sent from camps east of the Mississippi to reach Texas and papers were read until worn to shreds. Many men kept wartime diaries or had families who kept their letters. About 50 Texans later published diaries, letters, memoirs, regimental histories and commentaries on men and events of the Civil War. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• De León Plaza — steps away
  The central plaza of Guadalupe Victoria, the only predominantly Mexican colony in Texas, founded by Martín De León in 1824 and taken from his family after 1836.
• Museum of the Coastal Bend — 1.8 mi
  Victoria College's museum of thirteen thousand years on the middle Texas coast, from Clovis hunters and Karankawa potters to La Salle's lost Fort St. Louis and the first ranches.
• Fannin Battleground State Historic Site — 16 mi
  The open prairie east of Goliad where Fannin's retreating column formed a square short of the Coleto Creek timber on March 19, 1836, and surrendered the next day.
• Fannin Memorial Monument — 25 mi
  The 1938 pink granite memorial over the common grave of Fannin's men, shot on the roads out of Goliad on Palm Sunday 1836, the grave itself found again only in the 1930s.

More markers nearby

• Victoria County Honor Roll — steps away
• Victoria County — steps away
• Victoria County, C.S.A. — steps away
• Home County of William Pinckney McLean — steps away