The Handbook of Texas Online

ROSS, PETER F. (1836-1909). Peter F. Ross, Texas Ranger, cattleman, and Confederate Army officer, was born on July 27, 1836, at Bentonsport, Missouri, the son of Catherine H. (Fulkerson) and Shapley Prince Ross.^qv In 1838 he moved with his family to Milam County, Texas. After attending Mount Vernon Military Academy in New York from 1853 to 1855 he returned to Texas, where he assisted his father, a Texas Indian agent, in his duties on the frontier. Peter was described as "a tall, wiry, youth, physically and mentally well fitted" for a military career. In 1858 he was commissioned captain in the Texas Rangers^qv and raised and commanded a company that served for two years against the Comanches and other warlike tribes on the northwest frontier. In May 1860 he served as captain of the "spy company" of allied Indians that accompanied Col. Middleton Tate Johnson's^qv expedition against the Comanches and pushed into Indian Territory without encountering the enemy. With the outbreak of the Civil War^qv he raised a company of cavalry in Dallas for Confederate service that was organized as Company G of Col. B. Warren Stone's^qv Sixth Texas Cavalry regiment. Ross was elected captain of his company but was soon elevated to regimental major. His regiment served under Gen. Ben McCulloch^qv in Arkansas and Missouri until McCulloch's death at the battle of Elk Horn Tavern, Arkansas, in March 1862, at which time they came under the command of General Earl Van Dorn and moved with the regiment across the Mississippi River. There he saw action with Phifer’s Brigade. He received two serious wounds at the battle of Corinth, Mississippi. In December 1862 the regiment was part of the force which raided the Union Depot at Holly Springs, Mississippi, with great success. In April his regiment was part of the Battle at Thompson’s Station destroying a Union cavalry regiment. In the middle of 1863 he replaced Jack Wharton as commander and led the 6^th throughout the Atlanta campaign, fighting in numerous battles against Sherman’s advance toward Atlanta. In 1864 he led his regiment during John Bell Hood's^qv ill-fated Tennessee campaign. The 6^th and the other regiments of the Texas Brigade, commanded by his brother, Brigadier General Lawrence Sullivan Ross provided the rear guard with General N.B, Forrest’s Corps that kept Hood’s army from being destroyed.

After the war, as a cattleman, Ross made several trail drives to New Orleans. He married Laura Harrison, the daughter of Gen. James E. Harrison,^qv on December 26, 1866; they had two children. In 1870 Ross moved to Los Angeles, California, where he farmed and engaged in trade. He returned to Texas in 1874 and served as deputy sheriff of McLennan County under his brother Sul until elected sheriff himself in 1875 when his brother ran for the Texas congress.. After serving two terms as sheriff Ross bought a farm in 1880 on the Brazos River some ten miles below Waco. He died on March 26, 1909, and was buried in Waco. He was a Democrat, a Knight Templar, and a Baptist.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Galveston Daily News, March 27, 1909. Willis Lang, Diary (MS, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin). A Memorial and Biographical History of McLennan, Falls, Bell, and Coryell Counties (Chicago: Lewis, 1893; rpt., St. Louis: Ingmire, 1984).

Thomas W. Cutrer

Information concerning the Texas Brigade and 6^th Texas Cavalry Regiment has been added to correct this biography. William K. Nolan

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "ROSS, PETER F," http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/RR/fro82.html (accessed April 5, 2006).

(NOTE: "s.v." stands for sub verbo, "under the word.")

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