Ross accepted an appointment as captain of a company of Texas Rangers from Texas Governor Sam Houston, yet declined General Winfield Scott's offer of a commission in the US Army.
When Texas seceded Ross joined the Confederate Army as a private, serving in the Battle of Corinth. Ross was later promoted to Brigadier General on 21 December 1863 and commanded a brigade in the Atlanta Campaign. During his service in the war, 'Sul' Ross took part in 135 battles and engagements and had five horses shot from under him.
After the War Between the States ended he returned to Texas a poor man. He began farming, his plantation eventually becoming a financial success. Ross served as the Sheriff of McLennan County, a member of the state constitutional convention and a state senator. He was elected Governor of Texas in 1887 (he was re-elected two years later) and served as President of the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (now Texas A&M University).
Ross died of exposure while he was hunting along the Navasota River, 03 January 1898. He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Waco, Texas.
The special feature of the Texas State Fair held on 24 October 1892 was a Confederate Reunion that was held in the music hall, which commenced at 11 a.m. Special guests included Mrs. Jefferson Davis Hays, daughter of the late President, her son, Jefferson Davis Hays, General Stoddard (of Bryan), Judge John H. Reagan, Generals Gano, Cabell, Henry E. McCulloch, Governor Lubbock, and others.
General Ross' Speech
'Comrades, ladies, and friends. So far as I know, every people beneath the sun have their monumental customs to perpetuate noted historical events. The wisdom of divinity, coincident with history itself, adopted the simple paschal rite to commemorate the miraculous deliverance of a chosen people, and the far more glorious Redemption was commemorated by the sacrament, instituted and observed by all Christians. And I thank the old soldiers of Sterling Price Camp, and the Fair Association, for the proud and happy privilege of welcoming this vast concourse of old veterans, who, after so many years of separation have come together to indulge in mutual reminiscences which will gladden all our hearts and make us grow young again. (Applause.)
'The character and personal history of these men, whether they wore blue or grey, or fought upon Texas or Mexican soil, belong to the people. And our children may rise under the admonition of their lives to a higher sense of duty and a more self-sacrificing patriotism. The people of Texas have always been noted for a boundless hospitality where the guest is made to feel that he is at home and to admire the easy freedom and graceful dignity of a host who banishes all formality in the nobleness of his welcome and the simplicity and generosity of his entertainment. And I am commissioned by the fair daughters and gallant sons of Texas to extend you all a greeting that comes in one grand anthem attuned to the beating of every heart.
'It is with profound leasure that I welcome the old pioneer patriots who meet with us to-day and [whose] very presence is a benediction, representing as they do, links that bind together the present and the past. They have lived to see the noble race whose genius and virtue illustrated the grandeur of free institutions and lent additional luster to the American name, swept away by a mighty tide of population, each swell of the flood bringing a race as different from that which preceded it, as one generations differs from another.
'I have been taught to cherish with filial devotion the hallowed associations and historic glories which cluster about their honoured names, and when our children shall stand up in after years and point with honest pride to our country's long line of illustrious sons whose stainless escutcheon, like a mirror, reflects only images of dauntless courage and patriotism, the names of these old Texas veterans will not be forgotten. (Applause.)
'When numbering less than 20,000 scattered over a widely extended territory, they fanned into a bright flame the spark of liberty enkindled by heroes, who were ready to sacrifice self and all that man could muster, and without a dollar in their military chest or a bayonet glistening in their ranks, in the short period of seven months achieved the independence of a country larger than Great Britain and Ireland, and for ten long years, without the direct aid of a foreign power, sustained that independence in defiance of every effort which a nation of ten million of people possessed of every appliance of war made to reduce them to subjection; coming out of the struggle with less loss of blood and treasure than ever characterised a revolution of as much magnitude in the annals of history.
'Here, too, we are permitted to greet the Mexican War veterans, whose bravery and renown have for long years been themes of encomium to quicken patriotism, while the people of a blood-bought estate have done obiesance in imperishable language, in praise of their martial glory. To them belongs the credit of that vast acquisition of territory embracing California, New Mexico, and parts of Arizona, Wyoming, and Colorado, and the establishment of the boundary of Texas, from which we are reaping a golden harvest as the fruits of their suffering and heroic deeds. (Applause.)
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