Lovell Rousseau
| Lovell Harrison Rousseau | |
|---|---|
Maj. Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau
|
|
| Born |
August 4, 1818 near Stanford, Kentucky |
| Died | January 7, 1869 (aged 50) New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Place of burial | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Allegiance |
United States of America Union |
| Service/branch |
United States Army Union Army |
| Years of service | 1846 – 1847; 1861 – 1865; 1867 – 1869 |
| Rank |
 Major General
|
| Battles/wars |
Mexican-American War American Civil War |
| Other work | Politician, Lawyer |
Lovell Harrison Rousseau (August 4, 1818 – January 7, 1869) was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, as well as a lawyer and politician in Kentucky and Indiana.
Born near Stanford, Kentucky, on August 4, 1818, Rousseau attended the common schools as a child. His father, David Rousseau, brought his family across the Appalachians from Virginia, but he had a difficult time regaining economic equilibrium (despite extensive holdings in undeveloped land and slaves). Lovell's elder brother had already left home, so when their father died of cholera attempting to move the family to a new home in 1833, it fell to Lovell and his younger brothers to dig their father's roadside grave. At age fifteen, he had become his family's primary breadwinner. Soon afterwards, he was forced to sell his family's slaves in an effort to cover the family's debts.
Eager to earn a wage, he began working on a road-building crew, traveling around the Midwest. Determined to rise, he studied grammar, mathematics, and French, and returned to Kentucky where he read law in Louisville, Kentucky, for several months. In 1841, he passed the Indiana bar examination and began practicing law with his brother, Richard Hillaire Rousseau, as junior partners in a firm led by James I. Dozier, in Bloomfield, Indiana. Both brothers married Dozier's daughters. Richard married Mary E. Dozier in 1839, while Lovell married Maria A. Dozier in 1843. (Mary Dozier Rousseau died young, and Richard remarried.)
Lovell successfully ran for the Indiana House of Representatives as a Whig candidate in 1844, and in 1846 he was commissioned as a captain in the Mexican-American War and charged with raising a company of volunteers. He led them at the Battle of Buena Vista, where he helped rally the Indiana troops at a key point in the battle.
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