Btw I actually like Rosecrans a bit. His conversion to me signifies intellectual courage and independent thought, qualities that helped him whip the AotC into an effective force. His excitability and intemperate communications rendered him ineffective in dealing with stress(combat) and superiors in the War Dept. I wish you luck on the statue venture but won't be a contributor.
I actually think raising money will be the easiest part. Getting support from the historical establishment will be more difficult. Political support will depend, as always, on which way the wind is blowing. One would think a coalition of midwesterners, Californians, Catholics, the religiously inclined in general, northern sympathizers, engineers, southerners (he sought out Lee after the war to try and foster North-South reconciliation (and also to defeat Grant) in 1868) African Americans (he deeply believed the war was God's instrument to end slavery and was among the first to use blacks to help in the war effort. He was a Democrat hoverver and not a radical) would be quite a formidable block for getting the statue built.
I realize some reading the last paragraph must be ready to retch. They probably think it confirms me as a pro Rosecrans zealot. However my conclusions are based on my research. One hundred years ago Methodist bishop David H. Moore (absolutely no relation to me) died. (I read the Washington Evening Star from 1915 on line every day. I highly recommend the exercise. It's like traveling back in time) Bishop Moore, (who was a veteran of the 125th Ohio) wrote the following upon Rosecrans' death in 1898:
"There died last Friday, in Los Angeles, the ablest tactician among the great generals of the Civil War.
An impartial study of the history of that immortal contest will show that in this respect no man, on either
side, surpassed William Starke Rosecrans. Whitelaw Reid styles him the American Jomini.
"Was there ever a better planned movement than that which resulted in the first fight 'above the clouds,'
where Rosecrans headed the 13th Indiana in a headlong charge that sent Pegram flying from Rich Moun-
tain and Garrett from Laurel Hill? It lacked only thepromised co-operation of McClellan to have bagged
the game so cleverly started. Was there any other Union officer who outgeneraled Robert E. Lee? Yet
when that incomparable Confederate leader undertook to win back West Virginia from our Wreath of Roses,
capping the summit of Cheat Mountain, he was out-maneuvered at every point, his Kanawha division only
escaping capture by the failure of Benham to obey Rosecrans' orders. luka and Corinth added new
laurels to this Wreath, when Price and Van Dorn were compelled to acknowledge his victorious prowess. Had Phil Sheridan and not McCook commanded the pivot at Murfreesboro, there had hardly been a remnant of Bragg's army left. As it was, never was a battle-plan more speedily and successfully changed in the teeth of impending disaster.
"The chess-board of .war has not witnessed more brilliant moves than those by which he maneuvered
Bragg out of Tullahoma. Opinion will forever be divided on Chickamauga; but Chickamauga was fought for Chattanooga, and the prize was won. If there Rosecrans' military sun set, it bathed the heavens in its efifulgence.
"Three things are alleged to have blocked his way to the very front: his inability to select competent
lieutenants; his kind-hearted reluctance to remove a ■commander whose weakness had been demonstrated;
and his lack of tact in managing his superior officers. If permitted to develop his own plans, Rosecrans, in
our judgment, would have topped the immortals.
'Old Rosey,' the boys called him; and they loved him for his cheer and care and kindness.
He was the Roman Catholic Howard. A devouter Christian there was not. We have not escaped the
clutches of prejudice; but all must admit that, though wholly a Romanist, he was Catholic in his charity
to those from whom he differed. He believed in God with all his heart.
He was a native of Kingston Township, Delaware County, Ohio, and lived from September 6, 1819, to
March 11, 1898. His paternal ancestors were from Amsterdam ; his Dutch patronymic meaning, 'a wreath
of roses' — the perfume of which will sweeten American historv."