The similarities between Dr Leonard O. Coleman’s paternal and maternal sides of the family are uncanny. Both families came to Virginia in the 1670s and can trace their heritage to the Revolutionary War; both families boast Civil War physicians in their progeny; both had numerous physicians in the family; both had pharmacists; a strong Christian faith gave courage to both sides; and both gained deep satisfaction from family traditions.
Leonard’s maternal great-great-grandfather, William Peleg Rogers, a cousin of General Sam Houston’s wife, was an attorney and physician. Rogers graduated from medical school in Mississippi in the early 1830s. After practicing medicine for a few years, he decided he liked law better and took up that profession in 1841. He fought with distinction in the Mexican War (1846-47), commanding a company in Jefferson Davis’ 1st Mississippi Rifle Regiment.
On the way to fight the Mexicans, Dr. Rogers paused at a camp at the mouth of the Rio Grande where on August 16, 1846, he wrote a letter to his wife that reflected the faith and sentiment of a brave soldier who knew the source of his strength:
I am not well and in low spirits. I dreamed of flowers last night and of cool refreshing water. The volunteers of this regiment have much to endure – poor fellows some are already dead and others must soon go no doubt. As to myself I will endure, God willing and never give up. I am surrounded I fear by jealous eyes and corrupt hearts. But conscious of my own good intentions I do not fear their dark machinations. What pleasure would it afford me to see my wife and children this morning- my mother my sisters my brothers. This is a lone and desolate sand beach but God is here. He is the friend of the good—may I so act as to merit his goodness. This is his day—may I pass it in a proper manner and in a proper spirit. Am I prepared to die? The hope that I am is but faint. Oh that it may grow brighter. Heavenly Father I humbly invoke thy blessing. We will start in a few days for (a new camp). It will improve our health but in all probability we rush into a field of blood.
Later in battle, under heavy military fire, he was the second over the wall at Monterrey. After the war President Zachary Taylor appointed him consul to Vera Cruz. In 1851, Rogers moved to Texas, setting up a law office at Washington-on-the-Brazos. In 1856 he moved to Houston where he became known as one of the finest criminal lawyers in the state. In 1859 he wrote Sam Houston’s will, and defended Houston when a confederate sympathizer called Sam a coward for failing to vote for secession. Dr. Rogers leaped to his feet and challenged the man to a duel. The man quickly recanted.
Dr. Rogers was elected a delegate from Harris County to the Secession Convention in January, 1861, and reluctantly voted for secession. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, to honor his wife’s request that he stay near home, he accepted a lieutenant colonelcy in the 2nd Texas Infantry Regiment, rejecting President Jefferson Davis’s offer of the First Texas Infantry command in Virginia.
On April 7, 1862 after his superior officer, Colonel Moore, received a battlefield promotion to brigadier general, Rogers was promoted to colonel and commander of the 2nd Texas Infantry. At Shiloh he led the charge that helped repel ambushing Federal forces, and at Farmington he was instrumental in routing the Union troops. The diligence Rogers displayed in re-recruiting and resupplying his regiment along with his fame for battlefield heroism attracted the attention of those around him.
According to a letter he wrote to his wife, officers of about twenty regiments from Texas and Arkansas had urged Jefferson Davis to appoint him as a major general to command troops from these two states. Before the recommendation could be acted upon, Colonel Rogers was involved in another battle, the battle of Corinth, Mississippi which occurred on October 3 and 4, 1862.
General Rosecrans commanded the Union forces and General Van Dorn, the Confederates. Rosecrans had three divisions posted behind a formidable double line of entrenchments. One was held in reserve. The Union soldiers had cut down several acres of timber so that all the tops pointed toward the foe. The limbs were trimmed and sharpened, making a formidable obstruction.
At dawn on October 3, Van Dorn launched a vigorous attack. Soon after midday, the Confederates captured the outer ridge, including several pieces of artillery. The Federals, huddling in four separate positions between the fortified lines, fought with desperate determination. The Confederates pushed on with thirsty resolve. As his exhausted men seemed about to capture the battlefield, Van Dorn made a mistake more commonly found with Union officers during the early part of the war. He stopped before the battle was won. Allowing his men to draw water from the captured Union wells, Van Dorn lost the daylight required for the final push.
The next day was hot, 94° in the shade. Soon the Confederates, panting and thirsty, regretted leaving the job unfinished the day before. Attack after Confederate attack was repelled. Just north of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, a five-foot ditch that protected a three-gun battery overflowed with dead and dying Texans. While on horseback Colonel Rogers gained access to the high ground. As he was planting the Confederate flag on the Union parapet, his body was riddled with bullets. Falling, he cried out, “Men save yourselves or sell your lives as dear as possible.” When Colonel Rogers fell the Confederates realized that hard fighting had won them nothing more than another bitter defeat. At mid-day they were in full retreat.
After the close of the battle, souvenir hunters, while cutting his uniform to pieces, discovered a letter in the pocket of Colonel Rogers appointing him to brigadier general, though he had not yet assumed that rank. By order of General Rosecrans, the body of Colonel Rogers was buried with military honors in a single grave near where he fell. Many years later in a letter supporting the erection of a monument to Colonel William P. Rogers, General John Crane, then of the 17th Wisconsin Regiment at Battery Robinett, wrote:
After an artillery duel in the early morning there was a lull….Suddenly we saw a magnificent brigade emerge from the timber into the open in our front. They were formed in two lines of battle. The sun glistened on their bayonets as they came forward at right shoulder shift in perfect order, a grand but terrible sight. At their head, in front of their center, rode the commander, a man of fine physique, in the prime of life, quiet and cool, as though he were taking his brigade on a drill. Up to this time there was no firing on either side, when suddenly our artillery opened, the infantry followed and pandemonium reigned. The Confederates were tearing their way through the fallen timbers and notwithstanding the slaughter were getting closer and closer. Their commander seemed to lead a charmed life. Still on horseback, he was ordering, commanding and urging his men—going straight for Fort Robinette, and before he had realized it he had jumped his horse across the ditch in front of the guns and was in the midst of us. There he was shot dead, with some of his soldiers who got through with him.Then we learned who it was—Colonel Rogers, of the 2nd Texas, commanding a Texas brigade. When he fell the battle in our front was over. His brigade disappeared. How many escaped of the gallant brigade we never knew, but the slaughter was terrible.
A photograph in 1884 showed Colonel Roger’s grave in a field covered with weeds and surrounded by a sagging picket fence. Stimulated by an article in the Galveston Daily News, an association was created for erecting and maintaining a monument to Colonel Rogers. The monument was unveiled in Corinth on August 15, 1912. Leonard’s mother and uncle were present for the unveiling.