George Lovell Rousseau – First Lieutenant, United States Army

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His son, George Lovell Rousseau, First Lieutenant, United States Army died at El Paso, Texas, 1883, age of 56 years, and is buried in Section 2 near his Father.  NOTE: George Lovell Rousseau of Kentucky; appointed from Kentucky, Second Lieutenant, 20th U. S. Infantry, 10 March 1875; First Lieutenant, 18 December 1880; Dismissed from the service, 4 June 1881; Died 22 September 1882.

NOTE: He was the son of Major General Lovell H. Rousseau, and is buried in the same site in Section 1 of Arlington National Cemetery.

EX-LIEUTENANT’ GEORGE L. ROUSSEAU’S END.

LAREDO, Texas, October 8, 1882 – Last Friday evening, just as the sun was sinking in the west, all that was mortal of George L. Rousseau, late a Lieutenant in the Twentieth United States Infantry, was laid to rest in our city cemetery.  His short life had been a checkered one.

The son of General Lovell H. Rousseau, one of Kentucky’s noblest sons, he was born in Kentucky about the year 1854.  He was left by the death of his father in straitened circumstances, and his early life was spent in various vocations by which he supported himself until, in 1875, he was appointed a Second Lieutenant in the Army and served in it until, in an unfortunate difficulty, he killed Dr. Rivers at Fort Clark, for which he was tried and acquitted, but for which and other difficulties he was dismissed from the Army at Fort McIntosh.  During his confinement at Brackettville he contracted the opium and morphine habit, from which although the made strong efforts, he was never able to free himself.

Since his connection with the Army ceased he was employed for several months by the Mexican National Construction and the Rio Grande Railroad Companies, and at the time of his death was employed as Quarantine Inspector of the United States Marine Hospital Service near this city.

On Wednesday of last week he came into the city unwell and he was staying with Captain R. F. Cordua, of the Rio Grande and Pecos Railway. On Thursday evening Dr. A. W. Wilcox prescribed for him, but he failed to take the medicine.  On Thursday morning upon being asked by Captain Cordua how he felt, he replied that he was very sick, that he himself knew what was the matter with him, and that he had been trying to kill himself for some time.

Not dreaming that he was completing self-destruction, Captain Cordua became engaged in writing, from which he was aroused by the pistol shot, which produced instant death.  Placing the muzzle of a revolver to the right side of his head, just above the ear, he pulled the trigger and the ball went crashing through his head, and before assistance could reach the spot George L. Rousseau had breathed his last.

Despondency, occasioned by the increased and increasingly use of opiates (which had affected seriously his digestive organs) was doubtless the cause of his rash act.  His remains were buried in our city cemetery on Friday evening, the Right Rev. Bishop Elliott, of the Episcopal Church officiating, attended by a number of friends and acquaintances.

NOTE: At some point, he was reburied with his Father in Kentucky.  Then when his Father was removed from a cemetery in Kentucky in 1892 and reburied in Arlington National Cemetery, the Lieutenant was also taken there.

ROUSSEAU, GEO L S/O L H

  • DATE OF DEATH: 10/15/1892
  • BURIED AT:   SITE 1047
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
  • LT USA

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