Lawrence Sullivan RossBy Sculptor Pompeo Luigi Coppini

The following inscription is engraved at the bottom of the memorial:

"Lawrence Sullivan Ross, 1818-1898, Soldier, Statesman, and Knightly Gentleman; Brigadier General C.S.A, Governor of Texas, President of the A&M College."

Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross became president of the Agricultural & Mechanical College of Texas in 1891. Students leave pennies at the base for good luck before taking exams. Coppini’s memorial also remains as one of the three “Free Speech” areas on campus.

Additionally, Silver Taps is a haunting melody played as final tribute to a member of the Texas A&M University at the time of his death, and the ceremony takes place at the statute.

The melody is not written down and is passed from buglers to bugler throughout the years since first being played (1898) in honor of Lawrence Sullivan Ross…Soldier, Statesman and University President. In addition, every freshman cadet in the ROTC program is still required to polish the bronze statue of Brigadier General Lawrence

Sullivan Ross. Seven years after leaving the office of Governor, Ross was on a hunting trip along the Navasota River in East Texas when he became ill and died.

On December 18, 1860, Texas Rangers commanded by Lawrence Sullivan Ross raided a Comanche village and re-captured Cynthia Ann Parker who was abducted by a raiding party when she was about 10 years old, and ended up marring a warrior by the name of Peta Nocona.

Pompeo Coppini had relocated to Chicago and while there, he received from the State of Texas a contract for a statue to memorialize the ex-governor.