Rosecrans stu­died at the Bax­ter Un­i­ver­si­ty of Mu­sic in Friend­ship, New York. Af­ter teach­ing for two years, he joined the Fill­more Bro­thers Mu­sic House in Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio. As of 1880, he was teach­ing mu­sic in Doug­las Coun­ty, Col­o­ra­do. In 1884, was an evan­gel­ist in Cal­i­for­nia, and lat­er was as­so­ci­ated with evan­gel­is­tic efforts in Tex­as, and taught mu­sic and Bi­ble at Carl­ton College in Bon­ham, Tex­as. He pub­lished over 20 mu­sic col­lect­ions in his life­time. His works in­clude:

• Songs of Glo­ry, 1874
• The Voice of Joy
• The Beauty
• The Pearly Gates for the Sun­day School
• Wide Awake Glee Book
• The Child­ren’s Hal­le­lu­jah, with James Fill­more (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: Fill­more Bro­thers, cir­ca 1886)
• Christian Work-Songs (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: Fill­more Bro­thers, 1890)
• Gems and Jew­els, with James Fill­more (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio: Fill­more Bro­thers, 1890)
• The Chris­tian Hym­nist (St. Lou­is, Mis­sou­ri: Chris­tian Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny, 1895)
• Glad Tid­ings (New York Ci­ty: Fill­more, cir­ca 1899)
• Crown of Beau­ty, with Le­o­nard Daugh­er­ty (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio : Stand­ard Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny, cir­ca 1902)
• Praise Tri­umph­ant, with Le­o­nard Daugh­er­ty (Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio : Tri­umph­ant Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny, cir­ca 1915)

1. He Is Ris­en
2. My New Name
3. Olvera Street
4. Rosecrans
5. Saipan
6. There is a Ha­bi­ta­tion
7. What a Morn­ing That Will Be