Anton R. Roessler

American Civil War At the beginning of the American Civil War, Roessler was still working as draftsman for the state's Geological and Agricultural Survey in Austin, Texas. He helped compile a map of Texas in New Orleans for the Engineer's Office of the Military Department of the Gulf that soon appeared in April of that year. This map was reportedly used by General George Armstrong Custer and others during their occupation of Texas to implement Reconstruction policies following the war. As many Texas Geological and Agricultural Survey records were believed lost or destroyed during the Civil War and the remainder were destroyed by a fire at the Texas State Capitol in 1881, there has been speculation that Roessler himself may have taken maps from the state.

Roessler participated in a mining engineering expedition with the Texas Land and Copper Association in 1872, which proceeded from Grayson County westward to Haskell County. It explored areas around the Wichita River, the Little Wichita River, the Double Mountains, and the headwaters of the Brazos River. In 1873, Oscar Loew and Roessler co-wrote a German-language article titled "Erforschung des Nordwest-Theiles von Texas im Jahre 1872" ("Exploration of the Northwest Portion of Texas in 1872") in Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen. Also during the 1870s, Roessler created a map of Texas and 16 maps of Texas counties. During this period of his career he also served as secretary of the Texas Land and Immigration Company of New York. Also according to Young, Roessler's work remains the only existing maps from the First Geological and Agricultural Survey of Texas (the Shumard Survey). and the University of Texas at Austin. According to the Royal Society Catalogue, he wrote six geological papers, but according to Samuel Wood Geiser, "his best work was in making maps of Texas".