The Rosal Column (Spanish: Columna del Rosal) was a column of the confederal militias that fought in the Spanish Civil War. The column was established by anarchists in Madrid, following the Spanish coup of July 1936, and was led by the trade unionist Cipriano Mera and lieutenant colonel Francisco del Rosal [es], the latter of whom gave the column its name. The column fought on the front in the province of Teruel, where it faced systemic issues with a lack of military discipline among militiamen. They failed to achieve their main goal of capturing the town of Albarracín, which remained under Nationalist control. At the beginning of the siege of Madrid, the Rosal Column attempted to prevent the government from fleeing the Spanish capital and detained many ministers at a security checkpoint in Tarancón. Mera then led part of the column to defend the city, fighting in the Battle of Ciudad Universitaria.

Upon their return to the Teruel front, continued failures to achieve their objectives prompted many of the column's militiamen to accept militarisation, although members of the Libertarian Youth were particularly resistant to it. In March 1937, the Rosal Column was transformed into the 42nd Division of the Popular Army, which was organised into the 59th, 60th and 61st Mixed Brigades. Cipriano Mera took command of the 14th Division and rose through the ranks to command the IV Army Corps.

When the Spanish coup of July 1936 took place, anarchist militias took up arms to stop it. In the Spanish capital of Madrid, Cipriano Mera, a construction worker and trade union leader of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), led a militia column to put down the insurrection at the military barracks in Alcalá de Henares and Guadalajara. When the victory of the Republicans in Madrid was secured, the CNT Defence Committee nominated lieutenant colonel Francisco del Rosal [es] to take command of the first militia column it organised in central Spain.

In the first four days of the Spanish Civil War, 4,000 people joined the confederal militias in Madrid and armed themselves with weapons seized from the Alcalá de Henares barracks. The largest militia column in the central region, which grew to count 835 fighters by August 1936, was established and jointly led by Mera and Rosal. Mera acted as the column's political officer, while Rosal was its military commander. The column took its name from Rosal, becoming known as the Rosal Column (Spanish: Columna del Rosal).

The Rosal Column consisted of two battalions: the Ferrer Battalion, commanded by Mera; and the Mora Battalion, commanded by Rosal Rico. Three journalists and a civil engineer made up its small general staff. It also gained a contingent of international volunteers, including 30 Italians, 10 Germans, 2 Swiss and 1 French person; the Italians constituted their own artillery battery, which they named after Sacco and Vanzetti.

In the early months of the war, the Rosal Column was sent to the frontlines in Aragon, where Mera led an unsuccessful surprise attack against the city of Teruel. Many of the volunteers who joined the Column on the Teruel front proved to be unreliable, often refusing orders or deserting their posts. Some of the column's recruits were Valencian convicts who had been released from the San Miguel de los Reyes prison at the beginning of the war. On 15 September, the Column reported that many of their militiamen had abandoned their posts and returned home to their families at nightfall, "with thousands of excuses". Rosal reported that he had been forced to disarm half of the reinforcements who had arrived from Santa Olalla. Following a series of defeats on the front line, the CNT informed the general staff of the Rosal Column that it was now required to enforce military discipline within its ranks.

In mid-October, the Rosal Column arrived at the Montes Universales, where they captured a number of villages. They also fought in battle at Albarracín, but the Nationalists remained in control of the town. They then took over some of the positions of the Eixea-Uribes Column, which in turn occupied the positions of the Peire Column, which had itself been redeployed to Alfambra. They were later reinforced by militias from Valencia and the Macià-Companys Column from Catalonia. On 4 November, Salvador Rojo Jover, a captain of the Rosal Column, visited Madrid's San Antón prison and attempted to convince the prisoners to fight for the Republic. Rojo noted the names of the prisoners who refused and gave them to the Provincial Committee of Public Inquiry [es], which carried out their execution.

On 6 November, when the Republican government fled Madrid to escape the coming siege, the Rosal Column attempted to stop them from leaving. At Tarancón, the column set up a security checkpoint and detained several government officials. The detainees included: Joan Peiró and Juan López Sánchez, the anarchist ministers of industry and commerce; Julio Álvarez del Vayo, the socialist minister of state; Jesús Hernández Tomás, the communist minister of education; and Pedro Rico, the Republic mayor of Madrid. Militiamen of the Rosal Column even threatened some of the ministers with execution on charges of cowardice. With the way through Tarancón blocked, the ministers were forced to make their way to Valencia by other routes. When Horacio Prieto, the General Secretary of the CNT, arrived in Tarancón, Cipriano Mera attempted to convince him to remain in Madrid in order to raise morale. Prieto defended his decision, so Mera denounced him as a "weakling" that was "unworthy" of his post. Mera declared that, while the officials fled, he would go to Madrid and organise thousands of people to defend it himself. The confrontation led to Prieto's resignation as General Secretary.