Brig. General Hiram B. Granbury (CSA)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiram_B._Granbury

Hiram B. Granbury (March 1, 1831 – November 30, 1864) was a lawyer and county judge in Texas before the American Civil War ("Civil War"). He organized a volunteer company for the Confederate States Army after the outbreak of the Civil War and became its captain. He rose to the grade of brigadier general in the Confederate army. Granbury was one of the six Confederate generals killed at the Battle of Franklin on November 20, 1864.

Early life

Hiram Bronson Granbury was born in Copiah County, Mississippi, March 1, 1831. He was the son of a Baptist minister. After being educated at Oakland College in Rodney, Mississippi, he moved to Waco, Texas, in the early 1850s. Granbury studied law at Waco, was admitted to the bar and served as chief justice of McLennan County, TX, an office similar to the chairman of a county board of supervisors, from 1856 to 1858.

Civil War service

Fort Donelson, capture, exchange

Upon the secession of Texas from the Union, Granbury organized the Waco Guards, a volunteer infantry company, and headed east to Kentucky with them as their first captain. In October 1861, he was elected major of the 7th Texas Infantry Regiment. He was captured along with his regiment at the Battle of Fort Donelson on February 16, 1862. Granbury was imprisoned at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor but was permitted to visit Baltimore on parole in order to attend to his wife, who was to have an operation. He was freed in an exchange of prisoners on August 27, 1862 for two lieutenants. Almost immediately, on August 29, 1862, Granbury was promoted to colonel of the 7th Texas Infantry Regiment. He was temporarily without a command until January 1863 because the 7th Texas Infantry Regiment was not exchanged until November 1862 and was consolidated with two other regiments until January 1863.

Vicksburg campaign, Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Atlanta campaign

Granbury and his regiment served in north Mississippi with General Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee during the Vicksburg Campaign. Colonel Granbury led the regiment in the battles of Raymond and Jackson. Granbury fought and was wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga. He then participated in the Siege of Chattanooga and the Battle of Missionary Ridge. When Brigadier General James Argyle Smith was wounded at Chattanooga, Granbury led the brigade in the retreat from Chattanooga. Division commander, Major General Patrick R. Cleburne, commended Colonel Granbury for his handling of the brigade.

Battle of Franklin, death

Brigadier General James A Smith returned to the brigade command for the Atlanta Campaign. At about the same time, on February 29, 1864, Colonel Granbury was promoted to brigadier general. He then led the Texas brigade. This brigade was composed of eight (8) understrength Texas regiments, including the 7th Texas Infantry, through the Atlanta Campaign. He fought with particular distinction at the Battle of New Hope Church in the Atlanta Campaign.

General John B. Hood had taken over command of the Army of Tennessee during the Atlanta Campaign. After the fall of Atlanta, Hood moved his army into Tennessee in an effort to retake Nashville for the Confederacy. At the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864, Hood ordered 18 brigades to make numerous hopeless frontal assaults against fortified positions occupied by the Union Army forces under Major General John M. Schofield. Granbury’s brigade charged the center of the Federal breastworks and he was killed, along with Major General Patrick R. Cleburne, just outside the Union works. In total, six Confederate generals died in or as a result of the battle. Brigadier General James A. Smith took command of Cleburne's division at the subsequent Battle of Nashville.

Reburial at Granbury, Texas

Twenty-nine (29) years after the battle of Franklin, Hiram Granbury's body was moved to Granbury, Texas, a town named after him.

Hiram Bronson Granbury, Confederate general, was born in Copiah County, Mississippi, on March 1, 1831, the son of Nancy (McLaurin) and Norvell R. Granbury, a Baptist minister. He was educated at Oakland College. In the 1850s he moved to Texas and lived in Waco, where he was admitted to the Bar; he served as chief justice of McLennan County from 1856 to 1858. On March 31, 1858, Granbury married Fannie Sims of Waco; they had no children. At the outbreak of the Civil War he recruited the Waco Guards, which became a unit in the Seventh Texas Infantry in Brig. Gen. John Gregg's brigade of the Confederate Army. In November 1861 at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the regiment elected Granbury as major. He was captured with the command at the battle of Fort Donelson on February 15, 1862, and was paroled that same year in an officers' exchange. Upon his release he was promoted to colonel. In April 1863 Granbury was at Port Hudson, Louisiana, and in May he participated in the battle of Raymond, Mississippi. Shortly thereafter he joined Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army, assembled for the relief of Vicksburg. Granbury commanded the Seventh Texas in Brig. Gen. Bushrod R. Johnson's brigade of Gen. John B. Hood's corps at Chickamauga, where he was wounded. He participated in the battle of Missionary Ridge, where his commanding officer was James A. Smith; shortly thereafter he succeeded to brigade command. During the retreat from that battle he was particularly distinguished for his conduct at Ringgold Gap, where he commanded his own brigade. Granbury was commissioned brigadier general on February 29, 1864. During the ensuing Atlanta campaign, he served in Cleburne's division of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee and was again particularly distinguished at the battle of New Hope Church. After the fall of Atlanta, Granbury led his brigade in Hood's disastrous invasion of Tennessee, and at the battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864, he was killed in action. Granbury was first buried near Franklin, Tennessee. His body was later reinterred at the Ashwood Church Cemetery south of Columbia. On November 30, 1893, his remains were removed to Granbury, Texas, seat of Hood County, as the town was named in his honor.

The correct spelling of the general's name has long been debated. He attended Oakland College under the name Granberry, but after graduating and moving to Texas he changed the spelling to Granbury. Why he changed the spelling of his name is unknown. His sister, Mrs. Nautie Granberry Moss, stated that he changed the spelling of his name based on a peculiar whim. The official records and correspondence of the Civil War show his named spelled as Granbury, although many Texas newspaper articles at the time referred to him as General Granberry. When he was killed at the battle of Franklin and buried in Tennessee, the name on his tombstone was spelled Granberry, perhaps because that was the spelling of the family name in the area. When he was exhumed and reburied in Granbury in 1893, the name on the tombstone was spelled Granberry. Apparently, however, the reburial opened a debate on the proper spelling of his namesake city, and a letter by one J. N. Doyle in the Dallas Morning News reviewed the history of the general’s name and concluded by pointing out that deeds for lots in the city, veterans who had served with him, and local citizens all used the spelling Granbury. In 1913, when a statue was erected on the Hood County courthouse square, the name was spelled Granbury. In 1996 a new tombstone with the name spelled Granbury was put in place, and after almost 150 years, the spelling of the general’s name on his tombstone, statue, and name city became uniform as Granbury.