Brig. General John Gregg (CSA)

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John Gregg

Birthdate:
Death: October 07, 1864 (36)
Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, Virginia, United States (Killed in action during the Siege of Petersburg)
Immediate Family:

Son of Nathan Gregg and Sarah Gregg
Husband of Mary Francis Gregg
Brother of James William Gregg and Colonel Edward Pearsall Gregg (CSA)

Managed by: Private User
Last Updated:

About Brig. General John Gregg (CSA)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gregg_%28CSA%29

John Gregg (September 28, 1828 – October 7, 1864) was an American judge, politician, and general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was killed in action during the Siege of Petersburg.

Early life and career

Gregg was born in Lawrenceville, Alabama, to Nathan Gregg and Sarah Pearsall Camp. He graduated from LaGrange College in Georgia in 1847, where he was subsequently employed as a professor of mathematics. He later studied law in Tuscumbia, Alabama.

Gregg relocated to Freestone County, Texas, in 1852 and settled in the town of Fairfield, Texas. He was elected as a district judge and served in that position from 1855 until 1860. In 1858, Gregg married Mary Francis Garth from Alabama, daughter of Jesse Winston Garth, a Unionist who was willing to give up his hundreds of slaves if it meant saving the Union.

Gregg was one of the founders of the Freestone County Pioneer, the first newspaper in Freestone County. He used his paper and political clout to call for a secession convention following the election of Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860.

Gregg served as a delegate to the Texas Secession Convention in Austin, in January 1861. The delegation issued the Ordinance of Secession on February 1, 1861. Gregg was one of six members of the convention that were elected to represent Texas in the Provisional Confederate Congress in Montgomery, Alabama, and later in Richmond, Virginia.

Civil War service

Gregg served in the Provisional Confederate Congress on February 15, 1861, and which he resigned in August 1861 to enter the Confederate Army. He returned to Texas and formed the 7th Texas Infantry, becoming its Colonel in September. Gregg and the 7th saw their first action at the Battle of Fort Donelson from February 12 to February 16, 1862, where they were captured along with most of the garrison. He was sent to Fort Warren in Boston, Massachusetts for confinement.

Gregg was exchanged on August 15, 1862 and was promoted to brigadier general on August 29. His was sent to Mississippi for service in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, and was assigned to 10th Brigade, 1st Division of the Army of Mississippi, from October 24, 1862 to march 1863. Gregg's 10th Brigade was then assigned to the 3rd District of the Department of Mississippi & Eastern Louisiana from March to May 1863.

His command, now styled Gregg's Brigade, was attached to William H. T. Walker's Division in the Department of the West on May 10, 1863. Gregg's first major action in Mississippi came at the Battle of Raymond, on May 12, 1863, where his 3000-man brigade fought a tough 6-hour battle against the XVII Corps, 10,000 strong, under the command of Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson. Gregg was forced to retreat back to Jackson, Mississippi after the battle, where he would be involved in the Battle of Jackson on May 14, 1863.

Gregg's Brigade formed part of the Reserve Corps of the Army of Tennessee briefly that September. During the Battle of Chickamauga he was assigned to Bushrod Johnson's Division, Third Corps in the Army of Tennessee on September 19. Gregg was severely wounded on September 20, when he was hit in the neck. After recovering from his wounds, Gregg was given command of the famous Hood's Texas Brigade in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

Gregg and his brigade participated in the Eastern Campaigns of the spring of 1864, seeing action at the Battle of the Wilderness, the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, the Battle of Cold Harbor, and the Siege of Petersburg.

During the fighting in the Wilderness, Gregg was wounded on May 6, 1864, and then went with Lee's army to Petersburg until 1864.

Death

Gregg was struck in the neck for a second time and killed along the Charles City Road, near Richmond, Virginia. He was shot while leading a counterattack. Gregg was interred at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Aberdeen, Mississippi; his widow, Mary Garth Gregg, traveled through the lines to retrieve his body.

In Memory

Gregg County, Texas, was named for John Gregg when it was formed in 1873.

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John Gregg, soldier, son of Nathan and Sarah (Pearsall) Gregg, was born on September 28, 1828, in Lawrence County, Alabama. He attended the "celebrated school" of Professor Tutwiller in La Grange, Georgia, graduated in 1847, and then taught mathematics and languages at the school. In 1851 he started his study of law in the office of a Judge Townes in Tuscumbia, Alabama. The next year he moved to Texas and settled in Fairfield. In 1855, after his first wife, Mollie (Winston), died, he married Mary Frances Garth. He had two children.

Gregg practiced law the next few years and began the first newspaper in Freestone County, the Freestone County Pioneer. His partner in this venture was Morris Reagan, brother of John H. Reagan. He was elected district judge in 1855 and served in that position until 1860, when he also had a farm and substantial property holdings, including four slaves. At that time he became one of the signers and publishers of the call for the state Secession Convention. He was one of six elected by that body to go to the provisional congress of the Confederacy at Montgomery, Alabama. Gregg went with the Congress to Richmond, Virginia. But immediately after the first battle of Manassas (or Bull Run) in July 1861, he resigned and returned to Texas to recruit and organize the Seventh Texas Infantry, of which he was made colonel.

He led the regiment in several battles before being captured at Fort Donelson, Tennessee, in February 1862. After his release, he was promoted to brigadier general on August 29, 1862, and rejoined the army in Mississippi, where he fought in the Vicksburg campaign in 1863. He fought against Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's forces at Raymond and Jackson, Mississippi, and was wounded at the battle of Chickamauga in Georgia. Gregg was then transferred to Virginia and placed in command of the famous Hood's Texas Brigade. He participated in most of the battles of the Army of Northern Virginia and was killed in action during the battle of New Market Road, near Richmond on October 7, 1864.

His widow, Mary, went in person by wagon through battle lines to Virginia to claim her husband's body. Later, she was among the women whose efforts began a Memorial Day observance. Gregg and his wife were buried at Aberdeen, Mississippi. Gregg County, Texas, established in 1873, was named for General Gregg. It is one of eighteen Texas counties named for soldiers and statesmen of the Southern Confederacy.

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Brig. General John Gregg (CSA)'s Timeline

1828
September 28, 1828
1864
October 7, 1864
Age 36
Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, Virginia, United States