USA > Texas > The history and geography of Texas as told in county names > Part 18
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
GREGG.
General John Gregg was born in Lawrence County, Ala., September 28, 1828. He attended the celebrated school of Pro- fessor Tutwiler, from which he graduated in 1847, and after graduation was employed as pro- fessor of languages and mathemat- ics in the same school. In 1851 he studied law in the office of Judge Townes at Tuscumbia, Ala., and in 1852 removed to Texas and located at Fairfield, in Freestone County. After practicing law four years he was elected District Judge of that district and was holding that of- fice in 1861, when elected a dele- gate to the Secession convention. He was then chosen as a delegate to the Provisional Congress of the Southern Confederacy, holding sessions at Montgomery, and went with that body to Richmond, Va. Immediately after the battle of Manassas, July 21, 1861, he resigned, returned to Texas and organized the Seventh Regiment of Volunteers, of which he was made Colonel. The command went to Kentucky, and he was captured at Fort Donaldson. When exchanged he returned to the Confederacy and was promoted to the position of Brigadier General and joined the army in Mississippi. He was in the engagements of the Western army until the battle of Chickamauga. He was then transferred to Virginia and placed in command of Hood's old brigade, and was killed near Fort Harrison on the Charles City road, October 7, 1864.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
HOOD.
General John B. Hood was born in Bath County, Ky., June 29, 1831. At an early age his parents moved to Fort Starling, Montgomery County, Ky., where he was reared and educated in the common schools. He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, from which he graduated in 1853, and was made Second Lieuten- ant in the army, being assigned to duty with the Fourth United States Infant- ry in California. He was later trans- ferred to the Second United States Cav- alry. In 1855 he served on the frontier of Texas. On the 16th of April, 1861, he resigned his commission in the Uni- ted States Army and tendered his services to the Southern Con- federacy and was ordered to report to General Magruder in the peninsula, below Richmond, with a Captain's commission. He was soon promoted to the rank of Major, and on the 30th of September, 1861, was made Colonel and placed in command of the Fourth Texas Regiment of Infantry. On the 3rd of March, 1862, he was made Brigadier General, and in hotly contested battles of the different campaigns in Virginia in 1862 his brigade became famous. In 1863 he was made a Major Gen- eral. At the battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, he was so se- verely wounded in his right leg as to necessitate amputation. Later he was appointed Lieutenant General. On the 17th of July, 1864, he was put in command of the army near Atlanta and commanded in a severe engagement on the 20th and again on the 27th. He abandoned Atlanta on September 1, and in command of an army of forty thousand men he marched back into Tennessee and fought the disastrous battle of Franklin on the 30th of November, and again, on the 15th of December, attacked and was defeated at Nashville. This practically ended his military career. After the close of the war he located at New Orleans and embarked in the insurance business. He was stricken with yellow fever and died in that city in 1879.
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
A handsome monument to his brigade has been erected in the Capitol grounds at Austin.
He, like many other Confederate officers, died leaving little property to support his family. He left a family of nine young orphan children, his wife having previously died. This inspired Mary Hunt McCaleb to write the following lines :
HOOD'S LAST CHARGE.
The twilight of life is beginning to fall, Death's shadows are creeping high up on the wall ; Eternity's waters are splashing So close I can hear the wild waves as they roar And sullenly break on the surf-beaten shore, Their silver spray over me dashing.
The old camp is fading away from my view ; I hear the last stroke of life's beating tattoo,- The sounds wear the muffle of sorrow. My campaigns are ended, my battles are o'er, My heroes will follow my lead never more, No roll-call shall break on my morrow.
But sh! the last enemy conquers tonight, And death is the victor-in vain is the fight, When God and his creatures have striven; The struggle is over; life's colors are furled- Are lost in the dark of the vanishing world; The bonds of the spirit are riven.
But ere I go down 'neath the conqueror's tread, And lie white and still in the ranks of the dead, Through silence forever unbroken, To you, my old heroes, my TEXAS BRIGADE, From the dimness of death, from the cold of its shade, One last solemn charge must be spoken :
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
"My faithful old followers, steady and true, My children are orphans,-I give them to you, A trust for your sacredest keeping.
By the shades of the heroes who fought at your side,
By the few who have lived, and the many who died, By the brave army silently sleeping.
"By the charges I led, where you followed so true, When the soldiers in gray and the soldiers in blue, And the blood of the bravest was flowing,
Be true to this last and this holiest trust,
Tho' the heart of your leader has crumbled to dust, And grasses above him are growing."
JEFF DAVIS.
Jefferson Davis, in whose honor this county was named, was the grandson of Eben Davis, who came from Wales to Amer- ica about the year 1748 and settled in Georgia. His son, Sam- uel, did honorable service in the war of the revolution, and at its close settled near Augusta. Later he moved to Christian County, Kentucky, where Jefferson, his ninth child, was born, June 3, 1808. He attended St. Thomas' College, in Kentucky, a Catholic school, for two years; Jefferson College in Mis- sissippi, and Transylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky, for two years. He was then appointed a cadet at West Point Military Academy and graduated in 1828 and commissioned as Second Lieutenant in July of that year, and on March 4, 1833, was promoted to First Lieuten- ant of dragoons. He served in the Black Hawk War and later was stationed at Fort Gibson, Arkansas, where he married the daughter of Colonel Zachary Taylor in 1835. He then resigned his commission and engaged in cotton planting in Warren County, Mississippi, where his wife soon afterwards died. He
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
was a Presidential elector on the Polk and Dallas ticket in 1844, and was elected to the lower house of the U. S. Congress in 1845, and served until June, 1846, when he resigned to take command of the First Regiment of Mississippi Riflemen in the Mexican War. He was with Taylor's Army at Monterey in September, 1846, where he greatly distinguished himself, as he afterwards did at Buena Vista. Three months later he was appointed Brigadier General, but declined it to accept the appointment to the United States Senate from Mississippi. He was subse- quently elected to the same position and served from August, 1847, to November, 1851. He was a candidate for Governor that year and was defeated, but was again elected to the United States Senate. He resigned that to become Secretary of War in President Pierce's Cabinet March 3, 1853, and served four years. He was then elected to the United States Senate and served until January 21, 1861, when he withdrew from that body with other Southern Senators. He was chosen Provision- al President of the Southern Confederacy at Montgomery, Al- abama, and inaugurated February 19, 1851. He was elected President of the Southern Confederacy for six years and was inaugurated February 22, 1862, at Richmond, Virgania.
While attempting to make his escape from the Federal Army, after the surrender of Lee and Johnston, he was captured by Union troops at Irwinville, Georgia, May 14, 1865. He was imprisoned for two years at Fortress Monroe and indicted for treason, but by the direction of the Federal government the case was dismissed and he was released in December, 1868. He then returned to Mississippi and settled at Beauvoir and died in New Orleans December 6, 1868.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
LEE.
Robert E. Lee, son of General Henry Lee (Light Horse Harry of the Revolution), the great chieftain of the Southern Confed- eracy, was born in Stratford, Va., January 19, 1807. He en-
tered the United States Military Academy at West Point and grad- uated from there in 1829. When General Scott invaded Mexico, in 1847, Lee was appointed Chief of Engineers of the Army. He re- ceived three promotions for ser- vices in that campaign. He was superintendent of the Academy at West Point in 1852, and afterward served on the frontier of Texas. He was in command of troops that captured old John Brown at Har- per's Ferry, in 1859. He resigned his commission as Colonel in the United States Army on April 20, 1861, and was appointed Ma- jor General by the State of Virginia immediately afterward; was made commander of the army of Northern Virginia in 1862, and directed all its campaigns afterward. He was made General in Chief of the Armies of the Southern Confederacy January 31, 1865, and surrendered to General Grant at Appo- mattox, Va., April 9, 1865.
After the war he was tendered several lucrative positions, but declined them to accept the presidency of Washington Col- lege (now Washington and Lee University) and was acting in that capacity when he died, October 12, 1870.
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
RANDALL.
General Horace Randall was born in Tennessee in 1821. His parents moved to Texas and located in San Augustine County. He was appointed cadet at West Point in 1849; graduated in 1853 and was commissioned Second Lieutenant of cavalry in the same year. He served in the army on the Texas and other frontiers, but resigned in 1861 to offer his services to the Southern Confederacy. He organized a regiment in East Texas and went to the front, commanding in various engagements, first as Colonel, then as Brigadier General, in the Trans-Mis- sissippi department, and was killed at Jenkin's Ferry, other- wise known as the battle of Saline, in Arkansas, on the 30th of April, 1864.
REEVES.
George R. Reeves was born in Hickman County, Tennessee, July 3, 1826. At the age of nine years his parents moved to Arkansas and he resided there until he came to Texas in 1845, and located in what is now Grayson County, about seven miles north of the present site of Sherman, and engaged in farming and stock raising. He was sheriff of that county and assessor and collector of taxes from 1845 to 1856. He was elected a member of the Legislature and was serving in that body when the Civil War began. He organized Company C, Eleventh Texas Cavalry, and was chosen Captain of the company, serv- ing east of the Mississippi. He was promoted to the position of Colonel in 1863. He was elected to the Legislature in 1873, and successively re-elected up to 1881, and was Speaker of the House of Representatives at the time of his death, September .5, 1882.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
SCURRY.
William R. Scurry was born in Gallatin, Tenn., February 10, 1821. He was reared, educated and studied law in that county and came to Texas in 1840, locating in Washington County. He became a full-fledged lawyer before he was twenty-one years old. He was elected a mem- ber of the Ninth and last Congress of the Republic, and at the breaking out of the Mexican War he promptly enlisted and was elected Major of Wood's Regiment. He was conspicuous for gallantry in the en- gagment of Monterey. After that he moved to Clarksville, in Red River County, where he actively engaged in the practice of law and became one of the most popular orators in the State. He then located in DeWitt County, at Clinton, then the county site, and was en- gaged in his profession when the Civil War broke out in 1861. He promptly enlisted in the Confederate Army, and was elected Lieutenant Colonel and accompanied Sibley's Brigade to New Mexico and participated in the battles of Peralto, Valverde, and Glorietta. Upon his return to Texas he was appointed to the command of the Eastern Military sub-district. In 1863 he was commissioned Brigadier General and assigned to duty under General Dick Taylor in Louisiana, and was killed at the battle of Saline (Jenkin's Ferry), April 30, 1864.
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
STEPHENS.
Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederate States, was born at Crawfordsville, Taliaferro County, Ga., February 11, 1812. He graduated from Franklin College in 1832, and from 1836 to 1842 served in both branches of the Georgia Legislature. In 1843 he was elected to the lower house of the United States Congress, and by successive elections was a member of that body to the close of the Thirty-fourth Congress.
At the first stage of the se- cession movement he was op- posed to the policy, but when secession became inevitable he joined his native state and was chosen Vice-President of the Confederate States in 1861. At the close of the war between the States (1865) he was ar- rested by the United States authorities, but was soon released, and in 1866 was chosen United States Senator from Georgia, but was refused admission to the Senate. He was elected to and served in successive Congresses from the Forty-third to the Forty-seventh. In 1882 he was elected Governor of Georgia. He died at Atlanta before the expiration of his term as Gov- ernor, March 4, 1883. He was an author of note, his "History of the United States" and "A Constitutional View of the War Between the States" being his principal published works.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
STONEWALL.
Thomas Jonathan Jackson was born in Clarksburg, Va., (now West Virginia) January 21, 1824. He was educated in the common schools of his section of Virginia and entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1841. Grad- u a ting in 1845 he was made a Second Lieutenant, and in 1847 actively partici- pated in the campaign from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico in Gen- eral Scott's Army. Af- ter the close of the war he served upon the frontier of the United States, but resigned in 1855 to accept the po- sition of professor of mathematics at the Virginia Military Institute, and was engaged in the duties of that position when the Civil War began in 1861. He offered his services to his native state and was immediately commis- sioned Colonel and soon afterward Brigadier General. While commanding his brigade at the first battle of Manassas, Colonel Barnard E. Bee, whose regiment was confused by the enemy, pointed out to his command General Jackson, saying, "There stands Jackson like a stone wall," and he was ever afterward called "Stonewall Jackson." He was afterward made Major General, and after his wonderful campaign in the Valley of Virginia, and the rapid movements by which he was enabled to come to the rescue of Lee at Richmond in 1862 his fame became world-wide. He was killed at Chancellorsville by his own men through mistake, May 10, 1863. His rapid marches earned for his command the title of "Jackson's Foot Cavalry."
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
He was a man of intense religious convictions and deep piety, and a member of the Presbyterian church.
SUTTON.
John S. Sutton was a native of Newcastle County, Delaware, where he was born September 12, 1821. At the age of eighteen he was appointed to a cadetship at West Point Mil- itary Academy, but left in January, 1840, and came to Texas, making his home at Austin. Soon after his arrival he joined the ranger service and was actively engaged in that capacity when the Santa Fe expedition was organized. He organized a company and joined this expedition and was one of those who surrendered and was carried prisoner to Castle Perote, where he shared all the hardships of his fellow-prisoners. Af- ter his release from prison he returned to Texas and again joined the army in time to take part in the Somervell Expedi- tion, but did not accompany that portion of the army that crossed the Rio Grande. He shortly afterward joined the ran- ger service and was an active participant in various conflicts with the Indians. When Texas was annexed to the United States and the Mexican War followed, he again joined the army and remained with it until the war closed. He was actively engaged in the ranger service until 1849, when, with the many other gold hunters, he went to California, and from time to time served under Jack Hays, sheriff of San Francisco. Upon the expiration of Hays' term as sheriff, Sutton returned to Texas, and for a short period was again in the ranger service.
Upon his retirement he located at Fort Lavaca and was engaged in business there at the commencement of the Civil War in 1861. He then volunteered and was elected Captain of a company, and upon the organization of the Seventh Regi- ment of Texas Volunteers at San Antonio in the summer of 1861 was elected Lieutenant Colonel and went with Sibley's brigade to New Mexico. While leading the regiment in a charge at Val Verde, February 21, 1862, his right leg was shattered by grape shot. He refused to have it amputated and died from the wound.
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
TERRY.
Benjamin Franklin Terry was born on the 18th of February, 1821, in Russelville, Kentucky. In 1831 he, in company with his mother and three younger brothers, also his mother's brother, Major Ben Fort Smith, came to Texas and settled in Brazoria County. He and his younger brother, David S. Terry, ran away from home just before the battle of San Jacinto to join Hous- ton's army, but learning of the overthrow of Santa Anna at San Jacinto, returned home. He married Mary Bingham, Oct. 12, 1841. Her father was one of Austin's original three hun- dred colonists. In 1849, he and his brother, David S. Terry, went to California, David remained and became Chief Justice of the supreme court of that state, but Ben F. Terry remained only eighteen months. He returned to Texas and located in Houston. In 1852 he purchased the Oakland sugar plantation in Fort Bend County and was there engaged as a sugar planter in 1861. He was elected as a delegate to the secession conven- tion in 1861 and after the adjournment of that body he, in company with Thomas S. Lubbock, repaired to the seat of war in Virginia, both participating in the battle of Manassas, July 21. Immediately after that battle they returned to Texas and organized at Houston a regiment of cavalry which became fam- ous in the annals of the Confederacy as "Terry's Texas Rang- ers." Terry was chosen as Colonel and Lubbock Lieutenant Colonel. Immediately after the organization and equipment of the regiment they went to the seat of war in Kentucky. In an impetuous charge upon the enemy Terry was killed at Wood- sonville, Kentucky, December 17, 1861.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
TOM GREEN.
Gen. Thomas Green was born in Amelia County, Virginia, June 8, 1814. In 1817 his father's family moved to Tennessee, where his father was for many years a Justice of the Supreme Court. Tom Green received a liberal ed- ucation in the common schools, Princeton College, Kentucky, and at the University of Tennes- see ; studied law in 1834 and in the fall of 1835, when he learned of the conditions of Texas, came and joined the army as a private in March, 1836, and was in the campaign that culminated April 21, at San Jacinto. He was pro- moted to a Lieutenancy for gal- lantry in this battle. He then went back to Tennessee, but returned to Texas in 1837, held the position of clerk in the Congress of 1838 and in that year was elected Surveyor of Fayette County. In 1841 he was appointed clerk of the Su- preme Court of the Republic and held that office continuously up to 1846, and was re-elected to the same position after an- nexation and held the office until 1861, when he enlisted in the Confederate Army. In the early days of this court there was not enough business to employ his entire time, and on repeated occasions he left the office in charge of a deputy and joined mil- itary organizations when the exigencies of the country seemed to demand it. In 1841 he joined the expedition against the Indians up the Colorado River. In 1842 he joined the Somervell Expedition as Inspector General and in 1846 he volunteered in the Mexican War and commanded a company in the famous regiment of John C. (Jack) Hays. Early in 1861 he was made Colonel of a regiment in the Sibley expedition into New Mex- ico and performed conspicuous service in the Battle of Val Verde. On the 31st of December, 1862, he was in immediate command of the forces that captured Galveston, and from that
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
time up to his death he was in the various campaigns in Louis- iana. On the 12th day of April, 1864, he was killed at the bat- tle of Blairs Landing, on Red River, in Louisiana.
UPTON.
John Cunningham Upton was born on a farm near Win- chester, Franklin County, Tennessee, January 22, 1828, at- tended the common schools of his county and attended the University of Lebanon, Tenn. He left Tennessee in 1850 and went to California, where he remained until 1859. His fam- ily having moved to Texas in the interim he removed from California to Texas in that year and settled in Fayette County and took charge of his mother's plantation. Early in 1861 he raised a company, was chosen Captain and went to the seat of war in Virginia and was attached to the Fifth Texas Reg- iment of Hood's Brigade, and was in the numerous engage- ments of that brigade up to his death. He was promoted to Major and then Lieutenant Colonel of the regiment, and while at the head of the regiment in a charge at the second battle of Manassas, August 30, 1862, he was killed. William Felton Upton, the brother, was born near Winchester, Tenn., August 30, 1832, and was reared and educated there. In 1853 he moved with his mother and family to Fayette County, Texas, and engaged in farming in that county until 1861. In that year he enlisted in Nichol's Regiment and was successively promo- ted from Captain to Lieutenant Colonel and served during the entire war. He returned to Fayette County in 1865 and began, in connection with his farming operations, a mercantile busi- ness and soon became the leading merchant at Schulenberg. He served several terms in the State Legislature and died at Schulenberg, Texas, February 7, 1887. Upton County was named in honor of these brothers.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
VAL VERDE.
This county was named in honor of the battle fought at Val Verde, near Fort Craig, N. M., on the 19th of February, 1862, under the command of Gen. Tom Green, General Sibley, the com- mander, being unwell. This was the culmination of what was called the Sibley expedition into New Mexico, the object of which was to bring New Mexico under the dominion of the Southern Confederacy.
WINKLER.
C. M. Winkler was born in Burke County, North Carolina, October 19, 1821, but moved with his father's family to In- diana in 1831; was educated there and came to Texas in 1840. He settled at Franklin, county site of Robertson County, and prepared himself for the bar while acting as deputy clerk of the District Court. In 1844 he was elected District Clerk; held the office two years and went into the active practice of his profession. In 1848 he removed to Corsicana and was in the same year elected to the Legis- lature. After serving one term he devoted his entire energies to the practice of his profession up to 1861. Early in 1861 he was elected Captain of a company in the Fourth Texas Regiment and was successively promoted until he was made Colonel; he was seriously wounded at Get- tysburg. After the war he resumed his practice in partner- ship with Colonel (afterward United States Senator) Mills ; was elected a member of the Legislature in 1873, and in 1876 was elected one of the Judges of the Court of Appeals, and after holding this office he was re-elected, and while serving died on the 13th of May, 1882, at Austin, Texas.
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
YOUNG.
W. C. Young came to Texas about the year 1841 and settled in Red River County. He was in the service as a Ranger for some time, and in 1845 was elected a delegate to the convention which framed the first State Constitution. He afterwards served in the State Legislature and was in the ranger service in Northwest Texas from time to time up to 1861. In that year he was elected a delegate to the secession convention and after adjournment entered the service of the Southern Confederacy and was chosen Colonel of the Fourth Texas Regiment of Cav- alry and went with his command into the campaign in Arkan- sas and Missouri. He was killed in the Indian Territory in 1862.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
CHAPTER XVI.
THE INDIANS OF TEXAS.
Five counties of the State have been named for Indian tribes, viz :
1. Cherokee
3. Nacogdoches 5. Wichita
2. Comanche 4. Pecos
CHEROKEE.
This tribe of Indians played a somewhat conspicuous part in the history of the United States, not only in the usual and ordinary Indian way, but in the politics of the United States, and in the politics of Texas as well.
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