John Gregg (28 September 1828 – 7 October 1864) was a Brigadier General of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Biography[]
John Gregg was born in Lawrenceville, Alabama, graduating from the University of North Alabama (then LaGrange College) as a Professor of Mathematics in 1847. In 1852, he moved to Freestone County in Texas and was a lawyer, but also founded the Freestone County Pioneer, the first newspaper from the county. But after anti-slavery activist Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States, Gregg became an advocate for secession in his newspaper. On 15 February 1861, after Texas joined the Confederate States, he joined the Provisional Confederate Congress and in August resigned to lead the Confederate States Army. As a Colonel, he fought in the Battle of Fort Donelson in Tennessee in 1862 and was captured, sent to Massachusetts as a prisoner-of-war. On 15 August 1862 he was exchanged and was made a Brigadier-General 14 days later. Commanding a Texan volunteers brigade in the Western Theater, he fought in the Battle of Raymond on 12 May 1863 and later fought in the Second Battle of Jackson during the Vicksburg Campaign. In the Battle of Chickamauga he was wounded in the neck by a gunshot and when he recovered, he joined Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. During the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, his men saved Lee by steering his horse away from the thick of battle to protect their beloved general.
On 7 October 1864, during the Battle of Darbytown Road (also called Darbytown & New Market Roads, Four Mile Creek, or Johnson's Farm), he was again shot in the neck but this time, his wound was fatal. He met his death while leading a counterattack against the Union army of David B. Birney.