7th Texas Infantry

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Granbury's Texas Brigade (of which the 7th Texas Infantry was a part) at battle of Pickett's Mill. By Rick Reeves.

7th Texas Infantry
Company A - McLennan County, "The Waco Guards", Capt. Hiram B. Granbury
Company B - Upshur County, Capt. R.S. Camp
Company C - Kaufman County, Capt. Edward T. Broughton
Company D - Harrison County, "The Bass Greys", Capt. Khebler Van Zahnt
Company E - Cherokee County, Capt. Jack Davis
Company F - Smith County, "The Lone Star Rebels", Capt. William H. Smith
Company G - Freestone County, "The Freestone Freemen", Capt. William L. Moody
Company H - Harrison County, "The Texas Invincibles", Capt. William B. Hill
Company I - Rusk County, "The Sabine Greys", Capt. James W. Brown
Company K - Formed in winter of 1862-63 from new recruits and conscripts. Commanded by Captain William L. Coppedge.

On October 2, 1861, at Marshall, Texas, nine infantry companies were organized into a regiment. The driving force behind this organization was John Gregg, a district judge from Fairfield, Texas. Gregg had received a colonel’s commission and authority to raise an infantry regiment. The regiment was sent by train to Shreveport and then marched to Memphis, Tennessee. By November 10, 1861, the regiment was at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where they were mustered into Confederate service as the Seventh Texas Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The lieutenant colonel of the regiment was Jeremiah M. Clough, previously, the district attorney of Harrison County. The major was Hiram Bronson Granbury, formerly a Texas Ranger and chief justice of McLennan County.

The regiment suffered severely due to inclement weather in Hopkinsville, and by mid-February 1862, more than 130 men had died of disease. On February 9, 1862, the Seventh marched to Clarksville, Tennessee, and by February 13, 1862, arrived at Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. Two days of fighting ensued, in which the regiment lost twenty killed and forty wounded. Among the killed was Lieutenant Colonel Clough. On February 16, 1862, the garrison of Fort Donelson surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, including the balance of the Seventh Texas; however, many of the men escaped and served with Terry’s Texas Rangers or with the Ninth Texas Infantry.

More than 300 officers and men of the Seventh Texas were sent north to prisons, where sixty-five of them died. In September 16, 1862, they were exchanged at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The next few months were spent at Port Hudson, where the regiment was stationed. The Seventh Texas was so reduced in numbers that it was consolidated with the Forty-ninth and Fifty-fifth Tennessee regiments, which had also been captured at Fort Donelson.

Colonel Gregg was promoted to brigadier general effective August 29, 1862. Major Granbury was promoted to colonel. William L. Moody, a merchant from Fairfield, was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and Khleber M. Van Zandt, a young lawyer from Marshall, was promoted to major.

The regiment received enough recruits in January and February 1863 to regain its own regimental status and was placed in Brigadier General Gregg’s brigade, which also contained the Third, Tenth, Thirtieth, Forty-first and Fiftieth Tennessee regiments; the First Tennessee Battalion; and Bledsoe’s Missouri Battery. On May 12, 1863, the brigade was sent to Raymond, Mississippi, where the Seventh Texas lost 22 killed, 66 wounded, and 70 captured, out of a total strength of 305, for a loss of over 50 percent. Gregg’s brigade had fought so well, the Federal commander believed he had been attacked by a division.

In July 1863 the brigade was sent to Jackson, Mississippi. Here, Lieutenant Colonel Moody was severely wounded and disabled for further field service. Afterwards, the brigade was sent to north Georgia, where on September 19–20, 1863, the great battle of Chickamauga was fought in which the Seventh Texas lost 8 killed, 78 wounded, and one man captured, out of 177 engaged. The Seventh participated in the final charge that drove the Union Army from the field into siege at Chattanooga.

Colonel Gregg was severely wounded at Chickamauga but, in a strange twist of fate, was rescued by members of Hood’s Texas Brigade. After recovering from his wound, Gregg was called upon to command the famous brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia. General Gregg was killed in battle on the Darbytown Road near Richmond in October 1864.

After Chickamauga, the Seventh Texas was placed in the brigade of James A. Smith, of Maj. Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne’s division, which contained the Sixth and Tenth Texas Infantry, and the Fifteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-fifth Texas Cavalry regiments, dismounted. The Seventh would remain in this organization to the war’s end.

On November 25–26, 1863, the battle of Missionary Ridge was fought. There, the Seventh Texas helped defend the Confederate right. General Smith and his second-in-command were both wounded, elevating Colonel Granbury to brigade command. After Bragg’s center and left collapsed, the army retreated. Cleburne’s men occupied the post of honor, the rear guard. On November 27, 1863, Cleburne won additional glory at the battle of Ringgold Gap. For their action in the campaign, Cleburne’s Division won the thanks of the Confederate Congress. In addition, on February 29, 1864, Colonel Granbury was promoted to brigadier general and command of the brigade.

Beginning about May 14, 1864, the Army of Tennessee opposed Sherman’s advance on Atlanta. Fighting for over 100 days, the Seventh Texas gained new glory at places like Pickett’s Mill, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Jonesboro, and Lovejoy’s Station. During the campaign, the Seventh Texas lost seventeen killed, seventy-six wounded, and seven men captured or missing.

On November 30, 1864, the Seventh fought at Franklin, Tennessee. Charging, without the benefit of artillery, entrenched Federal positions, the Seventh was basically finished as an effective fighting force, losing at least eighteen killed, twenty-five wounded, and twenty-two captured. Brigadier General Granbury and Major General Cleburne were among the killed. The commander of the Seventh Texas, John William Brown, was captured, and at the end of the day Capt. Edward Thomas Broughton of the Seventh Texas commanded the brigade.

The Confederates pursued the Federal army to the environs of Nashville, where on December 15–16, 1864, two days of battle ensued. The Seventh Texas and the rest of the brigade fought well but were forced back and driven from the field, with the rest of the army, to Franklin. Two officers were wounded, and at least twenty-three members of the Seventh Texas, mostly wounded or sick men left at Franklin, were captured after the battle.

After crossing the Tennessee River, the army’s men received furloughs. At least one-fourth of the Seventh Texas was furloughed. The regiment accompanied the Army of Tennessee into the Carolinas, where on April 26, 1865, they surrendered to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman. The Seventh Texas had two surgeons, six officers, and only fifty-seven men—a mere fraction of those who had served in the regiment.

After the war, many of the men of the Seventh Texas distinguished themselves as business and civic leaders, particularly, William L. Moody and K.M. Van Zandt. The people of Texas memorialized John Gregg, as Gregg County in East Texas is named in his honor. Granbury in Hood County is named in honor Gen. Hiram B. Granbury.

The last known survivor of the Seventh Texas was Charles W. Trice, of Company A. Trice, who had lost an arm at Kennesaw Mountain, died in Lexington, North Carolina, on December 1, 1936.

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qks07
 
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Colonel John Gregg, the 7th Texas Infantry's first commander.

John Gregg, 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 began 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 in July 1861, he resigned and returned to Texas to recruit and organize the 7 Texas Infantry, of which he was made colonel.

In command of the 7th Texas, he fought and was captured at Fort Donelson. Shortly after being exchanged on August 15, 1862, Gregg was promoted to brigadier general and commanded a brigade containing his old 7th Texas Infantry in the Vicksburg Campaign, fighting at Raymond and Jackson, Mississippi.

In the battle of Chickamauga, Gregg was severely wounded when he rode ahead of his own brigade, too close to an enemy skirmish line, and was shot in the neck. Hood's Texas Brigade just so happened to stumble across Gregg lying wounded on the field, helping him and his horse to the rear. After recovering from his wounds, Gregg was given command of the very brigade that had saved him at Chickamauga, replacing Jerome B. Robertson.

He led Hood's Texas Brigade in the Overland Campaign - including the "Lee to the rear" incident at the Wilderness - and into the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign. In the Texas Brigade's last charge of the war at the Battle of Darbytown and New Market Roads on October 7, 1864, Gregg was shot in the neck a second time and died of his wounds. His widow, Mary Garth Gregg, traveled through the lines to retrieve his body. Gregg was laid to rest at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Aberdeen, Mississippi.
 
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Hiram B. Granbury. Captain of Company A, "Waco Guards", later colonel of the 7th Texas Infantry and eventually commander of what would be known as Granbury's Texas Brigade in Patrick Cleburne's Division.

Hiram Bronson Granbury 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 settled in Waco, Texas, 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.

When the war began he recruited the Waco Guards, which became Company A of the 7th Texas Infantry. 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, imprisoned at Fort Warren, and was paroled that same year in an officers' exchange. Upon his release he was promoted to colonel. While in prison, Granbury's wife, Fannie, became ill and upon his release he traveled to visit her. It was found that she was suffering from advanced ovarian cancer and nothing could be done to save her. She was later taken to her father's home in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where she remained until she passed away in March 1863.

Though mourning the death of his wife, Granbury still assumed command of the 7th Texas Infantry. In the Vicksburg Campaign he led the regiment into battle at Raymond and was with Joe Johnston's army a Jackson, Mississippi. On September 19, 1863, he was wounded at Chickamauga, though he recovered by the end of the month. Joining the other Texas regiments that would comprise Granbury's Brigade, the 7th Texas held Tunnel Hill at Missionary Ridge against Sherman's attacks. When Brig. Gen. James A. Smith was wounded Granbury assumed command of the brigade. In the retreat from Chattanooga he received praise from Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne for his command of the brigade in the rear guard action at Ringgold Gap.

Granbury was commissioned brigadier general on February 29, 1864. As part of Cleburne's famous division, Granbury would lead his brigade of Texans into the Atlanta Campaign. Though heavily engaged throughout the entire campaign, Granbury's Brigade is best known for their actions at Pickett's Mill on May 27, 1864, holding off several Federal brigades in a deep, heavily wooded ravine. Among the other major battles they took part in were Kennesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, Bald Hill, Atlanta, and Jonesboro.

In late 1864, with Hood's advance into Tennessee, Granbury and his Texans would unfortunately find themselves in the middle of the bloody assault at Franklin. Positioned along the Columbia Pike, Granbury led his boys on foot. While making their way to the main Federal line of works under a hail of shot, backs bent and hats over their faces, he egged them on, "Forward, men, forward! Never let it be said that Texans lag in the fight!" Just then, a bullet struck him in the cheek, passing through his brain. Granbury threw his hands to his face and sank down to his knees, dead. His Texans ran passed him and over the works, but were forced back by a Federal counter-attack and into the ditches in front of the works.

The following morning his body was laid out on the porch of the McGavock House beside those of generals Cleburne, Otho Strahl, and John Adams. Granbury was first buried near Franklin, Tennessee. His body was later reinterred at the Ashwood Church Cemetery south of Columbia; however, on November 30, 1893, his remains were finally to moved to Granbury, Texas, seat of Hood County, named in his honor.

Granbury's Texas Brigade:
7th Texas Infantry
6th Texas Infantry & 15th Texas Cavalry (dismounted) Consolidated
10th Texas Infantry
17th & 18th Texas Cavalry (dismounted) Consolidated
24th & 25th Texas Cavalry (dismounted) Consolidated

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Another photo of Hiram B. Granbury.
 
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The flag of the 7th Texas Infantry Regiment is currently on display at the Carter House Museum in Franklin.

Edit to add: It is privately owned but is on loan to The Battle Of Franklin Trust for 2 years.
 
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Here's a roster of Company G "Freestone Freemen":
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txfreest/military/company-g-7th.htm

One member was supposedly wounded NINE times throughout the war!

RAKESTRAW, G.A. (38)
born in Lexington, Georgia, on November 7, 1824, was educated at Emory College, Oxford, Georgia. Enlisted on April 12, 1863 at Port Hudson, Louisiana, under Captain Collett; (w) at Raymond, Mississippi, sent to the hospital; (w) Chickamauga; present on all rolls from July-December, 1863, January-April, 1864; paroled at Talladega, Alabama, May 22, 1865. An account of Rakestraw's service is given in Confederate Veteran in 1912: `In response to his country's call in 1862 he enlisted in the army in Company G, 7th Texas Infantry; and although he was wounded nine times, the close of the war found him still at his post, true to every trust. He participated in the following battles: Raymond, Miss., Port Hudson, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Dug Gap (near Dalton, Ga.), Resaca, New Hope Church, Atlanta (two battles), Spring Hill, Tenn., and the Franklin carnage.' He was president of the Fairfield Male Academy before being admitted to the bar in 1860. He died in Navarro County, Texas, on January 4, 1912 (age 87).
 
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Major Khleber Miller Van Zandt
http://library.uta.edu/digitalgallery/items/show/26898

Tennesee-born attorney Khleber Miller Van Zandt (1836-1930), lived in Marshall, Texas, at the beginning of the Civil War. Van Zandt mustered into Confederate service in Marshall as captain of Company D, 7th Texas Infantry. He was taken prisoner at the surrender of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, in February 1862, and was sent to Johnson's Island prison. Exchanged later that year, he returned to his regiment with the rank of major. In poor health, Van Zandt resigned from military service in June 1864 and returned to Marshall where he became the Confederate tax collector. Van Zandt traveled to Fort Worth in August 1865 and found the town of 250 people to be "sad and gloomy." Van Zandt prospered as a dry goods merchant, which led to many other successful business ventures in railroad construction, newspapers, banking, life insurance, and land investments. His civic leadership included long-term service on the Fort Worth school board, as president of the board of First Christian Church, and helping organize the United Confederate Veterans. He was a Democrat and served in the Thirteenth Texas Legislature from 1873-74. Historian Sandra L. Myres wrote, “K. M. Van Zandt was not the hard-shooting, hard-fighting, hard-drinking, hard-talking Texan of myth and legend. Rather, he was one of the quiet men who built homes, plowed the land, engaged in business, promoted towns and cities, opened schools, and enforced law and order.”
https://www.flickr.com/photos/spcouta/9346964976/in/photostream/

More photos and info on Van Zandt here:
http://www.logcabinvillage.org/vanzandtcottage.html
 
I think, and I gladly should note. That @JeffBrooks alternate-history novel Shattered Nation stars a character from a fictionalized version of Company A of the 7th Texas.

His novel really introduced me to the regiment, even though I had started some reading on Granbury's Brigade beforehand, he treated the unit with much respect.
 
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Captain Edward Thomas "Tom" Broughton, Jr.

Edward Thomas "Tom" Broughton Jr. was born April 3, 1834 to Edward Thomas Broughton and Rachel Winborne (Walker) Broughton. During his childhood, he moved with his parents and siblings from Monroe County Alabama to Ouachita County, Arkansas in 1842, then to Jasper County, Texas in 1847. By 1850 he was living in Cherokee County, Texas near Old Larissa. Then about 1852, the Broughtons moved to Smith County, Texas near Old Omen.

Tom married Mary Elizabeth Douglas (daughter of Rev. Alexander Douglas of Smith County, Texas) on June 6, 1856 in Smith County, Tx. The Broughton couple had seven children. Tom supported his family with his law practice which continued to grow steadily in Athens, but in 1859, he and his brother D. W. moved their practice to Kaufman, Texas where they partnered with another attorney, R. H. English.

In 1861 he joined the Confederate Army, enlisting in a group called the Texas Wide Awakes which was organized in Kaufman County, in Captain Jack Wharton's company. The company mustered in Marshall and in October moved to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, where it became part of the 7th Texas Infantry commanded by Col. John Gregg. Broughton became Captain of Company C. The 7th Texas was sent to Fort Donaldson, Tennessee where a four-day fight ended with the Confederate fort surrendering to General U. S. Grant. As a prisoner of war, Tom spent time at Camp, Camp Chase and Johnson's Island near Sandusky, Ohio.

In September of 1862, he was taken to Vicksburg where on the 26th, he was exchanged. After his release, Tom came home briefly to recruit and then in December 1862 he went to Port Hudson, Louisiana where he joined confederate forces to battle Farragut's bombardment of the fort with gunboats. The Battle of Raymond, May 12, 1863, had been an engagement Gregg's Brigade thought they would easily win. However, Confederate scouts had miscalculated the size of the approaching Union forces and instead of a single brigade, found themselves facing the entire Seventeenth Corps, numbering some 12,000 soldiers. Against such odds, there was no way the Confederates could win. After five or more hours of intense fighting, General John Gregg called for a retreat. As Gregg and his men retired from the battlefield, they looked back on what could only be described as a horrific scene. Approximately 335 Confederates, including 25 officers and 300 enlisted men, lay dead or wounded. Incapacitated, the wounded had to watch as their brigade filed from the battlefield, leaving them in the hands of the enemy. By nighttime, as the roll was called, an additional 190 men were reported captured or missing in action. Captain Broughton, 7th Texas Infantry, was last seen leading his men in an attack near Fourteen Mile Creek. Three days later Colonel Granbury, commander of the 7th Texas, reported, "I omitted to state that Captain E. T. Broughton, Company C, was among the last to leave the creek, having animated his men throughout the affair with his presence and bearing. He is among the missing." He had been captured near Fourteen Mile Creek and taken to the Oak Tree Hotel, a makeshift prison in Raymond. Here, he was thrown in the room with another prisoner, Sgt. Patrick Griffin, 10th Tennessee Irish. Broughton and Griffin were no strangers. Both had been captured at Fort Donelson. In a few days, along with other prisoners taken during the Battle of Raymond, Broughton and Griffin were loaded on a passenger boat heading north. Once again, a northern prison awaited them. Griffin managed to escape while docked at Two-Mile Island near Memphis. Eventually, he worked his way back to his regiment. Broughton was not so lucky. He was transported back to Johnson's Island where he was incarcerated for another year. During this time, he fell ill with smallpox, an illness that left him almost blind. It was in this physical condition that he was again exchanged in May of 1864.

On May 8, 1864, Broughton was exchanged and returned to his regiment, which had spent the winter quartered at Tunnel Hill, Georgia. In spite of his weakened condition, Broughton continued to fight through the Battle of Atlanta then moved on with General John Bell Hood's army toward Nashville. On November 30, 1864, after General Hiram B. Granbury was shot from his horse during the Battle of Franklin, Broughton took command of "Granbury's Texas Brigade." Following the Tennesse Campaign, the nearly blind and wounded Broughton suffering from "obstinate chronic conjunctivitis and general debility" resigned his command on January 16, 1865. He was granted leave of absence pending action on his resignation.

Broughton returned home and resumed his law practice. In 1869, he was elected to the Texas state senate, representing the 22nd District. He held the post for two terms and would have successfully run for another term but failing health forced him to the sidelines. Physically, Broughton never recovered from the illnesses he contracted on Johnson's Island. E. T. Broughton passed away in Sherman, Texas, shortly before his 40th birthday. His obituary in The Sherman Courier February 12, 1874, read, "He won his military title by service in the Confederate Army, answering to the first call made by the troops, and remained by his flag he loved until all was lost, save honor."

http://granburystexasbrigade.org/gallery/heroes/officers/broughton.html


Broughton's letters home can be read here: http://www.battleofraymond.org/broughton.htm
 
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A few other links on the 7th Texas Infantry:

Dedication of the Texas monument on the Raymond battlefield:
http://www.battleofraymond.org/history/dedication.htm

Researching the 7th Texas Infantry:
http://www.battleofraymond.org/history/7thtexas.htm

Generals John Gregg and Hiram Granbury:
http://www.battleofraymond.org/history/lovewar.htm

General John Gregg: End of the Story:
http://www.battleofraymond.org/history/gregg.htm

Reported Dead Following the Battle of Raymond, Frank James: A Family Man:
http://www.battleofraymond.org/history/james.htm
 
I posted a color plate image of a member of one of the companies of the 7th Texas Infantry. In the Uniforms and Relic Forum. See the thread Uniform fashions a closer look.
 
I posted a color plate image of a member of one of the companies of the 7th Texas Infantry. In the Uniforms and Relic Forum. See the thread Uniform fashions a closer look.
Was it this one?

Company H "Texas Invincibles" of the 7th Texas is at middle. Left and right are Co. D "Star Rifles" of the 1st Texas.
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Colonel Granbury's report of the Battle of Raymond, MS.

Col. H. B. Granbury, Seventh Texas Infantry.​
IN CAMP NEAR CALHOUN STATION, MISS.​
May 15, 1863.​
CAPTAIN: On Tuesday, the 12th instant, about 9 a.m., I received orders from Brigadier-General [John] Gregg to move my regiment from its position in camp near Raymond, Miss., to a point about 1 mile south of the town, near the fork of the Port Gibson and Utica roads. In half an hour I was in position in a small wood on the left of the road, and about 100 paces from the fork, the enemy's cavalry being then in view in the field southward. I sent Captain [T. B.] Camp, of Company B, with a small detachment of picked men from his company, and Company A (armed with Enfield rifles), to a bridge on the Utica road, some 300 or 400 paces in advance of the position then occupied by the regiment. In a few moments he was engaged with the enemy's cavalry, and he reports 3 unhorsed.​
In the mean time, the enemy had a battery in position about 600 yards in advance of our position, and opened fire on Captain [H. M.] Bledsoe's battery, then being planted in the field, on the right of the road and a little to the rear of my position. Private [D.] Kennedy, of Company H, was wounded in the leg by shrapnel from the enemy's battery. In the course of three-quarters of an hour I moved my regiment, by the general's order, diagonally through the wood to an open field to the left, forming for attack at a position opposite the bridge, at which Captain Camp's skirmishers were engaged. The Third Tennessee were already in line of battle on my left. I advanced skirmishers (leaving Captain Camp's detachment to protect my right flank), under Captains [W. H.] Smith and [J. H.] Collett, the line following at a distance of 100 paces. The ground was open to the top of the hill in front, and from there across a creek bottom to the enemy's second line on the next hill was wooded.​
I should have remarked that, before advancing, Private J. L. Galloway, of Company A, was severely wounded in the shoulder by a grape or canister shot, the enemy's battery having discovered and opened fire on us while forming.​
As my skirmishers neared the wood on the brow of the hill, the enemy commenced firing from their first line of infantry, posted near the base of the hill. I ordered my regiment to advance in double-quick time. The men obeyed with alacrity, and, when in view of the enemy, rushed forward with a shout. So near were the enemy and so impetuous the charge, that my regiment could have blooded a hundred bayonets had the men been supplied with that weapon. As it was, the enemy fled after firing one volley, leaving a number of prisoners, among them Captain Tubbs, Twenty-third Indiana Infantry, who struck at Major [K. M.] Vanzandt with his sword, and was disarmed by Sergeant [J. M. C.] Duncan, of Company K.​
The enemy made a stand of some ten minutes at the creek, when we took position just beyond the run of the creek, using the bluff as a breastwork. After holding this position an hour and a half (during which time the firing was uninterrupted and terrific), I received word from Lieutenant-Colonel [C. J.] Clack, Third Tennessee, that the enemy were outflanking his regiment on the left. I ordered Lieutenant-Colonel [W. L.] Moody to withdraw the right of the regiment, and I went to see Major Vanzandt, to attend to the left and center. Reaching the left, I thought we could still hold the position, and reflecting that General Gregg had told me that the Tenth, Thirtieth, and Fiftieth Tennessee Regiments were to attack the enemy's right, I dispatched a runner to Lieutenant-Colonel Moody, with an order to hold his position. The messenger was killed before reaching Colonel Moody, and he, following the original order, withdrew about three companies from the right. Upon reaching the open field to the rear, he rallied these, with some stragglers from other regiments, and seeing the Tenth Tennessee going into action on the left, joined them with the remainder of the regiment. I held the position on the bluff of the creek until the men had exhausted their own ammunition and emptied the cartridge-boxes of the dead of the enemy and of our own killed and wounded; besides, the Third Tennessee having previously withdrawn, the enemy had doubled round my left flank, and were pouring a murderous enfilading fire along my already shattered ranks. I then ordered a retreat.​
Captain [W. H.] Smith (Company F), after acting with marked gallantry, fell, pierced with three balls. Captain [J. W.] Brown was wounded in the head and abdomen, but borne from the field and saved. Captain [J. H.] Collett (Company G) was wounded by a grape-shot. Captain [O. P.] Forrest (Company H) fell in the retreat. I do not know the nature of his injury. Lieutenants [J. C.] Kidd (Company A), [J. W.] Taylor (Company D), and [A. H.] White (Company I), were all wounded. Lieutenants [J. D.] Miles (Company G) and [T. S.] Townsend (Company E) were slightly wounded. Lieutenants [W. A.] Collier and [J. N.] Monin (Company K) were at the creek when the retreat was ordered. They are among the missing. All these officers were in the front of the fight, and behaved with the soldier's best courage.​
The cool bravery of Lieutenant-Colonel Moody, on the right, and Major Vanzandt, on the left, sustained the regiment for so long a time in this unequal combat.​
The above statement of facts will show that all the officers of the line and the men did their whole duty.​
My loss in killed is known to be so many as 22; in wounded, 66, and missing, 70.​
The woods were very thick, and it is probable that many of the missing are either killed or wounded. My judgment is that there were as many as 30 or 40 of the enemy's killed from the edge of the wood to the creek and in the run of the creek. What their loss was beyond the creek, where we did the greatest execution and fought the longest, is a matter of conjecture.​
My regiment went into action with an aggregate of 306. Total loss in killed, wounded, and missing, 158.​
I omitted to state that Captain [E. T.] Broughton, Company C, was among the last to leave the creek, having animated his men throughout the affair with his presence and bearing. He is among the missing.​
I send herewith a memorandum in detail of the casualties as far as known.​
I have the honor to be, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant,​
H. B. GRANBURY,​
Colonel Seventh Regiment Texas Infantry.​


A few other accounts of the battle can be read here: http://www.battleofraymond.org/diaries.htm


Lt. Henry O. Dwight of the 20th Ohio left a particularly good account. In one excerpt he says:

"It was the 7th Texas which had struck us, a regiment which had never been beaten in any fight. We soon found that they didn't scare worth a cent. They kept trying to pass through our fire, jumping up, pushing forward a step, and then falling back into the same place, just as you may see a lot of dead leaves in a gale of wind, eddying to and fro under a bank, often rising up as if to fly away, but never able to advance a peg. It was a question of life or death with us to hold them, for we knew very well that we would go to Libby, those that were left of us—if we could not stand against the scorching fire which beat into our faces in that first hour."


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