GRANBURY, HIRAM BRONSON

Hiram Bronson Granbury (1831–1864)
Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photographs,
DeGolyer Library, Central University Libraries,
Southern Methodist University

GRANBURY, HIRAM BRONSON (1831–1864). 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 Ringold 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 been debated. His descendents insist that it is Granberry, as is written on his gravestone, but most books and historians continue to spell it Granbury. See also GRANBURY'S TEXAS BRIGADE.