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Granbury's Texas Brigade

By: Palmer Bradley

Type: General Entry

Published: 1976

Updated: September 1, 1995

Granbury's Texas Brigade was formed in November 1863 just before the battle of Missionary Ridge. It was composed of the Seventh Texas Infantry, the Sixth, Tenth, and Fifteenth Texas Infantry (consolidated), and the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-fifth Texas Dismounted Cavalry (consolidated) as a part of Maj. Gen. Pat Cleburne's division, with Brig. Gen. James Argyle Smith as its commanding officer. At Missionary Ridge the brigade quickly established a record for consistent valor. General Smith was wounded there and was succeeded in command by Col. Hiram Bronson Granbury of the Seventh Texas. The brigade took its name from Granbury, who was subsequently promoted to brigadier general. In the ensuing retreat of the Army of Tennessee from Missionary Ridge, Cleburne's division, including Granbury's brigade, probably saved the army by its rearguard stand at Ringold Gap, for which it received the thanks of the Confederate Congress. The brigade fought in Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army throughout the entire Atlanta campaign, participating in countless skirmishes and the battles of Resaca, New Hope Church, Kenesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, and Jonesboro. In General Cleburne's official report on New Hope Church he said "The piles of dead on this front was but a silent eulogy upon Granbury and his noble Texans." After the close of the Atlanta campaign the brigade participated in Gen. John B. Hood's disastrous invasion of Tennessee. There the brigade was decimated in November 1864 at the battle of Franklin, during which both Granbury and Cleburne were killed in action. At the succeeding battle of Nashville, the brigade was commanded by a colonel. What was left of it joined the remnants of the Army of Tennessee in North Carolina in the spring of 1865 and surrendered at Greensboro in April, being there commanded by Brig. Gen. D. C. Govan. Granbury's Texas Brigade, though only organized as late as November 1863, established a reputation for stark fighting ability unsurpassed by any brigade in the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

TSHA is a proud affiliate of University of Texas at Austin
William Heartsill, Fourteen Hundred and 91 Days in the Confederate Army (Marshall, Texas, 1876; rpt., Wilmington, North Carolina: Broadfoot, 1987). James M. McCaffrey, This Band of Heroes (Austin: Eakin Press, 1985). Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. Ezra J. Warner, Generals in Gray (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959). The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Dudley Goodall Wooten, ed., A Comprehensive History of Texas (2 vols., Dallas: Scarff, 1898; rpt., Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1986).

Time Periods:

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.

Palmer Bradley, “Granbury's Texas Brigade,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed September 17, 2024, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/granburys-texas-brigade.

Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

TID: QKG02

Original Publication Date:
1976
Most Recent Revision Date:
September 1, 1995

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