Savage Gray Wall

Brigadier General John Gregg

Confederate Brigadier General John R. Gregg faced an insurmountable task.  With only a single brigade, he was ordered to patrol the approaches to Jackson, the state capital of Mississippi, and prevent the severing of the main supply line to Vicksburg, the Confederacy’s vital river port on the Mississippi.  Major General Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee had landed south of Vicksburg at Bruinsburg, the starting point of Grant’s campaign to bypass Vicksburg’s river defenses and take the city from the east.  Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton, the commander of Confederate forces in Mississippi, tried to fend off Grant at Port Gibson but was swatted aside by superior numbers.  Too make matters worse, a successful cavalry raid, led by Colonel Benjamin H. Grierson, diverted his attention from Grant’s landing, leaving his men widely dispersed to guard essential rail lines and too far to gather them for an effective defense.  Lacking sufficient cavalry, Pemberton was in the dark.  Numbering 12,000, the XVII Corps of Grant’s army, under Major General James B. McPherson, was marching toward the town of Raymond, several miles southwest of Jackson.  Based on initial reports he received from his scouts, Gregg was mistakenly convinced the corps marching toward him was a single smaller Union brigade.  That brigade, however, outnumbered him by almost three to one. 

Born on September 28, 1828, in Lawrence County, Alabama, John Gregg was destined to command.  Possessing a striking domed forehead, piercing eyes and a rough cut beard, Gregg was the stereotypical frontier warrior you respected on a battlefield.  As a lawyer in Freestone County, Texas, he was a leader in local affairs, ran a successful farm, served as a district judge, and was elected to the Texas Secession Convention.  After briefly serving in the provisional Confederate congress, he returned home to organize an infantry regiment.  The 7th Texas consisted of 746 men from ten East Texas counties.  Among his officers was a major who would later prove to be one of the best during the war - Hiram Granbury.  The 7th saw its first action at Fort Donelson where it was forced to surrender.  Disease decimated the 7th during its time in Northern prisons.  Gregg, along with the other senior officers at Fort Donelson, was imprisoned at Fort Warren in Boston Harbor.  His fiercely devoted wife, Mary, stayed with him.  He was exchanged after almost a year in captivity.  Promoted to Brigadier General, Gregg was given command of a brigade consisting of the 7th Texas, a light Missouri artillery battery and five Tennessee regiments.  Colonel Granbury now commanded the 7th.  Gregg’s brigade served in Vicksburg during the repulse of Sherman at Chickasaw Bluffs.  It was later transferred downriver to bolster the defense of Port Hudson in Louisiana.  Desperate for troops to stop Grant, Pemberton ordered Gregg to Raymond. 

To assist Gregg, Pemberton ordered Colonel Wirt Adams’ cavalry regiment to Raymond as well.   Adams regrettably misunderstood Pemberton’s order.  Instead of providing all of his cavalry to Gregg, Adams provided only the cavalrymen he had on hand at Raymond - a grand total of five.   Teenage scouts from the state militia were utilized but were woefully inexperienced in assessing troop strengths.  Unbeknownst to Gregg, he was facing a blue tidal wave.      

Confident in his ignorance, Gregg deployed his brigade just south of Raymond near Fourteen Mile Creek.  The 7th Texas was positioned on either side of the Utica Road.  The 3rd Tennessee was to the left of the 7th.  Gregg’s battle plan was to hit the Union center with the 7th Texas and 3rd Tennessee.  Captain Hiram Bledsoe’s Missouri battery was positioned behind them to provide artillery support.  The rest of the Tennessee regiments would attack McPherson’s right flank from the east.  The plan was sound if Gregg was taking on a single brigade or less; he hoped to bag the lot of them. 

Fortunately, McPherson was just as initially in the dark as Gregg.   A tangled mass of woods concealed Confederate troop numbers and made it difficult to march offroad to scout ahead.  On May 12, 1863, McPherson approached Raymond from the Utica Road.  After the 23rd Indiana Regiment crossed Fourteen Mile Creek, Bledsoe’s three-gun battery opened fire.  In full rebel yell mode, Texans and Tennesseans crashed into them.  Rifle volleys from the 7th cut down scores of the 20th Ohio at point blank range.  One Federal soldier noticed a Texas officer who stood more than ten yards away, calmly smoking his pipe, and emptying his revolver into the Union line.  The gunfire was so intense, the Confederates ran out of ammo and had to scavenge for cartridges from the dead and wounded.  Hand to hand combat ensued.  Lacking bayonets, the Texans used their rifle muskets as clubs.  Granbury later wrote:

“As my skirmishes neared the woods 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 bloodied a hundred bayonets had the men been supplied with that weapon.”

The 23rd Indiana and 20th Ohio fell back behind the creek.  Fortunately for them, the 8th Michigan Battery stopped the rebels in their tracks.   Gregg ordered his left flank to advance and take out that battery.  On the Confederate left, the 50th Tennessee’s commander, Lt. Colonel Thomas W. Beaumont, beheld a startling sight from his hilltop position, “On reconnoitering the position,” he recalled.  “I found the battery was supported by a line of infantry, which extended as far as I could see toward our right, their right resting in the woods which we were standing.”  In the face of such huge numbers, Gregg was under great risk of being overwhelmed before he could retreat.   Communication to his field officers had to be by courier, extremely difficult because of the dense, smoke-filled woods.   As a result, Gregg’s regiments would often find themselves isolated and fighting on their own. 

Unaware of the numbers they faced, the 10th/30th Consolidated Tennessee Regiment launched a daring infantry charge against the Union left flank, driving it back for six hundred yards.  After the flag bearer for the 7th Missouri Regiment was shot down, the Union troops began to cave but received timely reinforcement.  The best field officer in the XVII Corps, Major General John “Blackjack” Logan, rallied fleeing Union troops and sent them back into action.  The Tennesseans fell back to their original position then lied down on the ground to become less of a target.  During the battle, Gregg was informed through cavalry scouts and Union prisoners of the actual size of his adversary.  Outnumbered, outflanked and short of ammo, Gregg had little choice but to order a gradual withdrawal towards Jackson, leaving Raymond to the Yankees.  Incredibly, the 7th Texas held off an entire Union division, buying precious minutes for Gregg’s   withdrawal.  Having lost one of its cannons after the barrel burst, Bledsoe’s battery, along with reserve support from the 41st Tennessee, further slowed the Union advance.

After seven hours of the most savage fighting imaginable, Gregg’s casualty figures numbered 820.  Union figures were less at 450.  The Texans and Tennesseans had fought nobly against overwhelming odds.  Raymond’s courthouse and churches became hospitals for both sides.  Gregg’s defensive stand had a profound effect on Grant; he would move on Jackson instead of proceeding northeast toward Vicksburg.  By taking Mississippi’s capital, he would remove any Confederate forces in his rear while he advanced toward his main objective.  Gregg joined with General Joseph Johnston’s 6,000 troops in Jackson.  Displaying a shocking lack of confidence and ineptitude, Johnston ordered a disastrous withdrawal.  On May 14, Jackson fell to Grant’s troops.  Vicksburg fell seven weeks later.  Destined for greater things, Gregg later commanded the famed Texas Brigade attached to Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.