The Writings of Sam Houston, Volume VIII

WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860

80

PROCLAMATION OF AN ELECTION, JUNE 15, 1860t [To fill vacancies caused by resignation of Judge Peter W. Gray 2 and Judge John Gregg 3 and by the death· of Judge M. P. Norton. 1 ]

1 Executive Reco1·ds, 1859-1861, p. 72, Texas State Library. 2 For Judge Peter W. Gray, see Volume VI, 298.

8 John Gregg (September 28, 1828-October 7, 1864) was born in Law- rence County, Alabama. He was educated in the celebrated school of Pro- fessor Tutwiler, from which he graduated in 1847. For the next three years he was employed in this same school as professor of languages, study- ing law in his leisure hours. In 1851, he studied law in the office of Judge Townes at Tuscumbia, and was admitted to the bar in the latter months of the same year. He immediately came to Texas upon receiving his law license, and settled at Fairfield, in Freestone County. After practicing law for four years, he was elected District Judge of his home district, and was holding that position in 1860 when he gave it up to devote his whole time to the secession movement. In 1861, he was elected a delegate to th~ Seces- sion Convention and later was chosen delegate to the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy, which held its sessions at Montgomery. He went with that body when it moved to Richmond, Virginia. Immediately after the battle of Manassas, July 21, 1861, he resigned his position with the Congress, and returned to Texas. He organized the Seventh Regiment of Texas Volunteers, of which he was made colonel. This command went to Kentucky, and he was captured at Fort Donelson. Upon being exchanged, he returned to service in the Confederacy, and was soon promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. He then joined the army in Mississippi and participated in most of the engagements of the western army until the battle of Chickamauga. He was then transferred to the army of Virginia and placed in command of Hood's Brigade and was killed near Fort Har- rison on the Charles City road. See Oran M. Roberts in C. E. ·Evans, The Confederate Milita111 History, XI, 234-236; Fulmore, The History cnul Geography of Texas as Told in County Nwmes, 247; Sidney Smith, Texans Who Wore the Gray, 107-108; Biographical Encyclopedia of Texas (1880), p. 105. •Judge M. P. Norton. See Volume IV, p. 305.

To CLEMENT R. J oHNs 1 Executive Department, Austin, June 20, 1860.

Hon. C.R. Johns, Comptroller, Sir: Replying to your letter of this ·morning, the Executive would say that you will hand over all the muster and pay rolls upon which any payments are yet to be made, to the pay master of the State, who will examine and compare them with the laws of the State governing the same, and upon his certificate of in- debtedness to each officer and soldier, you will issue your interest

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