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GENERAL
HIRAM BRONSON GRANBURY Born
in 1831 - Killed in Action at Franklin, Tennessee 1864
Text and photos
by Sam Fenstermacher |
| | General
Hiram Bronson Granberry surveying the square in Granbury
Photo Courtesy Sam
Fenstermacher |
| While
the descendents of the General spell the family name Granberry and it appears
as Granberry on his tombstone, the town and his statue on the courthouse lawn
are spelled Granbury as are most historical references to the man. |
| | The
inscription on the base
Photo Courtesy Sam Fenstermacher |
The
son of a Mississippi Baptist minister, Hiram moved near Waco
in the 1850s where he became a lawyer and served as chief justice of McLennan
County. During the Civil War Granberry recruited troops to serve in the Waco Guards,
a unit in General Gregg's brigade.
As a Major, Granberry was captured
by Union troops in February of 1862. After an officers' exchange that same year,
he was promoted to Colonel upon his return to duty. Granberry saw action in Louisiana
and Mississippi was wounded at Chickamauga and saw further action at Missionary
Ridge. He eventually commanded his own brigade and became Brigadier General in
early 1864. He served in Cleburne's division of Gen. Johnston's Army of Tennessee
and led his troops in General John B. Hood's invasion of Tennessee. It was at
the battle of Franklin in late1864 that Granberry was killed in action. First
buried near where he fell, his body was reinterred near Columbia, Tennessee and
in 1893, twenty-eight years after the end of the war, his remains were brought
to the Texas city named in his honor. |
| | | Two
views of the statue showing the inscription.
Photos
Courtesy Sam Fenstermacher |
Granbury
is the county seat of Hood County -named after Granberry's commanding officer.
Hood County sits in a cluster of Texas counties named after Confederate generals
Cleburne, Gregg, and Johnson.
The statue on the courthouse
lawn was imported from Italy while the base was furnished by Waxahachie
monumentalist James Youngblood. It was erected in 1913. |
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