Home Town of Texas Confederate General Elkanah Greer
Marshall, Harrison County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1825-1877) Born Tennessee. Fought Mexican War. Came to Texas 1848. Commissioned colonel and raised 3rd Texas Cavalry. Attached to Ross' Texas Brigade. Fought at Wilson's Creek, Mo. Led brigade, division in Pea Ridge, Ark. Battle. Resigned commission but was recalled as brigadier general October 1862. Chief Conscription Bureau for Confederacy west of Mississippi 1863. Worked to reconcile Confederate and Texas draft laws. Commanded Texas Reserved Corps in 1864-65 keeping them in readiness to withstand threatened Union coastal invasion. Organized slave labor to build roads, fortifications for state defense. Buried Memphis, Tenn. Knights of the Golden Circle.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Elkanah Greer came to Texas in 1848 after fighting in the Mexican War, settled at Marshall, and at the outbreak of the Civil War raised and led the 3rd Texas Cavalry. Recalled as a brigadier general in 1862, he ran the Confederacy's conscription bureau west of the Mississippi and organized labor and reserves to defend the Texas coast. A member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, he died in 1877 and is buried in Memphis.
Why it matters
Greer's career links Marshall to the broader Confederate war effort in the Trans-Mississippi and to the contested politics of conscription and secessionist organizing in Texas.
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Related people
- · Elkanah Greer
Related events
- · Battle of Wilson's Creek
- · Battle of Pea Ridge
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Marshall Cemetery
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