Background
Gregg was born on September 28, 1828 in Lawrence County, Alabama, the son of Nathan and Sarah (Pearsall) Gregg.
1862
Gregg, c. 1862
Harrison Plaza, official entrance to the University of North Alabama. In the background is Bibb Graves Hall, the University's main administrative building.
Bust of John Gregg, Gregg County Courthouse, Longview, Texas
congressman General military politician
Gregg was born on September 28, 1828 in Lawrence County, Alabama, the son of Nathan and Sarah (Pearsall) Gregg.
Gregg graduated from LaGrange College (now the University of North Alabama) in 1847, where he was subsequently employed as a professor of mathematics. He later studied law in Tuscumbia, Alabama.
Gregg taught school and studied law in Tuscumbia, Alabama, before moving to Fairfield, Freestone County, Texas, in 1851.
Gregg, an ardent secessionist, was a circuit court judge in Texas in 1855. He was a member of the Texas secession convention, voted for secession, and was elected to the provisional Confederate Congress at Montgomery. Gregg left Congress in late 1861 and raised an infantry regiment. As lieutenant colonel of the 7th Texas Regiment, he was taken prisoner at Fort Donelson in February 1862. Exchanged after months in prison, he was promoted to brigadier general on August 29, 1862.
During the Vicksburg campaign of 1863, he fought Grant at Raymond and Jackson, Mississippi, and he routed the Union General Rosecrans at Chickamauga. He served under John B. Hood in all the Virginia campaigns of 1864 and was a hero of the Wilderness. Gregg was killed near Richmond on October 7, 1864.
Gregg was first married to Mollie Winston, and when she died, he married Mary Frances Garth in 1855. Both marriages were childless.