Oddfellows Rest Cemetery Photos

Photographed and Contributed by Jackie Rhodes

Brigadier General John Gregg. A native of Alabama, John Gregg (1828-1884) moved to Texas where he served as a member of that state's secession convention and later in the Provisional Confederate Congress. Elected colonel of the 7th Texas Infantry, Gregg was promoted to Brigadier General in August 1862. During the Vicksburg Campaign, Gregg was in command of the forces of the Battle of Raymond on May 12, 1863. Gregg's brigade was transferred to Longstreet's Corps and fought at Chickamauga, where he was wounded on September 19, 1863. Upon recovery, he assumed command of Hood's Texas Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia. On May 5, 1864 at the Battle of the Wilderness, Gregg's Brigade, at the head of Longstreet's Corps, arrived in time to blunt a major Union assault that had collapesed A. P. Hill's Corps on the right flank. Gregg's counterattack saved the army from destruction. During this action, General Robert E. Lee appeared to be personally leading the Texans into battle. With Lee in obvious danger, the cry "Lee to the rear!" went through the brigade, an incident now memorialized at the Wilderness battlefield. Gregg was killed on October 7, 1864, and buried here on March 17, 1865.

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