Elkanah Greer

Elkanah Brackin (or Bracken) Greer (October 11, 1825 – March 25, 1877) was an antebellum cotton planter, merchant, and then a general in the Confederate States Army who served in the Western Theater of the American Civil War.
Biography.
Greer was born in Paris, Tennessee. He moved to Mississippi as a young man and took part in the Mexican–American War as a member of the 1st Mississippi Rifles, whose colonel was future Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He participated in the battles of Monterrey and Buena Vista.
In 1848, Greer moved to Marshall, Texas, where he established himself as a planter and merchant, and for a time was a partner in a law firm. Three years later, he returned to Tennessee to marry a local girl named Anna Holcombe (whose famous sister Lucy Petway Holcombe married Francis Wilkinson Pickens, and became known during the Civil War as the "Queen of the Confederacy"). Elkanah and Anna had five children. He became the grand commander of the secretive [[Knights of the Golden Circle]] organization in 1859.
With the [[secession]] of [[Texas in the American Civil War|Texas]], Greer enlisted in the army and was commissioned as the first [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] of the newly formed the South Kansas-Texas Cavalry (later known as the [[3rd Texas Cavalry]]) in July 1861. After training and equipping his men, he led the [[regiment]] into combat at the battles of [[Battle of Wilson's Creek|Wilson's Creek]] and [[Battle of Pea Ridge|Elkhorn Tavern]] in Arkansas. During the latter engagement, Greer was slightly wounded in the arm.
In October 1862, he was promoted to the rank of [[Brigadier General (CSA)|brigadier general]] and appointed as chief of the conscription bureau for the [[Trans-Mississippi]] region. Among his many responsibilities was trying to reconcile the laws of the central Confederate government with those of the State of Texas.
In 1864, faced with a growing manpower shortage, the Confederacy formed a Reserve Corps department, and Greer commanded it for a time.
After the war, he resumed his civilian career as a planter and merchant. He died during a visit with his sister in [[DeValls Bluff, Arkansas]], on March 25, 1877.
Greer is buried in [[Elmwood Cemetery (Memphis, Tennessee)|Elmwood Cemetery]] in [[Memphis, Tennessee]].
External links.
[[Category:1825 births]]
[[Category:1877 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Paris, Tennessee]]
[[Category:Confederate States Army brigadier generals]]
[[Category:People of Tennessee in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:People of Texas in the American Civil War]]
[[Category:American military personnel of the Mexican–American War]]
[[Category:Texas lawyers]]
[[Category:American planters]]
[[Category:19th-century American lawyers]]
[[Category:Knights of the Golden Circle]]