CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY:  JAMES GARRITY - Navarro County, TX

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Submitted by Peggy Brannon - peggybrannon@hotmail.com
17 November 2001
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson

JAMES GARRITY

James Garrity. of Corsicana, was born in Dublin, Ireland, April 3, 1842. His 
earlier years were passed in Covington, Kentucky, and in New Orleans; and in 
the schools of the latter he received his education. At the first call for 
volunteers he entered the Confederate army, enlisting May 4th, 1861, in a 
local company of cadets which soon after became a part of the 5th Louisiana 
of the Army of Northern Virginia. Entering as a private he was promoted for 
gallant and heroic service to be captain and commanded his company in the 
many bloody engagements fought by the Army of Northern Virginia, being 
wounded at Sharpsburg, Malvern Hill and Fisherville. Upon the closing of the 
war he engaged for a year in the cotton business in New Orleans, and then in 
the fall of 1866 removed to Texas and took up the mercantile and banking 
business. In 1871 he sold his interest in the banking business of Adams, 
Leonard & Co. at Calvert, and removing to Corsicana founded the first bank 
(Garrity & Huey) in Navarro county. In 1886 he and his partner, Mr. Joseph 
Huey, established the First National Bank, and from that day to this Capt. 
Garrity has been its president. He has been a promoter and stockholder in 
nearly all the industries and enterprises that have made Corsicana. The 
local company in the Texas National Guard is named in his honor the "Garrity 
Rifles" and served in the U. S. Volunteers during the Spanish American war. 
Capt. Garrity was married at Calvert, June 15 1870 to Miss Emma Moore, a 
niece of Governor Moore of Alabama. She died Feb. 17, 1893, mourned by every 
one who knew her. Capt Garrity is still in the active management of his bank 
and large oil and realty holdings, and is justly esteemed one of the great 
financiers of Texas.