CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY: ALEXANDER GREGG - Galveston, TX

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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
3 October 2001
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson, p. 133-134

ALEXANDER GREGG.

Alexander Gregg, of Galveston, the first Protestant Epis­copal Bishop 
of Texas, was born in Dariington District, S.C., Oct. 8, 1819. He was 
graduated from South Carolina College in 1838 with the highest honors, 
and afterward studied law. He was admitted to the bar and practiced at 
Cheraw, but gave up that profession for the church, becoming a 
candidate for holy orders. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Gadsden, 
June 10, 1846, and his ordination was completed in St. Phillips church, 
Charleston, by the same bishop, Dec. 19,1847. He became rector of St. 
David's parish in Cheraw, where he remained until he was elected Bishop 
of Texas in 1859. He was consecrated in the Monumental church, Richmond, 
Va,, on October 13, and entered upon his extensive field of labor at 
once, presiding over the church throughout the state until 1874, when 
his diocese was divided, two missionary jurisdic­tions being set off for
northern and western Texas, while he was assigned to the southern and 
eastern parts of the state. Bishop Gregg was loyal to the Confederacy. 
By the outbreak of the war in 1861, the members of his church found 
themselves in a position analagous to that of the colonial 
Episcopalians at the time of the Revolution in 1776. His was one of 
the eleven dioceses, each headed by its bishop, that united to form the 
Protestant Episcopal Church of the Confederate States. Bishop Polk, of 
Louisiana, who had had a West Point educa­tion, was made a general, 
assumed command of an army corps which he led at Shiloh and Corinth, 
and was killed by a cannon ball from the Federal guns at Pine Mountain 
in l864. Among other representatives of the Episcopal Church in the 
Confederacy were President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Rohert E. Lee.
For thirty-four years Bishop Gregg by his untiring energy and 
scholarly preaching, did much to spread the teachings of Christianity 
and to lay the foundation for the present extensive work of the church 
in Texas. He was the author of a "History of Old Cheraw," describing 
the Indian tribes in the valley of the Pedee, South Carolina, the first 
white settlements, the organization of St. David's parish and the 
Revolutionary history of that region.  He also wrote a "Brief Sketch of
the Protestant Episcopal Church in Texas," besides making various 
contributions to church literature. The degree of D. D. was conferred 
upon him by South Carolina College in 1859, and by the University of
the South a few years later.  His death occurred at his home in 
Galveston, July 11, 1893.