CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY:  TOM LUBBOCK

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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
11 April 2002 
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson - Page 322

TOM LUBBOCK. 

Mrs. Governor Lubbock read the following paper to Wm. B. Travis 
Chapter U. D. C. at Austin, Tex. This extract concerns the gallant 
Col. Tom Lubbock of the Terry Rangers: 

"Tom Lubbock, a 17-year-old boy, who was the first volunteer in the 
New Orleans Grays, the first company from the outside that came to 
the rescue of bleeding Texas, has a county named for him, but it is 
called Lubbock, and not Tom Lubbock, so he seldom gets the honor due 
him there.  I had to explain a few days ago to one of the smartest men 
in the State that Tom Lubbock belonged to the heroic little band of 
volunteers that captured San Antonio de Bexar. So, to refresh our 
memory, I'll again quote from "Six Decades in Texas," this boy's 
account of the affair of his brother, the author of this book.  "Will, 
you have heard about our taking Bexar. When Colonel Ben Milam came 
into camp he called for volunteers to follow him into Bexar. The Grays 
were the first to volunteer, and finally about three hundred came 
forward. We entered the suburbs of Bexar a little before 8 on 
December 5, in two columns, one commanded by Colonel Milam and the 
other by Colonel Frank Johnson. Major Morris, our first captain, went 
with Colonel Milam. The Grays, then commanded by Captain W. G. Cork, 
fell in with him under Johnson. We had to fight our way from house to 
house. Milam was killed on the second day. Major Morris became then 
second in command under Colonel Frank Johnson, who had been chosen 
leader in place of Milam. We steadily advanced towards the plaza, 
firing from housetops and picking our way with crow bars and axes 
through the walls of the houses. The Grays led the advance to the 
plaza, and on the fourth night we forced an entrance to the priest's 
house, driving out the Mexicans. This decided the fight, as the next 
morning showed us the plaza abandoned, the enemy having retreated to 
the Alamo Mission across the river. General Cos, without any more 
fighting, surrendered his army of about l100 Mexicans to not more 
than 300 Texans. That was a pretty good fight, wasn't it?" 

Always a volunteer, when Texas needed a defender, Tom Lubbock rushed 
to meet the invader in '60. and in '62 he died at the home of Mrs. 
Felecia Grundy Porter, at Nashville, Tenn., just as he had been 
elected Colonel of the Terry Rangers. Previously he was Lieutenant 
Colonel of that famous regiment.