CONFEDERATE BIOGRAPHY: ROBERT F. McKNIGHT - Smith County, TX

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Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net
28 August 2001
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TEXANS WHO WORE THE GRAY by Sid S. Johnson

ROBERT F. McKNIGHT.

Robert Felix McKnight, born in Rutherford County, Tenn., Feb. 2nd, 1845. 
Removed to Texas in 1876 and settled in Cherokee County, but a few 
years later moved to Smith County, where he now resides, He entered the 
Confederate service at Shelbyville, Tenn., and joined Capt. Settles 
com­pany, then and  afterwards Gen. Bedford Forrest's escort. 
Participated in the battles of Thompson Station, Chicka­mauga, Prices 
Cross Roads.  His company was always near Gen. Forrest and everybody 
knows that great cavalry leader was at all times in the thickest of the 
fight.  Young McKnight was captured on a scout, on the 4th day of Dec. 
1864 on the Nashville and Chattanooga railroad and carried to Camp 
Chase, Ohio, as a prisoner of war.  He was the son of Robert and 
Elizabeth McKnight who were early residents of the state of Tennee­see.  
On January 17th, 1877, he married Miss Mattie C. Hairgrove, a daughter 
of an early pioneer of East Texas. A good Confederate soldier makes a 
good citizen and Mr. McKnight comes up to that standard with a full 
measure. Postoffice Tyler, Texas.