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ELKANAH BRACKIN GREER
1825 – 1877
Elkanah Bracklin Greer was born at Paris, Tennessee, October 11, 1825. He moved to Mississippi as a young man and took part in the Mexican War as a member of the 1st Mississippi Rifles, whose colonel was Jefferson Davis. Ina848 he moved to Marshall, Texas, where he established himself as a planter and merchant, and became grand commander of the Knights of the Golden Circle in 1859.
Commissioned colonel of the 3rd Texas Cavalry in July 1861, his first engagement was at Wilson’s Creek or Elkhorn Tavern in Missouri the following month where he was slightly wounded. Greer was promoted brigadier general on October 8, 1862 and was soon appointed chief of the Trans-Mississippi conscription bureau. He worked at it courageously, but not all too successfully in trying to reconcile the laws of the CSA government in Richmond with those of the State of Texas. During 1864 he commanded the reserve forces of the Department. After the war he continued to live in Marshall, and died on a visit with his sister in DeVall’s Bluff, Arkansas. March 25, 1877. He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis, Tennessee.
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