GEORGE WASHINGTON GRISSOM

George was 25 when he left his wife and 5 year old daughter Haseltine to enlist in the Confederate Army on March 15,1862 in Bellview, Texas. Printed on his muster records was: ‘The 14th, Co.D’, also known as Clark's Regiment Texas Infantry, organized May 3,1862, with nine companies, ‘A’ through ‘I’, which had previously been mustered into the service of the Confederate States on various dates to serve twelve months. It was reorganized under the Conscript Act June 28, 1862.  Company ‘L’, 18th Regiment Texas Infantry, was transferred to Clark's regiment sometime between July 12 and October 31, 1862, and became (1st) Company ‘K’ under Gen. Kirby Smith in the ‘Red River Campaign’ along with ‘Walker’s Texas Division’ in the battle of ‘Jenkins Ferry’ on the Sabine River in Arkansas the April 29-30, 1862. He was wounded in the “Second Battle of Bull Run’ or, as called by the Confederacy the ‘Battle of Manassas’, Virginia. One of his last engagements was near his home in the Mansfield battle on the Texas Louisiana border April 9, 1864. In the Texas Confederate Soldiers Pension records 23 Sep 1899 his application was turned down because he had one good arm. His granddaughter Alice Vivian (Divers) Grissom wrote about him in ‘Reminiscence’ her memories of growing up in Texas.

 

“ I remember hearing the family talking about maternal grandfather Hall and paternal grandfather Grissom who both had fought on the side of the South in the Civil War. Grandfather Grissom lost an arm in the battle of ‘Bull Run’ He told of retreating across a stream with a man who lost a leg, and they both helped each other. He said he remembered the water flowing red with their blood as they crossed over. The grandchildren would get on his lap and try to catch the stump of his arm while he wiggled it around. Grandfather was Irish and his wife French.”