Robert Franklin Bunting | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
May 9, 1828 Hookstown, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died |
September 19, 1891 Gallatin, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Parents |
John Bunting Margaret Moody |
| Spouse |
Nina Ella Doxey Chrissinda Sharpe Craig |
| Children | 6 |
| Occupation | Clergyman |
Robert Franklin Bunting (1828–1891) was an American Presbyterian minister and Confederate chaplain.
Early life[]
Robert Franklin Bunting was born on May 9, 1828 in Hookstown, Pennsylvania.[1][2][3] His father was John Bunting and his mother, Margaret Moody.[2] One of his maternal uncles was a Presbyterian minister, while another one was a Presbyterian elder.[1] His mother encouraged him to become a Presbyterian minister.[4]
Bunting graduated from Washington College in 1849.[4] While in college, he joined the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.[2] He received a master of arts degree from Princeton University, and a bachelor of divinity degree from the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1852.[2][4] He later received a doctor of divinity degree from Hampden–Sydney College in 1867.[2]
Career[]
Bunting became a Presbyterian missionary in Texas in 1852.[2] He planted churches in La Grange, Texas, Columbus, Texas, and Round Top, Texas.[2][3] He planted the First Presbyterian Church of San Antonio in San Antonio, Texas in 1856,[3] and served as its minister until 1861.[4]
Bunting was a co-founder of the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America.[2][5] During the American Civil War of 1861-1865, he served as a chaplain in the Terry's Texas Rangers of the Confederate States Army.[2][3][5] Bunting believed the Texas army would win against Union troops because it had been victorious against the Mexican republic in the Texas Revolution.[6] When two colonels died, he explained that God had wanted to warn the soldiers about idolatry, suggesting they should only look up to God.[7] During the war, Bunting was also a war correspondent to two newspapers,[3] the Houston-based Daily Telegraph and the Tri-Weekly Telegraph.[2] He established a courier system for families of CSA members in Texas.[3] Additionally, he established the "Texas Hospital", a Confederate hospital in Auburn, Alabama in 1864.[2][3]
In the postbellum years, Bunting was the minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee.[2] From 1869 to 1882, he served a Presbyterian church in Galveston, Texas.[2] He was a pastor in Rome, Georgia from 1882 to 1883.[2] He was a "fiscal agent" for Rhodes College in Memphis, Texas from 1885 to 1889.[2] He also served on the board of trustees of Daniel Baker College in Brownwood, Texas.[4] He returned to the ministry in 1889, when he served a church in Gallatin, Tennessee until 1891.[2]
Bunting was a member of the Knights Templar.[8] He was also a member of the Odd Fellows.[2]
Personal life[]
Bunting married Nina Ella Doxey in 1853.[2] After she died he married Chrissinda Sharpe Craig in 1860.[2] They had six children.[2]
Death and legacy[]
Bunting died on September 19, 1891 in Gallatin, Tennessee.[1][2] He received a Masonic funeral in Gallatin.[8]
His papers are held at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.[4] Additionally, his diaries are held at the Princeton Theological Seminary.[9] In 2006, the University of Tennessee press published Our Trust is in the God of Battles: The Civil War Letters of Robert Franklin Bunting, Chaplain, Terry's Texas Rangers, edited by Thomas W. Cutrer, a Professor emeritus of History and American Studies at Arizona State University.[10]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Cutrer, Thomas W. (October 2008). "Bunting, Robert Franklin". http://www.anb.org/articles/08/08-02368.html. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 Marks, Paula Mitchell (June 12, 2010). "BUNTING, ROBERT FRANKLIN". Texas State Historical Association. https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbu22. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Bishop, Curtis (May 9, 1954). "This Day In Texas". Waco, Texas. p. 20. https://www.newspapers.com/image/48041601/?terms=%22Robert%2BF.%2BBunting%22. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 "Robert Franklin Bunting collection, 1846-1947". http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/apts/00015/apts-00015.html. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Presbyterians and the American Civil War". Spring 2011. pp. 27–34. JSTOR 23338138.
- ↑ Lang, Andrew F. (July 2010). "Memory, the Texas Revolution, and Secession: The Birth of Confederate Nationalism in the Lone Star State". p. 33. JSTOR 25745919.
- ↑ Rable, George C. (2010). God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. p. 147. ISBN 9780807834268. OCLC 607975631. https://books.google.com/books?id=YDk6QL6CrEsC&q=%22Robert+Franklin+Bunting%22&pg=PA147. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Attention, Knights Templar". Nashville, Tennessee. September 20, 1891. p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/119057010/?terms=%22Robert%2BF.%2BBunting%22. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
- ↑ "The Robert Franklin Bunting Manuscript Collection". http://manuscripts.ptsem.edu/collection/36. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
- ↑ "Our Trust is in the God of Battles: The Civil War Letters of Robert Franklin Bunting, Chaplain, Terry's Texas Rangers". http://utpress.org/title/our-trust-is-in-the-god-of-battles/. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
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