Robert Franklin Bunting
| Robert Franklin Bunting | |
|---|---|
| Born |
May 9, 1828 Hookstown, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died |
September 19, 1891 Gallatin, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Alma mater |
Washington College Princeton University Princeton Theological Seminary Hampden–Sydney College |
| Occupation | Clergyman |
| Religion | Presbyterianism |
| Spouse(s) |
Nina Ella Doxey Chrissinda Sharpe Craig |
| Children | 6 |
| Parent(s) |
John Bunting Margaret Moody |
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 2 3 Cutrer, Thomas W. (October 2008). "Bunting, Robert Franklin". American National Biography. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Marks, Paula Mitchell (June 12, 2010). "BUNTING, ROBERT FRANKLIN". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bishop, Curtis (May 9, 1954). "This Day In Texas". Waco Tribune-Herald. Waco, Texas. p. 20. Retrieved December 28, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Robert Franklin Bunting collection, 1846-1947". Texas Archival Resources Online. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
- 1 2 "Presbyterians and the American Civil War". The Journal of Presbyterian History. 89 (1): 27–34. Spring 2011. JSTOR 23338138. (registration required (help)).
- ↑ Lang, Andrew F. (July 2010). "Memory, the Texas Revolution, and Secession: The Birth of Confederate Nationalism in the Lone Star State". The Southwestern Historical Quarterly. 114 (1): 33. JSTOR 25745919. (registration required (help)).
- ↑ 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. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
- 1 2 "Attention, Knights Templar". The Tennessean. Nashville, Tennessee. September 20, 1891. p. 2. Retrieved December 28, 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
- ↑ "The Robert Franklin Bunting Manuscript Collection". Princeton Theological Seminary. 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". The University of Tennessee Press. Retrieved December 28, 2015.