| Robert Franklin Bunting | |
| Birth Date: | May 9, 1828 |
| Birth Place: | Hookstown, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Death Date: | September 19, 1891 |
| Death Place: | Gallatin, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | Washington College Princeton University Princeton Theological Seminary Hampden–Sydney College |
| Occupation: | Clergyman |
| Spouse: |
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| Children: | 6 |
| Parents: | John Bunting Margaret Moody |
Robert Franklin Bunting (1828–1891) was an American Presbyterian minister and Confederate chaplain.
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]
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. He was also a member of the Odd Fellows.[2]
Bunting married Nina Ella Doxey in 1853.[2] After she died he married Chrissinda Sharpe Craig in 1860.[2] They had six children.[2]
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]