Braxton Bragg

rdf:langString Braxton Bragg

rdf:langString Braxton Bragg

rdf:langString Braxton Bragg

rdf:langString Galveston, Texas, U.S.

rdf:langString Warrenton, North Carolina, U.S.

rdf:langString Cursive signature in ink

rdf:langString Braxton Bragg signature.png

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rdf:langString United States Military Academy Class of 1837

rdf:langString Gen. Braxton Bragg, half-length portrait, facing right

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rdf:langString * Second Seminole War * Mexican–American War ** Siege of Fort Brown ** Battle of Monterrey ** Battle of Buena Vista * American Civil War ** Battle of Shiloh ** Battle of Perryville ** Battle of Stones River ** Tullahoma Campaign ** Battle of Chickamauga ** Battles for Chattanooga ** Second Battle of Fort Fisher ** Wyse Fork ** Battle of Bentonville

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rdf:langString Q380562

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rdf:langString While Washington breathed a sigh of relief after Stones River, dissension came to a head in the Army of Tennessee. All of Bragg's corps and division commanders expressed a lack of confidence in their chief. Senior Generals William J. Hardee and Leonidas Polk asked Davis to put Johnston in command of the army. Division commander B. Franklin Cheatham vowed he would never again serve under Bragg. Breckinridge wanted to challenge Bragg to a duel. Bragg struck back, court-martialing one division commander [] for disobeying orders, accusing another of drunkenness during the battle, and blaming Breckinridge for inept leadership. This internecine donnybrook threatened to do more damage to the army than the Yankees had done. Disheartened, Bragg told a friend that it might "be better for the President to send someone to relieve me," and wrote Davis to the same effect.

rdf:langString [Bragg] was the only General in command of an Army who has shown himself equal to the management of volunteers and at the same time commanded their love and respect.

rdf:langString [His actions] established Bragg's distinction as the most cantankerous man in the army. He had been court-martialled and convicted; he had been censured by the Secretary of War, the adjutant general, and the commander of the Eastern division. No other junior officer could boast of so many high-ranking enemies. Both the commander of the Third Artillery and the commanding general of the United States Army hated Bragg. His future in his regiment and in the army seemed most uncertain.

rdf:langString Davis relied heavily upon Bragg's understanding of military affairs and institutions. Although he did not always agree with Bragg, Davis consistently sought his expertise and opinion on a variety of matters. By untiringly assuming many of the duties and much of the criticism that had burdened and perplexed Davis, Bragg eased some of the president's vexations. In the process he maintained old enmities and created many new ones.

rdf:langString Author:Braxton Bragg

rdf:langString James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

rdf:langString Grady McWhiney, Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat

rdf:langString Confederate President Jefferson Davis

rdf:langString Judith Lee Hallock, Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat, Volume II

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rdf:langString Eliza Brooks Ellis

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rdf:langString Braxton Bragg (March 22, 1817 – September 27, 1876) was an American army officer during the Second Seminole War and Mexican–American War and Confederate general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, serving in the Western Theater. His most important role was as commander of the Army of Mississippi, later renamed the Army of Tennessee, from June 1862 until December 1863. Bragg, a native of Warrenton, North Carolina, was educated at West Point and became an artillery officer. He served in Florida and then received three brevet promotions for distinguished service in the Mexican–American War, most notably the Battle of Buena Vista. He resigned from the U.S. Army in 1856 to become a sugar plantation owner in Louisiana. At the start of the Civil War, Bragg trained soldiers in the Gulf Coast region. He was a corps commander at the Battle of Shiloh, where he launched several costly and unsuccessful frontal assaults but nonetheless was commended for his conduct and bravery. In June 1862, Bragg was elevated to command the Army of Mississippi (later known as the Army of Tennessee). He and Brigadier General Edmund Kirby Smith attempted an invasion of Kentucky in 1862, but Bragg retreated following the Battle of Perryville in October. In December, he fought another battle at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the Battle of Stones River, against the Army of the Cumberland under Major General William Rosecrans, which ended with his retreat. After months without significant fighting, Bragg was outmaneuvered by Rosecrans in the Tullahoma Campaign in June 1863, causing him to surrender Middle Tennessee to the Union. Bragg retreated to Chattanooga but evacuated it in September as Rosecrans' troops entered Georgia. Later that month, with the assistance of Confederate forces from the Eastern Theater under James Longstreet, Bragg was able to defeat Rosecrans at the Battle of Chickamauga, the bloodiest battle in the Western Theater, and the only major Confederate victory therein. Bragg forced Rosecrans back into Tennessee, but was criticized for not mounting an effective pursuit. In November, Bragg's army was routed by Major General Ulysses S. Grant in the Battles for Chattanooga and pushed back to Georgia. Confederate President Jefferson Davis subsequently relieved Bragg of command, recalling him to Richmond to serve as his chief military advisor. Bragg briefly returned to the field as a corps commander near the end of the war during the Campaign of the Carolinas. Bragg is generally considered among the worst generals of the Civil War. Most of the battles he engaged in ended in defeat. Bragg was extremely unpopular with both the officers and ordinary men under his command, who criticized him for numerous perceived faults, including poor battlefield strategy, a quick temper, and overzealous discipline. Bragg has a generally poor reputation with historians, though some point towards the failures of Bragg's subordinates, especially Major General and former Bishop Leonidas Polk—a close ally of Davis and known enemy of Bragg—as more significant factors in the many Confederate defeats under Bragg's command. The losses suffered by Bragg's forces are cited as highly consequential to the ultimate defeat of the Confederacy.