Braxton Bragg

Braxton Bragg is considered one of the Worst generals in the Civil War by the editors of the Blue and Gray Trail

A scant 42 years old at the outbreak of the Civil War, Braxton Bragg was a dour, laconic civil engineer for the state of Louisiana and widely recognized as an FOJD (Friend of Jeff Davis). Although he was unable to deal with either strategic or tactical command, he was brave and did have bouts of military brilliance. In 1862 he completely fooled the Union Army by relocating the Army of Mississippi from Tupelo, Mississippi to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

According to Confederate Generals, Braxton Bragg's mother was released from jail so that she could have her son. She was never prosecuted and freed shortly after Braxton's birth. After attending West Point (graduated 1837, 5 of 50), Bragg became brevet 2nd Lieutenant in the Army. Although apologists like to point to his multiple illnesses as the cause of his behavior during The Civil War, even as a junior officer Bragg was cited for insubordination.

Captain Bragg shone as a artillery officer under General Zachary Taylor. During the battle of Buena Vista, Bragg proved to be pivotal, protecting Taylor's flank as Mexicans attacked. Although Bragg was under his direct command, Taylor never issued the famous quote, "A little more grape, Captain Bragg." Instead, Taylor verbally told Bragg something like "double your shot and give them hell." Finally, with Mexicans approaching on Bragg's front and flank, Colonel Jefferson Davis arrived to support the artillery position with infantry. Davis was thankful that Bragg supported Taylor's flank - Taylor was the father of his late wife.

By the end of the Mexican War Bragg was brevetted twice again, ending the conflict as Lieutenant Colonel. His old friend Jefferson Davis had been instrumental in expanding the Army with two new cavalry divisions, but when Bragg found out that Davis wanted to assign artillery to pursue mounted warriors he visited then Secretary of War Davis. When Davis refused to listen, Bragg resigned his commission and returned to Louisiana where he became a successful planter and state civil engineer.

At the start of the War Between the States, Bragg was tapped to lead Louisiana's militia, but when the Confederate government offered him a commission Bragg accepted. In March, 1861, P. G. T. Beauregard drew duty at Fort Sumter while Bragg drew duty securing Fort Pickens in the harbor at Pensacola, Florida, both among the few last outposts of federal forces in the Confederacy. Beauregard cut all communication with Sumter in early April, but Bragg permitted Lt. John Worden to carry a message to Fort Pickens. Soon Sumter was in Confederate hands while Pickens was reinforced. Worden told the garrison of reinforcements and supplies coming to the fort. Upon Worden's return, Bragg arrested him, the first prisoner-of-war during this great American conflict.

Davis carved the Department of West Florida and Alabama for Bragg, but when Sidney Johnston needed reinforcements in February, 1862, Davis ordered Bragg to advance with his army. On April 6, 1862, western Confederate forces met Ulysses S. Grant at Pittsburg Landing. Bragg ordered repeated attacks against the Union stronghold known as the Hornet's Nest, sacrificing hundreds of men, perhaps needlessly. Once the flanks of the Union Army had been turned and the men in the Hornet's Nest surrendered, Bragg ordered his men to press the attack. Braxton Bragg understood the importance of defeating Grant on the first day of Shiloh. Beauregard, however, opted to call off the attack. The Union defeat of the Confederate Army the following day proved Bragg was correct.

Grant and Buell advanced towards Beauregard's base at the Corinth, Mississippi rail center in May, 1862. Without orders, Beauregard decided to withdraw to Tupelo. When Old Bory left his command without permission, Davis seized the opportunity to put his old friend Braxton Bragg in charge. When Don Carlos Buell moved towards Chattanooga, Bragg took a 700-mile circuitous route via rail and steamship through Mobile and Atlanta, arriving at Tennessee's Scenic City in advance of his enemy.

Kirby Smith showed initiative moving on Lexington, Kentucky from Knoxville. there was little Bragg could do other than protect Smith's left flank from Buell. Bragg thought that a strong offensive move north might deter advances by the Union Army along the Mississippi and, as Lee did moving into Maryland, Bragg felt with a strong presence in Kentucky he might encourage enlistments in the Confederate Army.

Crossing the Tennessee River at Chattanooga on August 21, Bragg moved north over Walden Ridge on August 28, 1862. With Buell protecting Murfreesboro and Nashville, the renamed Army of Tennessee crossed the Kentucky-Tennessee border almost due south of Louisville and trapped a federal garrison under Col. John Wilder [US] at Munfordville.

The capture of Louisville would be a major accomplishment for the Confederate government. Grant's Army of the Tennessee supply route would be severed, as would that of Buell. Quartermasters would be forced to reroute trains hundreds of miles around Louisville and the time could cripple the advance Grant had made in the West. Bragg did not feel he could hold Louisville, so he moved to Bardstown, southeast of the city and let Buell reinforce Louisville in late September. Bragg then moved east to Frankfort, the state capital.

After installing a Confederate governor of Kentucky Braxton Bragg moved south to Perryville, where he met the Army of the Ohio in battle. Although most scholars consider the battle a draw, Bragg snapped and retreated to Harrodsburg, where he was joined by Kirby Smith. With almost 70,000 men, outnumbering Buell's army, Smith wanted to attack but Bragg had become fearful of even being in Kentucky. The Army of Tennessee rushed south to Cumberland Gap to escape the Army of the Ohio.

Bragg really didn't have to hurry. Like his friend, George McClellan, Buell delayed any advance, fearful of a larger Confederate Army attacking him. Through newspapers, Bragg learned that Abraham Lincoln had replaced Buell with William S. Rosecrans following Bragg's escape. After moving to Knoxville with Smith, Bragg decided to advance to Murfreesboro in middle Tennessee, not because of a good defensive position but for the crops from the fertile Stone's River valley. Rosecrans chose Nashville.

Both Kirby Smith and Braxton Bragg journeyed to Richmond (Virginia) to meet with Jefferson Davis. Davis told Bragg he fully supported his friend's decision while in Kentucky. Smith, who was unhappy with Bragg's decisions, became the first in a string of commanders to ask Davis to remove Bragg from command. Davis told Smith he would not do that and Smith ended up in command of the Confederate armies in the Trans-Mississippi area.

Bragg's next problem was with former Vice-President of the United States, John Breckenridge. The Kentucky-born Breckenridge and Braxton Bragg were at odds since Breckenridge expressed his opinion that the Confederate Army could not draft Kentucky citizens, they could only recruit them. Breckenridge and his staff made an appeal to spare the life of a deserter condemned to death by Bragg. Rather than stay the sentence, Bragg ordered the deserter's brigade to watch the execution. Bragg made a life-long enemy with these actions.

That wouldn't be his only problem at Murfreesboro. The city was a poor choice for Bragg's army and this was compounded by his lack of knowledge of even nearby topography. In issuing orders for the battle of Stone's River, he sent Leonidas Polk's corps on a route that allowed him to be enfiladed from a Union artillery position. Bragg also wanted to use Stone's River as a defensive obstacle, but the river was too shallow.

Braxton Bragg

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Abraham Lincoln
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April 6
April, 1862
Army of Tennessee
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August 21
August 28
August, 1862
Confederate Generals
Don Carlos Buell
February, 1862
Florida
Fort Sumter
George McClellan
Jefferson Davis
John Breckenridge
Kentucky
Kirby Smith
Leonidas Polk
Louisiana
March, 1861
May, 1862
Mexican War
Mississippi
Munfordville
P. G. T. Beauregard
Pittsburg Landing
Sidney Johnston
The Civil War
Ulysses S. Grant
West Point
William S. Rosecrans
Zachary Taylor

Civil War Encyclopedia >> People - Confederate Military

Braxton Bragg was last changed on - May 20, 2007
Braxton Bragg was added in 2005