General Braxton Bragg is generally considered one of the worst generals during the Civil War. Most of the battles he engaged in ended badly. After the war, he returned to Louisiana and discovered that the Union Army had taken his plantation. He ended up being an engineer at the New Orleans Waterworks. But did you know he also served as both commander and quartermaster during the civil war?
Confederate General Braxton Bragg served as both commander and quartermaster during the Civil War. Quirky as it seems, he would issue himself a requisition for supplies and then deny it twice.
Who is General Braxton Bragg?
Braxton Bragg was an American musician who became an army officer and served as a Confederate General during the civil war. Bragg joined the war in 1861 and was promoted to full general following the death of General Albert Sidney Johnston at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862.
Bragg led operations in Kentucky and Tennessee as commander of the Army of Tennessee, withdrawing after the Battles of Perryville and Stones River in late 1862 and early 1863. Later, at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, Bragg achieved the most significant Confederate victory in the Western Theater but was defeated by General Ulysses S. Grant at Chattanooga.
He was replaced by Joseph E. Johnston in December 1863 and later served as an advisor to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and as commander of Wilmington, North Carolina’s coastal defenses. He then worked as a civil engineer in Alabama and Texas after the Civil War and died at 59 in 1876. (Source: History)
The Early Life of General Braxton Bragg
Braxton Bragg was born on March 22, 1817, in Warrenton, North Carolina, to a low-income family. His father was a contractor, and his mother, whom Bragg rarely mentioned in later life, had served time in prison for murdering a formerly enslaved person. Despite his family’s financial difficulties throughout his childhood, Bragg’s politician brother assisted him in gaining admission to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1833. He graduated fifth in a class of 50 cadets in 1837.
He married Eliza Brooks Ellis, a wealthy Louisiana woman, in 1849. In 1855, Bragg resigned from the military and settled on a sugar plantation in Thibodaux, Louisiana. (Source: History)
What is The Most Significant Achievement of General Braxton Bragg?
The victory of General Braxton Bragg at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863 was the most significant Confederate victory in the Western Theater of the Civil War. However, while the battle was a tactical success, it came at a high cost: Bragg’s Army of Tennessee suffered over 18,000 casualties, 3,000 more than their Union opponents. (Source: History)
What Happened to General Braxton Bragg After the Civil War?
Bragg returned to Louisiana after the Civil War to find the Union Army had taken over his plantation. Bragg found work as the superintendent of the New Orleans Waterworks and then as the chief engineer of Alabama after struggling financially for some time.
He relocated to Texas in 1874 after being hired as the chief engineer of the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad and later served as the state’s chief railroad inspector. (Source: History)