Braxton Bragg

Braxton Bragg (March 22, 1817 – September 27, 1876) was an American military officer during the Second Seminole War and Mexican–American War. He later served as a Confederate general in the American Civil War, seeing action in the western theater. His most important role was the 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 a minor tactical victory at the Battle of Perryville in October. In December, at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, he fought the Battle of Stones River against the Army of the Cumberland under Major General William Rosecrans. This bloody and inconclusive battle 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,...