John Cabell Breckinridge
From Dixiepedia: The PC-Free Encyclopedia
John Cabell Breckinridge (16 January 1821-17 May 1875) was born in Lexington, Kentucky. After practicing law for several years, he won a seat in his State legislature in 1849. This was followed by two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1851-1855. In 1856, he was nominated by the Democratic party to run with James Buchanan in the presidential election. Although against his desires, Breckinridge did run with Buchanan, and began the youngest Vice-President in U.S. history at the age of thirty-five.
As one who endorsed and attempted compromise, Breckinridge was against secession, yet found himself identified with Southern secessionists. He was nominated him for president in 1860 when the Democrats split. Although Breckinridge was against his nomination, he was influenced to run as by doing so, he believed that Stephen A. Douglas would withdraw from the race, therefore opening the way for a compromise Democrat, who could defeat Abraham Lincoln. However, Douglas did not withdraw, and as a result, both Southern and Northern party Democrats ran presidential candidates in 1860.
Breckinridge was suspected of treason as the authorities accused him of being a Confederate sympathizer. While he was still serving his term as a U.S. Senator, it was ordered that he be arrested in Washington, D.C. in September of 1861. Learning of this, he escaped before he could be taken into custody and traveled to the South.
In spite of his belief that the South would lose the war, he joined the Confederate army and was promoted to Major General on 14 April 1862. He had an outstanding military record during the war. He commanded troops at Shiloh, Baton Rouge, and Stones River. After Stones River, Breckinridge found himself in an argument and controversy with General Braxton Bragg over the treatment of troops in Kentucky, a situation that lasted for more than one year.
Breckinridge's military leadership continued at Jackson, Mississippi, and Missionary Ridge. He then went on to command the Department of Southwestern Virginia, and won a very decisive battle at New Market on 15 May 1864. He then served at Cold Harbor, and was a part of General Jubal Early's Raid on Washington, as well as fought against Union General Philip Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign.
Near war's end in February 1865, President Jefferson Davis appointed him secretary of war. In this position, he worked tirelessly to achieve an honorable surrender for the South. It was Breckinridge who organized the evacuation of Richmond, and was a major figure in the surrender negotiations between General Joseph Eggleston Johnston and Major General William Tecumseh Sherman.
After the war, in May of 1865, he went to Cuba where he remained in exile. He returned to the United States in 1869 and returned to his law practice in Kentucky. Having never fully recovered from his total exhaustion by the war, he died at his home in Lexington at the young age of fifty-four.
