John C. Breckinridge

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John C. Breckinridge bigraphy, stories - Confederate Army general

John C. Breckinridge : biography

January 16, 1821 – May 17, 1875

John Cabell Breckinridge (January 16, 1821 – May 17, 1875) was a lawyer and politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He represented the state in both houses of Congress and in 1857, became the 14th and youngest-ever Vice President of the United States (1857–1861). Serving in the U.S. Senate at the outbreak of the Civil War, he was expelled after joining the Confederate Army. He was appointed Confederate Secretary of War late in the war. A member of the Breckinridge family, he was the grandson of U.S. Attorney General John Breckinridge, son of Kentucky Secretary of State Cabell Breckinridge, and father of Arkansas Congressman Clifton R. Breckinridge.

After Southern Democrats walked out of the 1860 Democratic National Convention, the party’s northern and southern factions held rival conventions in Baltimore, Maryland that nominated Stephen Douglas and Breckinridge, respectively, for president. Breckinridge carried most of the southern states but no northern states and lost the election. Taking his seat in the Senate, he urged compromise to preserve the Union although seven states had already seceded. Unionists took control of the state legislature when Kentucky’s neutrality was breached, but Breckinridge fled behind Confederate battle lines where he was commissioned a brigadier general; he was then expelled from the Senate. After the April 1862 Battle of Shiloh, he was promoted to major general, and in October he was assigned to the command of Braxton Bragg. After Bragg charged that Breckinridge’s drunkenness had contributed to Confederate defeats at Stone River and Missionary Ridge, he was transferred to the Trans-Allegheny Department, where he won his most significant victory at the Battle of New Market. After participating in Jubal Early’s 1864 campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley, he was charged with defending Confederate supplies in Tennessee and Virginia. In February 1865, Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed him Secretary of War. Concluding that the war was hopeless, he urged Davis to arrange a national surrender. After the fall of the Confederate capital at Richmond, he ensured the preservation of Confederate military and governmental records. He then fled to Cuba, Great Britain, and finally, to Canada. In exile, he toured Europe from August 1866 to June 1868. When President Andrew Johnson extended amnesty to all former Confederates in late 1868, he returned to Kentucky, but resisted all encouragement to resume his political career. Issues from war injuries sapped his health, and after two operations, he died on May 17, 1875.

Early legal career

Breckinridge remained in Lexington while deciding where to begin practice, borrowing law books from the library of John J. Crittenden, Thomas Crittenden’s father.Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 99 Deciding that Lexington was overcrowded with lawyers, he moved to Frankfort, but was unable to find an office.Davis, p. 21 After being spurned by a love interest, he and former classmate Thomas W. Bullock resolved to relocate to Iowa Territory in October 1841. Journeying westward, they considered settling on land Breckinridge had inherited in Jacksonville, Illinois, but they found the bar stocked with able men like Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln.Davis, p. 22 The continued on to Burlington, Iowa, and by the winter of 1842–1843, Breckinridge reported to family members that his firm handled more cases than almost any other in Burlington.Heck, p. 12 Influenced by Bullock and the citizens of Iowa, he identified with the Democratic Party, and by February 1843, he had been named to the Democratic committee of Des Moines County.Heck, pp. 13–14 Most of the Kentucky Breckinridges were Whigs, and when he learned of his nephew’s party affiliation, William Breckinridge declared, "I felt as I would have done if I had heard that my daughter had been dishonored."Heck, p. 14

Breckinridge visited Kentucky in May 1843.Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 102 His efforts to mediate between his mother and the Breckinridges extended his visit and after he contracted influenza, he decided to remain for the summer rather than returning to Iowa’s colder climate. While at home, he met Bullock’s cousin, Mary Cyrene Burch, and by September, they were engaged."John Cabell Breckinridge". Encyclopedia of World Biography In October, Breckinridge went to Iowa to close out his business, then returned to Kentucky and formed a law partnership with Samuel Bullock, Thomas’s cousin.Davis, p. 29Heck, p. 16 He married on December 12, 1843, and settled in Georgetown, Kentucky. The couple had six children – Joseph Cabell (b. 1844), Clifton Rodes (b. 1846; later a Congressman from Arkansas), Frances (b. 1848), John Milton (b. 1849), John Witherspoon (b. 1850), and Mary Desha (b. 1854). Gaining confidence in his ability as a lawyer, Breckinridge moved his family back to Lexington in 1845 and formed a partnership with future U.S. Senator James B. Beck."John Cabell Breckinridge". Dictionary of American Biography