Braxton Bragg

General Braxton Bragg (March 22 1817- September 271876) was a general in the Confederate army during the American Civil War. Bragg was born in Warren County, North Carolina, and was educated at the United States Military Academy.

He served in the Second Seminole War, and he won many promotions for bravery and distinguished conduct in the Mexican War. In 1859, he resigned from the military and entered private enterprise until the outbreak of the American Civil War, at which time he joined the Confederate army as a brigadier general. He was soon promoted to full general and replaced Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard as commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee in June 1862. In August 1862, Bragg invaded Kentucky but retreated back to Tennessee after the Battle of Perryville. At the Battle of Murfreesboro, he fought Union General William Starke Rosecrans to a draw and withdrew his army from the field. In September 1863, Bragg once again engaged Rosecrans, defeating him at the Battle of Chickamauga. After the battle, the Union Forces retreated to Chattanooga, where Bragg laid siege to the city.

Despite nearly succeeding, the siege failed, when, in November, General Ulysses S. Grant lifted it at the Battle of Chattanooga. In February 1864, Bragg was sent to Richmond, Virginia and made military adviser to Jefferson Davis. In 1865 he commanded a division of the Army of Tennessee under Joseph E. Johnston in the Carolinas campaign and served at the battle of Bentonville. He was the brother of Confederate Attorney General Thomas Bragg. After the war he became the chief engineer for Alabama.

Fort Bragg, a U.S. Army base in North Carolina, is named in his honor.