General Braxton Bragg is often described as a despicable, friendless man, the most hated general of the Confederacy. Historians have denigrated Bragg by accepting without challenge the self-serving accusations of prominent, disgruntled subordinates, each of whom sought to explain their own failures by assigning them to Bragg. This biography, without dodging Bragg’s deficiencies, refutes much of this false testimony. The result is a balanced view of this controversial general, from his early rise to power in the Western theater to his subsequent fall from grace in the latter years of the Civil War.

Samuel J. Martin is the author of three previous biographies and has published numerous articles in history magazines such as Civil War Times Illustrated, America’s Civil War, and The Kepi.

Samuel J. Martin
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 536
Bibliographic Info: 34 photos, maps, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2023 [2011]
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9343-9
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii
Prologue      1

l. Boyhood      3
2. West Point      9
3. The Seminole War      14
4. South Carolina      21
5. Corpus Christi      30
6. Fort Brown      36
7. Monterrey      43
8. Buena Vista      50
9. War’s Interlude      58
10. Politics      62
11. Elise Ellis      66
12. Jefferson Barracks      72
13. Louisiana Planter      82
14. Pensacola      90
15. Major General      102
16. Corinth      112
17. To Shiloh      122
18. Shiloh, Day One      127
19. Shiloh, Day Two and After      141
20. Prelude to Kentucky      148
21. Into Kentucky      159
22. Munfordville      173
23. Perryville      182
24. Battle of Perryville      194
25. Retreat from Perryville      202
26. Middle Tennessee      214
27. Battle of Murfreesboro      220
28. Retreat to Tullahoma      235
29. The Enemy Within      244
30. The Tullahoma Campaign      261
31. Another Retreat      268
32. McLemore’s Cove      280
33. Chickamauga, Day One      291
34. Chickamauga, Day Two      295
35. Breakthrough      307
36. The Rock of Chickamauga      321
37. Confrontation      329
38. The Opening Battles      340
39. Chattanooga, Day One      352
40. Lookout Mountain      356
41. Sherman Fails—Again      361
42. Routed      367
43. Relieved of Duty      374
44. Richmond      379
45. Joe Johnston      391
46. Bermuda Hundred      399
47. Johnston Replaced      405
48. Wilmington      415
49. First Assault      421
50. Fort Fisher Falls      427
51. Wilmington Captured      437
52. Kinston      443
53. Bentonville      450
54. End of the War      460
55. Final Years      466

Epilogue      473
Notes      477
Bibliography      511
Index      521

• “The most detailed and objective biography available of this controversial individual”—America’s Civil War

• “Much of benefit for readers…as the first one-volume biography of Bragg since the 1920s…soundly written”—The Journal of Southern History