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: hardcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 536
Bibliographic Info: 34 photos, maps, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2011
pISBN: 978-0-7864-5934-6
eISBN: 978-0-7864-6194-3
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.