BRAGG, BRAXTON (1817-1876), American soldier, was born in Warren county, N.C., on March 22, 1817. He graduated at the United States military academy in 1837, and as an artillery officer served in the Seminole wars of 1837 and 1841, and under Gen. Taylor in the Mexican War. He resigned from the regular army in 1856, and retired to his plantation in Louisiana. When in 1861 the Civil War began, Bragg was made a brigadier-general in the Confederate service. Promoted major-general, he led in the autumn of 1862 a bold advance from eastern Tennessee across Kentucky to Louisville, but after the battle of Perryville (Oct. 8) retired into Tennessee. Though he was bitterly censured, the personal favour of Jefferson Davis kept him, as it had placed him, at the head of the central army, and on Dec. 31, 1862, and Jan. 2, 1863, he fought the indecisive battle of Murfreesboro (or Stone river) against Rosecrans. In the campaign of 1863 Rosecrans con stantly outmanoeuvred the Confederates, and forced them back to the border of Georgia. Bragg, however, inflicted a crushing defeat on his opponent at Chickamauga (Sept. 19-20) and for a time besieged the Union forces in Chattanooga. But large forces under Grant were concentrated upon the threatened spot, and the great battle of Chattanooga (Nov. 23-25) ended in the rout of the Con federates. Bragg was now deprived of his command, but President Davis made him his military adviser. In the autumn of that year he led an inferior force from North Carolina to Georgia to oppose Sherman's march. In Feb. 1865, he joined Johnston, and he was thus included in the surrender of that officer to Sherman. In spite of his want of success, Bragg was unquestionably a brave and skil ful officer. But he was a severe martinet, and rarely in full accord with the senior officers under his orders, the consequent friction often acting unfavourably on the conduct of his operations. He died at Galveston, Tex., on Sept. 27, 1876.
His brother, THOMAS BRAGG (1810-72), was governor of North Carolina, 1855-59, United States senator 1859-61 and attorney general in the Confederate cabinet 1861-62.
See Don Carlos Seitz, Braxton Bragg, General of the Confederacy