MIKE WEST, Managing Editor
Posted: Sunday, December 7, 2008 7:37 am

Vice President John C. Breckinridge

As the winter of 1862 approached, former Confederate Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge found himself in a perilous position in little Murfreesborough, Tenn.

It had been a tough year for the popular Kentuckian, who was in a unique – and frustrating – position to watch the crumbling of the Union. Breckinridge was torn between the Union and the Southern way of life.

He was born into one of the most distinguished Kentucky families, which vaulted him into Congress at a young age. He was elected vice president of the United States in 1856 on the Democratic ticket headed by James Buchanan. He remains the youngest vice president in U.S. history, elected at age 35.

Buchanan is rated by historians as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history and did little to stop the growing schism between the Union and slave states. The only president never to be married, Buchanan’s term witnessed the John Brown raid on Harper's Ferry, the Lincoln-Douglas debates and the Confederate States of America’s declaration of independence.

As Buchanan’s star waned, Breckinridge’s climbed “higher than the clouds.”

In the election of 1860, the Democratic Party split with Breckinridge being nominated for president by the Southern faction of the party. He was endorsed by Buchanan, but doubted his chances against frontrunner Stephen Douglas. But Breckinridge carried the Deep South during the election and placed second to Abraham Lincoln in the Electoral College. The race put Breckinridge at odds with his uncle, Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, who had supported Lincoln.

While in Congress, Breckinridge was a close ally of Douglas. When Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which left the issue of slavery in the territories to the settlers themselves, Breckinridge worked hard to enact the legislation.

Douglas placed second in popular vote in 1860, but with his friend Breckinridge taking the Southern electoral vote, he placed fourth in the election.

As vice president and presiding officer of the Senate, it was Breckinridge’s duty to make the official announcement of the election of his opponent, Abraham Lincoln. While serving as vice president, he counseled against secession. A realist, he saw the vast power of the Northern states.

One famous incident took place at a dinner party that the vice president attended. South Carolina Rep. Lawrence Keitt repeatedly made reference to Kentucky's compromising tendencies. Breckinridge responded by recalling a South Carolina trip, where he met a militia officer in full military regalia.

“I tell you, sah, we can not stand it any longer; we intend to fight,” said the officer. “And from what are you suffering?” asked Breckinridge. “Why, sah, we are suffering from the oppression of the Federal Government. We have suffered under it for 30 years, and will stand it no more.”

Breckinridge advised Keitt “to invite some of his constituents, before undertaking the war, upon a tour through the North, if only for the purpose of teaching them what an almighty big country they will have to whip before they get through!”

On March 4, 1861, Breckinridge administered the oath of office to Lincoln’s vice president, Hannibal Hamlin, who in turn swore him into the Senate.

When Lincoln called Congress into special session on July 4, 1861, Breckinridge was the default leader of the Senate Democrats with very few Southerners left. As Lincoln geared up the Union for war, Breckinridge visited his cousin, Mary Todd Lincoln, on a number of occasions at the White House.

During the month-long special session, Breckinridge supported maintaining the Union, but if separation was necessary, he advocated a peaceful solution. He spoke against an “endless, aimless, devastating war, at the end of which I see the grave of public liberty and of personal freedom.”

At the end of the session, Breckinridge returned to his home state and began an effort to keep Kentucky neutral. Speaking at peace rallies, he said if Kentucky took up arms against the Confederacy, then he would resign from the Senate.

However, pro-Union forces won the state legislative elections and when another peace rally was announced, the legislature sent a regiment to break up the rally and to arrest Breckinridge. He fled to Virginia. There was no more neutral ground left, and Breckinridge would soon become the first and only vice president to raise arms against the United States.

In Richmond he traded his "term of six years in the Senate of the United States for the musket of a soldier.” On Dec. 4, 1861, the Senate by a 36 to 0 vote expelled the Kentucky senator, declaring that Breckinridge, “the traitor,” had “joined the enemies of his country.”

Naturally, when the Southern states seceded from the Union, the CSA didn’t have a standing army just an unorganized group of state militias and volunteer regiments. Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, a shining star of the U.S. Army, had joined the Confederacy and was appointed to command the Western Theater.

Johnston headed to Tennessee and Kentucky to test the waters. Once in Knoxville, he ordered Gen. Felix Zollicoffer to occupy the Cumberland Gap in Kentucky. Once in Nashville, he commission Simon Bolivar Buckner a brigadier general and ordered him to Bowling Green, Ky. Buckner arrived there in time to accept Breckinridge within his lines.

Breckinridge was commissioned a brigadier general, first commanding the 1st Kentucky Brigade. The unit was called the Orphan Brigade because its men felt orphaned by a state government that didn’t support the Confederacy. Among the unit’s commanders were Roger Hanson, who died at Stones River, and Benjamin Hardin Helm, who was Abraham Lincoln’s brother-in-law.

First formed near Bowling Green, Ky., part of the unit first saw action at Fort Donelson where it was surrendered. Breckinridge and the other elements of the brigade were ordered to Nashville in February 1862.

Buckner had 4,000 men. Zollicoffer had a similar number. Gen. Leonidas Polk had 11,000 at Columbus, Ky. It was a tiny, very ill-equipped army. Meanwhile, the Union was gearing up, building gunboats, weapons and increasing its ranks.

The end of March 1862 found Breckinridge in charge of the Army of Mississippi’s Reserve Corps at Burnsville, Miss. Confederate Gen. Albert S. Johnson had divided his army into corps led by Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk, Braxton Bragg and William Hardee. Breckinridge’s Reserve Corp was approximately division-size in strength. In that post, he replaced Maj. Gen. George B. Crittenden, who had been charged with drunkenness and relieved of duty.

It was at Shiloh, the Kentucky troops first gained modern weapons, British Enfield rifles, which had made it through the federal blockade. Despite being a reserve unit, they saw heavy action at Shiloh and participated in the Hornet’s Nest fight. It was Breckinridge’s first taste of battle. He had no prior military training or experience.

Following the battle of Shiloh, the Kentucky Brigade fell back to Corinth, Miss., as part of the rear guard of the Army of Mississippi. The Confederate forces fell back from Corinth at the end of May 1862, marching further south into Mississippi. In mid-June Breckinridge's Division was detached and sent toward Vicksburg, arriving there at the end of the month.

Breckinridge's Division received orders to take Baton Rouge, La., from the Federals, and so left Vicksburg at the end of July.

In an attempt to regain control of the Louisiana, Confederates wished to recapture the capital at Baton Rouge. Breckinridge planned a combined land/water expedition with his corps and the CSS ram Arkansas. The attack failed when the ironclad Arkansas failed to suppress Union artillery and gunboats.

Breckinridge continued to function as an independent commander in the lower Mississippi Valley, securing Confederate control of the area by taking Port Hudson.

Then it was back to Tennessee for Breckinridge and his men. Gen. Braxton Bragg, who had been Johnston’s chief of staff, was going to blend the Army of Kentucky and the Army of Mississippi into a new fighting force.

Breckinridge had arrived in Chattanooga in early October with 2,500 men, which was bolstered by another 2,500 exchanged prisoners. He was initially ordered north to join Bragg in his Kentucky invasion, but was soon informed Bragg was headed south to Murfreesboro.

Breckinridge was ordered to proceed to Murfreesboro with his men and wait for Bragg and his army. Breckinridge arrived here on Oct. 28, joining Brig. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who had been using the town as a base for small-scale raids.

The general felt isolated and very vulnerable. In Nashville, there was a full Federal division and Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans was in the process of reorganizing his army and moving it to Nashville.

Bragg’s men were ill and exhausted following the Kentucky offense. Some 15,000 of Bragg's men were on the sick list, and the 27,000 were fighting an early cold snap.

With Bragg’s men returning, Breckinridge decided to put the Union forces on the defensive by ordering on Nov. 6 a series of raids by Forrest and Col. John Hunt Morgan, who had just returned from Kentucky.

While isolated, Murfreesboro was well supplied with food due to Bragg’s attention to detail and the effectiveness of raiders Forrest and Morgan.

With the arrival of a division from Kirby Smith, Bragg grew confident about his situation with his ranks growing to nearly 50,000 men. Acting from their base in Murfreesboro, the new Confederate Army of Tennessee just might push the Northern aggressors out of Middle Tennessee.