Person

John Cabell Breckinridge (Senator, former U.S. Vice President, & Confederate General)

b. 1821-01-16 d. 1875-05-17

Kentucky attorney, soldier, and politician. Attended Pisgah Academy and graduated from Centre College in 1838. Attended Princeton University and studied law at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Admitted to the bar in 1838. Practiced law in Lexington. Married to Mary Cyrene Burch Breckinridge. Father of Joseph Cabell Breckinridge, Clifton Rodes Breckinridge, Frances Breckinridge Steele, John Milton Breckinridge, John Witherspoon Breckinridge, and Mary Desha Breckinridge Maltby. Served in the 3rd Kentucky Infantry as a major during the Mexican War. Member of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1849. Democratic party member from the Eighth Congressional District of Kentucky in the United States House of Representatives from 1851 to 1855. Vice president of the United States under James Buchanan from 1856 to 1860. Ran unsuccessfully for President of the United States as a Southern Democrat in 1860. Democratic party member of the United States Senate from March 1861 to December 1861. Expelled from the Senate in December 1861. Served in the Confederate Army as a brigadier general and major general from 1861 to 1865. Secretary of war for the Confederate States of America from January 1865 to April 1865. Fled to Cuba after the war and took up residence in Europe.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Fayette County, 4th Ward City of Lexington, p. 108.

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, s.v. “Breckinridge, John Cabell,” ( http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000789) (accessed January 10, 2017).

Charles Lanman, Biographical Annals of the Civil Government of the United States (Washington: J. M. Morrison, 1887), 55-56.

James C. Kotter, The Breckinridges of Kentucky 1760-1981 (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1986), 95-136.

“John C. Breckinridge,” Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.), May 18, 1875.

“Breckinridge, John Cabell,” The Kentucky Encyclopedia, ed. John E. Kleber (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992), 117-118.

Find A Grave, “John Cabell Breckinridge (1821-1875)," Memorial #132, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/132/john-cabell-breckinridge (accessed January 10, 2017).

Citation

Breckinridge, John Cabell. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32198122 (November 12, 2026).

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