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Braxton Bragg was in Chattanooga three times. First, in 1838 as a young Federal lieutenant at the time of the Cherokee removal. Second, in 1862 as General of the Army of Tennessee and prior to his and Kirby Smith’s invasion into Kentucky. Third, in 1863, with the same general’s rank at the time of the battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga.
He was a prominent figure in Chattanooga history, and it is worthwhile seeing what made him tick.
To say the least, he was a complex man, who was as Ulysses S. Grant said, just naturally “disputatious”. Since two of Bragg’s brothers were lawyers, an argumentative nature may have been genetic.
His relationship with his mother poses questions. No where is it recorded that he ever mentioned her. We do know two things. One, a few years before Bragg’s birth she was jailed for shooting a free black man for which she was later exonerated. Two, while at West Point, Bragg developed a drinking problem at the time of her death. Except for this brief episode he was thereafter a “tee-totaler.”