John C. Breckinridge - Facts

Full Name:

• John Cabell Breckinridge

Birth Date:

• January 16, 1821

Birth Location:

• Cabell’s Dale near Lexington, Kentucky

Parents:

• Joseph Cabell and Mary Clay (Smith) Breckinridge

Education:

• Centre College (1839)
• College of New Jersey (now Princeton University)

Occupation:

• Lawyer
• Politician
• Army officer
• Railroad executive

Career Summary:

• U.S. Congressman
• Vice President of the United States
• U.S Senator
• Major General (CSA)
• Secretary of War (CSA)

Spouse:

• Mary Cyrene Burch (1843)

Place of Death:

• Lexington, Kentucky

Date of Death:

• May 17, 1875

Place of Burial:

• Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Kentucky

Significance:

• John C. Breckinridge was the only son of Joseph Cabell and Mary Clay (Smith) Breckinridge.
• John C. Breckinridge was named for his grandfather, John Breckinridge, who was a U.S. Senator and who served as attorney general in the Jefferson administration.
• John C. Breckinridge attended Pisgah Academy, Woodford County, Kentucky.
• John C. Breckinridge graduated from Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, in 1839.
• John C. Breckinridge attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University).
• John C. Breckinridge studied law at the Transylvania Institute, Lexington, Kentucky.
• John C. Breckinridge was admitted to the bar in 1840.
• John C. Breckinridge married Mary Cyrene Burch in 1843.
• John C. Breckinridge served as major of the Third Kentucky Volunteers during the Mexican American War (1846 – 1848).
• John C. Breckinridge owned a few household slaves.
• John C. Breckinridge served in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1849.
• John C. Breckinridge was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-second and Thirty-third Congresses (March 4, 1851-March 3, 1855).
• John C. Breckinridge was elected as Vice President of the United States in 1856 on the Democratic ticket with James Buchanan as President.
• John C. Breckinridge remains the youngest man to be elected to the office of Vice President of the United States.
• John C. Breckinridge was the unsuccessful candidate of the Southern Democrats in the 1860 presidential election.
• John C. Breckinridge was a U.S. Senator from Kentucky from March 4, 1861 – December 4, 1861
• John C. Breckinridge fled Kentucky on October 2, 1861 to avoid arrest by Unionists.
• John C. Breckinridge was appointed as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army on November 2, 1861.
• John C. Breckinridge was expelled from the United States Senate on December 4, 1861, for supporting the South after the American Civil War began.
• John C. Breckinridge was promoted to major general in the Confederate Army on April 14, 1862.
• John C. Breckinridge fought at the battles of Shiloh, Port Hudson, Stones River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Cold Harbor, and Monocacy.
• In July 1864, John C. Breckinridge and Jubal Early led a dramatic, but unsuccessful raid on Washington, D.C.
• John C. Breckinridge served as the fifth, and final, Confederate Secretary of War from January through April 1865.
• John C. Breckinridge fled the United States to avoid prosecution for treason, after the American Civil War and lived in Europe and Canada until February 1869.
• John C. Breckinridge practiced law and served as vice president of the Elizabethtown, Lexington, and Big Sandy Railroad Company after the Civil War.
• John C. Breckinridge was the only vice president ever to take up arms against the government of the United States.
• John C. Breckinridge was Mary Todd Lincoln’s cousin.