Key facts about U.S. Vice-president John C. Breckinridge.
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.