Edward S. Bragg

Bragg was born in Unadilla, New York, the son of Margarette (Kohl) and Joel B. Bragg.[1][2] Bragg was a cousin of Braxton Bragg, who would become a Confederate general in the Civil War.[3] Bragg attended district schools as a child. He then attended the local academy and Geneva College (today Hobart College) in Geneva, New York,[1] where he was one of the charter members of the Kappa Alpha Society. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1848, commencing practice in Unadilla until 1850 when he moved to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.[1]

A Democrat, he was elected district attorney of Fond du Lac in 1853 and was a delegate to the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston, South Carolina, which nominated Stephen A. Douglas for President and Herschel V. Johnson for Vice President.[1]

General Edward S. Bragg

When word arrived of the attack on Fort Sumter, Bragg was in the middle of a case in Oshkosh. He requested a recess and immediately returned to Fond du Lac. That night he addressed an assembly in the city and an entire company of "three-month" volunteers was raised. As Bragg went about arranging his personal affairs, the call came for another round of volunteers to enlist for three years service. Bragg recruited another company and was chosen as their captain. The company was referred to as "Bragg's Rifles" and would become Company E of the 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment.[1]

The 6th Wisconsin was organized at Camp Randall in Madison, Wisconsin, and mustered into service July 16, 1861. They were ordered to proceed to Washington, D.C., for service in the eastern theater of the war. Once at Washington, they were organized into the Brigade of General Rufus King in the Army of the Potomac. From this point to the end of the war, Bragg participated in nearly every battle of the Army of the Potomac.[4]

He was promoted to major on September 17, 1861, lieutenant colonel on June 21, 1862, and colonel on March 10, 1863. At the Battle of Antietam he was severely wounded.

He missed the Gettysburg Campaign due to wounds suffered at the Battle of Chancellorsville. After recovering and returning to his field command, he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on June 25, 1864, which he served as until being mustered out on October 9, 1865. For the latter part of the war, he commanded the famed Iron Brigade. Bragg mustered out in 1865 and returned to Wisconsin to resume his law practice.[1]

Following the war, Bragg was appointed postmaster of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin by President Andrew Johnson in 1866, served in the Wisconsin Senate in 1868 and 1869. In 1868 he was a delegate to the soldiers and sailors convention in New York City, which nominated Horatio Seymour for President. He was the (unsuccessful) 1871 Democratic nominee for Wisconsin Attorney General. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1872 which nominated Horace Greeley and B. Gratz Brown. He was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate to the United States Senate in 1874, losing to Angus Cameron.

Bragg was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1876 and was reelected in 1878 and 1880, serving from 1877 to 1883, not being a candidate for reelection in 1882. He represented Wisconsin's 5th congressional district in the 45th, 46th, and 47th United States Congresses (March 4, 1877 – March 3, 1883). There, he served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Justice from 1877 to 1879, of the Committee on War Claims from 1879 to 1881 and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1880 which nominated Winfield Scott Hancock and William H. English. At the Democratic National Convention of 1884, he seconded the nomination of Grover Cleveland for President with the "We love him for the enemies he made" comment that marked the rest of the successful campaign. It referred to Cleveland's conflicts with the corrupt Tammany Hall organization. He was elected back to the House of Representatives in 1884 to the 49th Congress, serving again from March 4, 1885 to March 3, 1887, this time as the representative of Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district. He also served as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs from 1885 to 1887.

After not being a candidate for reelection in 1886, Bragg returned to his law practice in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico by President Grover Cleveland in 1888, serving until 1889, and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1896 which nominated William Jennings Bryan and Arthur Sewall. He was appointed consul general in Havana, Cuba in May, 1902, and in Hong Kong, then a British crown colony, in September, 1902, serving from 1903 to 1906.[1]

Bragg married Cornelia Colman, a grandaughter of Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, who was the namesake and one of the founders of Rochester, New York. They had one son and three daughters. Their youngest daughter, Bertha, married George Percival Scriven, who would go on to become the first chairman of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the forerunner of NASA.

Bragg was a cousin of Frederick William Benteen, a senior captain (brevet brigadier-general) of the U.S. 7th Cavalry under George Armstrong Custer. Benteen was a major figure in the ill-fated Battle of the Little Bighorn and was singled out by Major Marcus Reno for his leadership during the two days of fighting endured by the survivors. Benteen mentioned his relationship to Bragg in a letter to Theodore Goldin dated February 10, 1896 (Benteen-Goldin Letters, Carroll, 1974).

Bragg died in Fond du Lac[1] and was interred in the town's Rienzi Cemetery.

• List of American Civil War generals (Union)

• Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1888). "Bragg, Edward Stuyvesant". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton and Company. p. 356. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
• Derby, George; White, James Terry (1893). "Bragg, Edward Stuyvesant". The National Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: J. T. White Company. pp. 33–34. Retrieved June 11, 2020.
• Eicher, John H.; Eicher, David J. (2001). Civil War High Commands. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. p. 141. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3. Retrieved June 12, 2020.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edward S. Bragg.

• United States Congress. "Edward S. Bragg (id: B000757)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2008-01-06
• "Edward Stuyvesant Bragg". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
• Bragg, Gen. Edward Stuyvesant (1827-1912) at Wisconsin Historical Society