John Cabell Breckinridge
U. S. House of Representatives, Kentucky, 1851-1855
U. S. Vice-President, 1856-1860
Presidential Candidate, Southern Democratic Party, 1860
Confederate Major General, 1861-1865
Confederate Secretary of War, February 1865 - April 1865
Born: January 21, 1821, "Cabell's Dale," near Lexington, Kentucky.
Died: May 17, 1875, Lexington, Kentucky.
- Attended Pisgah Academy, Woodford County, Kentucky.
- Centre College, Danville, Kentucky, graduate, 1839.
- Later attended Princeton College.
- Studied law in the Transylvania Institute, Lexington, Kentucky.
- Admitted to the bar in 1840.
- Moved to Burlington, Iowa, but soon returned and began practice in Lexington, Kentucky.
- Major of the Third Kentucky Volunteers during the Mexican War, 1847-1848
- Member of the Kentucky State House of Representatives, 1849.
- Elected from Kentucky as a Democrat to the Thirty-second and Thirty-third U. S. Congresses, March 4, 1851 - March 3, 1855.
- Was not a candidate for renomination in 1854.
- Was offered the mission to Spain by U. S. President Pierce, but declined.
- Elected Vice President of the U. S., 1856, on the Democratic ticket, with James Buchanan as President, the youngest Vice President who had ever held that office.
- Defeated as a candidate for President, 1860, by Abraham Lincoln.
- Elected from Kentucky to the U. S. Senate, serving from March 4, 1861, until expelled by resolution of December 4, 1861.
- Entered the Confederate Army during the Civil War as Brigadier General and soon became a Major General.
- Secretary of War in the Cabinet of the Confederate States, January - April 1865.
- Resided in Europe for a year or more.
- Returned to Lexington, Kentucky, and resumed the practice of law.
- Vice President of the Elizabethtown, Lexington & Big Sandy Railroad Co.
Buried: Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Kentucky.
See also the Confederate Soldier Personnel Section
(Source: U.S. Congress. House. Biographical Directory Of The American Congress 1774-1949, 85th Cong., 2nd sess., H. Doc. 607 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950), pp. 759-2057.)