Autograph letter signed by Confederate General Braxton Bragg (1817-1876), to an unnamed major. Lowndesboro, Alabama, 20th September 1866. 2 pages, 10 x 8 inches, with engraved portrait of Bragg by George Perrine (1837-1885), published by G. P. Putnam, N.d., New York City, New York.

Bragg was a controversial Confederate general during the Civil War who notably commanded forces during the battle of Chickamauga. His plantation, Thibodaux, had been confiscated by the Union army in 1862 and used by the Freedman's Bureau as a shelter for freed individuals. Consequently, Bragg and his wife moved in with his brother, a plantation owner in Lowndesboro, whence this letter was written. 

Speaking of problems with the Lowndesboro cotton crop, Bragg writes that he will "not make enough to pay expenses...such is the case generally throughout this section of the country, I am told, especially with the Yankee experimenting on free negro labor."

Bragg continues writing about the recent elections, Yankee public sentiment, and the "radical rule" he anticipates for the country: "In civil commotions the worst men rise to the surface. Secession has crushed itself, but the revolution goes bravely on, and the last vestage [sic] of freedom for this country must soon succumb,...in this state the mil'ry carries it with a higher hand than ever."

Bragg and his wife decided to leave Lowndesboro, and in 1867 he accepted a position as superintendent of the New Orleans waterworks. His service in this capacity was short-lived, however, and can be attributed to the "Yankee experiment" about which he wrote, as he was quickly replaced by a formerly enslaved African American man, as the Reconstructionists gained power and influence. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate]  [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation]