I’ve thought before about mentioning here an amusing but possibly apocryphal story about the famously irascible C.S.A. General Braxton Bragg. This anecdote has been repeated by others, but perhaps it will be new to some readers.

Bragg was born here in North Carolina in the town of Warrenton. Perhaps it’s a good day to write about him, as his namesake, Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, N.C., has just today (2 June 2023) been renamed Fort Liberty. (See this U.S. Department of Defense announcement about the renaming of facilities previously commemorating Confederate leaders.)

In his personal memoirs, U.S. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant wrote about Bragg, whom he had known during the Mexican-American War (1846-48). Grant described Bragg as “a remarkably intelligent and well-informed man, professionally and otherwise” but that “he was possessed of an irascible temper, and was naturally disputatious… in the old army he was in frequent trouble.”

Then Grant goes on to relate an amusing story:

“On one occasion, when stationed at a post of several companies commanded by a field officer, he was himself commanding one of the companies and at the same time acting as post quartermaster and commissary. He was first lieutenant at the time, but his captain was detached on other duty. As commander of the company he made a requisition upon the quartermaster—himself—for something he wanted. As quartermaster he declined to fill the requisition, and endorsed on the back of it his reasons for so doing. As company commander he responded to this, urging that his requisition called for nothing but what he was entitled to, and that it was the duty of the quartermaster to fill it. As quartermaster he still persisted that he was right. In this condition of affairs Bragg referred the whole matter to the commanding officer of the post. The latter, when he saw the nature of the matter referred, exclaimed: ‘My God, Mr. Bragg, you have quarrelled with every officer in the army, and now you are quarrelling with yourself!'”

(Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant. New York: Charles Webster and Co., 1885-6. See chapter 44.)

Some (or maybe most) scholars have disputed the authenticity of this account, and Bragg does have his modern-day defenders. But I couldn’t resist repeating it on this auspicious day.

ARB — 2 June 2023