The First Families Project - SC - Charleston County - Bratton Family Brigadier-General John Bratton was born at Winnsboro, S.C., March 7, 1831, the son of Dr. William Bratton by his second wife, Isabella Means. He is a descendant of Col. William Bratton, of Virginia, who removed to York county, S.C., and was a conspicuous figure in the war of the revolution. John Bratton was graduated at the South Carolina college in 1850, and a few years later embarked in the practice of medicine at his native town, having completed a professional course at the Charleston college. In 1861 he enlisted in the first call for ten regiments of troops, as a private, and being promoted captain, served in that capacity during the bombardment of Fort Sumter, and until the State troops were called upon to enlist in the Confederate service. His company declining to respond, he again enlisted as a private, and with twenty-three men of his old command helped to fill up a company for the Sixth regiment. This was soon ordered to Virginia, where he went as second lieutenant of Company C. Except for the engagement at Dranesville, the year for which the regiment enlisted was uneventful, but toward the close he attracted the favorable attention of General Johnston by advocating the enlistment of his regiment as a whole for the war, and though this proposition failed, he was enabled to re-enlist the first company of one year's men of Johnston's army. It followed that a battalion of six companies of the Sixth was re-enlisted, and he was soon elected to the command, and promoted colonel when the regiment was filled up. He commanded his regiment with gallantry in Jenkins' brigade, Longstreet's corps, at Williamsburg, Seven Pines, the Seven Days' battles, and the succeeding campaigns of the army of Northern Virginia, and in the Chickamauga and Knoxville campaigns, where he was in command of the brigade while Jenkins had charge of Hood's division. After the death of Jenkins at the battle of the Wilderness, he was at once promoted brigadier-general on the urgent request of General Lee, and he continued to lead this famous brigade to the end. At Appomattox, so well had his gallant men held together, he had the largest brigade in the army, a little over 1,500 men, and in fact it was larger than some of the divisions. His brigade alone made an orderly march to Danville and secured railroad transportation for a part of their homeward journey. When General Bratton reached home he gave his [bitmap] attention to planting, and in 1866 was elected to the legislature. In 1876 he was the chairman of the South Carolina delegation to the national Democratic convention, in 1880 was chairman of the State committee of his party, and in 1881 was elected comptroller of the State to fill an unexpired term. He was a stalwart lieutenant of Gen. Wade Hampton in the famous campaign of 1876, was elected to Congress in 1884, and was his party's candidate for governor in 1890. Having been for many years identified with the agricultural interests of the State, he was selected as the one man likely to unify his party. With the single purpose of mitigating the evils attending division among the whites, he sacrificed himself on the shrine of duty, as he saw it, and though defeated, again won the admiration of all classes. Until his death at Winnsboro, January 12, 1898, he held firmly the unalloyed love and respect of the people. SOURCE: Confederate Military History - SC Volume