John Bratton was an American physician and a state legislator. He was a member of the South Carolina Constitutional Convention, and a member of South Carolina Senate and South Carolina House of Representatives.
Background
John was born on March 7, 1831, in Winnsboro, Fairfield County, South Carolina, United States. He was the son of the prominent physician William Bratton and his wife Isabella Means Bratton. John's father moved to Fairfield County probably in the early 1800s, where he became a prominent and successful doctor in Winnsboro.
Education
John Bratton attended Mount Zion Insitute and graduated from South Carolina College (now University of South Carolina) in 1850 and from the Medical College of Charleston (Medical University of South Carolina) in 1853.
From 1853 until 1861, John Bratton was a planter and physician in Winnsboro. When his state seceded, he enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private. Bratton held the rank of captain at the battle of Fort Sumter, and he was wounded and captured at the Battle of Seven Pines.
Exchanged in 1863, he was promoted to colonel. He was made a brigadier general on the battlefield during the Wilderness campaign in May 1864. At the time of the surrender at Appomattox, Bratton commanded the largest brigade in the Confederate Army, which he surrendered to the Union Army.
Soon after, he was paroled and he returned to Winnsboro to become a farmer. In 1865, Bratton was a delegate to the state constitutional convention. He represented Fairfield County in the South Carolina Senate from 1865 to 1866.
A confirmed Democrat, he remained active in Reconstruction politics. In 1880, he was elected comptroller of South Carolina, and in 1884, he was elected to the United States House where he served one term. Bratton lost a bid for the governorship of South Carolina in 1890 to the Populist Benjamin Tillman, after which he returned to planting and retired from politics.
Bratton continued as a planter until his death on January 12, 1898, in Winnsboro.
Achievements
Politics
John Bratton entered politics during Reconstruction as a supporter of the conservative Democratic regime dominated by General Wade Hampton.
Connections
John Bratton had three children by his marriage to Elizabeth Porcher DuBose in 1859.