Background
Alexander Blackburn Bradford was born on June 2, 1799, in Jefferson County, Tennessee, United States. His mother was Mary McFarland Bradford.
Businessman congressman lawyer politician
Alexander Blackburn Bradford was born on June 2, 1799, in Jefferson County, Tennessee, United States. His mother was Mary McFarland Bradford.
After a common-school education, Alexander read law in Knoxville.
Alexander Bradford read law in Nashville and began his practice in Jackson, Tennessee. He served as attorney general for the Fourteenth Judicial District in southwest Tennessee in 1823.
He was elected as a Whig to the Tennessee Senate in 1837. He was also a major general in the state militia during the Seminole War of 1836. In 1839, Bradford moved to Holly Springs, Mississippi, where he became a close associate of Alexander M. Clayton.
He also owned a small railroad in Mississippi. In 1841, he was elected to the state legislature from Marshall County, Mississippi. He was a delegate to the Memphis commercial convention in 1846.
In the Mexican War, he was cited for bravery at Monterrey. He was captain of the marshall guards and was made colonel of the 1st Mississippi Regiment in 1847 but resigned in order for Jefferson Davis to become a colonel. He was the Whig candidate for governor in 1847 but lost.
He served again in the state legislature during the late 1840s but was defeated in his try for the United States House of Representatives in 1852. He attended the Memphis commercial convention in 1853.
Alexander Blackburn Bradford served on the Committee on Public Lands in the provisional Congress. He remained a close friend and advisor to Mississippi leaders, but advancing age forced his retirement from public life. He continued to practice law during the war.
When the war ended, Bradford was impoverished. Bradford managed to recoup some of his losses by practicing law during the late 1860s in Boliver County, Mississippi.
Bradford supported secession and actively supported the formation of the Confederacy.
Quotations: "I was in all of the fight, saw everything and was exposed fifteen hours to cannonballs, grape canister and musketry, grazed seven times but escaped unhurt."
Quotes from others about the person
"His later years have been passed in comparative retirement, partly with his children at Holly Springs, to whom he was almost an idol, and partly in Bolivar County where his property is situated. General Bradford was remarkable for independence, honesty, frankness, and truth. Of a strikingly handsome person and military carriage, he bore the weight of years with unbent form and with the proud, firm step of a born soldier. His eagle eye flashed with the same fire at the age of seventy-three as when he charged the Indian hammocks in 1836, and the Mexican batteries in 1847. No reverses ever subdued him; no dangers ever appalled him."
"To Major Bradford, I offer my thanks for the prompt and creditable manner in which he executed all the orders I gave him, and especially refer to the delicate duty assigned him of restoring order among the files of another regiment when rendered unsteady by the fire of the enemy's artillery." - Jefferson Davis
Alexander Blackburn Bradford married Darthula Olivia Miller in 1821 and they had four children.