Albert Taylor Bledsoe

Albert Taylor Bledsoe (November 9, 1809 – December 8, 1877) was an Episcopal priest, attorney, professor of mathematics, and officer in the Confederate army and was best known as an architect of the Lost Cause and defender of the Old South and of slavery.

Dr Bledsoe was Born at Franklin Ky November 9 1809 he entered West Point Military Academy when only fifteen years old graduated in 1830 entered the army and served as lieutenant of infantry at Fort Gibson for two years when he resigned and took up the study of law but abandoned it at the end of a year to become Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Kenyon College Ohio largely with a view to educating a younger brother of brilliant promise but whose early death defeated his cherished plans A year later we find him taking out orders in the Episcopal Church having studied theology under Bishop Mcllvaine and Dr Sparrow His first parish was at Hamilton where he was also Professor of Mathematics in Miami Professor of Mathematics in Miami University In 1836, he married Miss Harriet Coxe of Burlington NJ Later he served as rector in Kentucky but by 1840 he had become convinced of his want of harmony with some of the doctrines of that Church and so surrendered his ministerial credentials and returned to the profession of law in which he practiced chiefly in Springfield from 1840 -1848. From 1848 to 1854 he was Professor of Mathematics in the University of Mississippi and then he was called to the same chair in the University of Virginia.

Here he remained until the breaking out of the civil war when he entered the Confederate army with the title of colonel but was soon appointed by President Davis Chief of the Bureau of War and was made Assistant Secretary of War This office the duties of which were peculiarly trying on him he resigned in 1863 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Taylor_Bledsoe