Bragg resigned in 1856 to manage his Louisiana plantation. Due to his southern heritage and profession, Bragg volenteered for confederate service in 1861. Sent to the western front, he replaced P. G. T. Beauregard as commander in June 1862. Until December 1863, he commanded the Western Confederate army, leading it several times to the brink of victory. For an unexplained physcological phenomena, Bragg failed to grasp the opurtunities presented to him, and was thus defeated. After service as a major general, he became personal advisor to his close aquaintence, Jefferson Davis. After the war he took up civil engineering and got involved in the Rail Road indusrty
Bibliography: McWhiney, Grady W., Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat (1969).