BRECKINRIDGE, William Campbell Preston, (grandson of John Breckinridge, uncle of Levin Irving Handy, great–uncle of John Bayne Breckinridge), A Representative from Kentucky; born in Baltimore, Md., August 28, 1837; attended the common schools, Jefferson College, Chambersburg, Pa., and Pisgah Academy, Woodford County, Ky.; was graduated from Centre College, Danville, Ky., in 1855 and from the law department of the University of Louisville in 1857; was admitted to the bar in 1857 and commenced practice in Lexington, Ky.; entered the Confederate Army in 1861 as captain and was subsequently promoted to the rank of colonel in the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry; was in command of the Kentucky cavalry designated to act as bodyguard for President Jefferson Davis and the members of his cabinet at the close of the Civil War; returned to Lexington, Ky., and was attorney for Fayette County; edited the Lexington (Ky.) Observer and Reporter 1866-1868; professor of equity and jurisprudence in the University of Kentucky at Lexington; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1876 and 1888; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-ninth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1885-March 3, 1895); unsuccessful candidate for election in 1896 to the Fifty-fifth Congress; resumed the practice of law and also edited the Lexington Herald; died in Lexington, Ky., November 18, 1904; interment in Lexington Cemetery.
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
[ Top ]Breckinridge, William Campbell Preston. Address at the decoration of the graves of the Confederate dead. Lexington: Observer & Reporter print, 1869.
------. Address delivered at the centennial celebration of the settlement of Breckinridge County. Frankfort, Ky.: Printed at the Kentucky Yoeman Office, Major, Johnston & Barrett, 1882.
------. "The ex-Confederate, and what he has done in peace." An address delivered before the Association of the Army of Northern Virginia at the meeting held in Richmond, Va., October 26, 1892, by Wm. C. P. Breckinridge. Printed by order of the Association. Richmond: J. L. Hill Print. Co., 1892.
------. Great debate on the tariff. For free trade. [New York: M. J. Ivers & Co., 1888].
------. A plea for a history of the Confederate war: an address at the decoration of the Confederate graves in Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky, May 26, 1879. Louisville: J.P. Morton & co., printers, 1887.
Davis, William C. Breckinridge: Statesman, Soldier, Symbol. 1974. Reprint, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992.
Hay, John. William McKinley. Memorial address delivered by John Hay ... in the hall of the House of Representatives, February 27th, 1902. [Lexington, Ky.]: Transylvania Press, [1902].
Klotter, James C. The Breckinridges of Kentucky, 1760-1981. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1986.
Knight, William Eliot. The Wm. C. P. Breckinridge defence [sic]. Colfax, Ia.: The Weekly Clipper, 1895.
Lexington, Fayette, pseud. The celebrated case of Col. W.C.P. Breckinridge and Madeline Pollard. Chicago: The Current events Publishing Company, 1894.
Parker, Agnes. The real Madeleine Pollard. A diary of ten weeks' association with the plaintiff in the famous Breckinrindge-Pollard suit. New York: G. W. Dillingham, 1894.
