Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside’s silent partner at Knoxville was Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. Not because Bragg was a traitor but because he put getting even with Gen. Longstreet ahead of Confederate victory. Way ahead. Bragg was a small man.
His chief, post-war published critic Sam Watkins said it best: “Bragg was the great autocrat…He loved to crush the spirit of his men. The more of a hang-dog look they had about them the better was General Bragg pleased. Not a single soldier in the whole army ever loved or respected him.”
Probably not coincidentally, Bragg was also the losingest of the Confederate generals. So much so that after the war he was the inspiration for a derisive portrayal of a Confederate general in the 1956 Broadway musical Li’l Abner: None other than Jubilation T. Cornpone.
The first stanza of Jubilation’s song: “When we fought the Yankees and their annihilation was near, who was there to lead the charge that took us safe to the rear? Why it was Jubilation T. Cornpone, old toot-your-own-horn pone. Jubilation T. Cornpone, a man who knew no fear.”
