Capt. William Peter Bramlette's 1905 Obit/Tribute
Written in the form of a letter and published in a Bourbon Co., Ky., newspaper in 1905 when Capt. Bramlette's body was moved from Cane Ridge, Ky., to Paris Cemetery.
Capt. Wm. P. Bramblette
Bourbon County through her press, has boasted of and blazoned the deeds of her brave soldiers performed upon the field of Mars upon either side during the late war. But while she has been amost universally generous in her recollections and praise, there remains one, strange to record, whose memory seems entirely shrouded in oblivion; one too who had as much to jeopardize from a worldly standpoint as any, and I dare assert that none bore themselves more gallantly or died more bravely than the subject of this sketch.
Born in Bourbon county, elected first Lieutenant in Capt. W. E. Simms' Company in the Mexican War and distinguished there for his military bearing and efficiency, it was an easy matter for him to enlist a Company to follow him when the tocsin of war sounded, and he announced his intention of casting his lot with the Confederate army.
The only son of an indulgent father, who owned one thousand acres of Blue Grass land, with money, stock and slaves, he gave up all for what he conceived to be the right, and in the stormy period, at Shiloh, Vicksburg and Murfreesboro, (at which latter place he was mortally wounded and died at Nashville). No man was more conspicuously brave, more devoted to the cause, or more solicitous for the comfort and welfare of his men than he.
He fell on the bloody field of Murfreesboro in the fearful and ever memorable charge of the gallant Breckinridge, and the few remaining members of his Company vividly remember his bearing on that occasion, as with sword in hand he led them through the hail of shot and shell which rained upon them from the Federal batteries.
He was brought back and buried at the old homestead and although the weather was intensely cold and bayonets overshadowed the land, there was an immense throng present.
Laid away in his oblivious surroundings, with none to kindly remember or appreciate him save the remnant of a once proud and gallant Company, yet should Bourbon county, at any time in the future conclude to note other names upon the monument she has erected to the memory of her fallen braves, she cannot in justice to herself and history write a name higher upon her school of fame and honor than that of Capt. Wm. P. Bramblette. [Signed] H.
Source: Geoff Walden, (Orphan Brigade Kinfolk Association historian) who indicates the writer of the tribute probably was Capt. Hugh Henry. Henry, also of Bourbon Co., Ky., served in the Orphan Brigade with Capt. Bramlette and was himself promoted to captain after Bramlette's death. Henry helped carry Capt. Bramlette from the battlefield after he was wounded. Capt. Henry also was one of the pall bearers at Capt. Bramlette's reinterment in Paris, Ky., in 1905. Geoff Walden also is the source of the following news item that also appeared in a Bourbon Co., Ky., newspaper in 1905....
BRAMBLETT, Captain William P., Confederate killed at Murfreesboro and buried near Cane Ridge, will be exhumed and re-interred August 24, at the Confederate lot in the Paris Cemetery.
Col. A. T. Forsythe, being master of ceremonies, orderly Sergeant William E. Knox, called the roll of the living and the dead, when Capt. James R. Rogers feelingly pronounced the eulogy. He reviewed the military record of Capt. Bramblett and paid an eloquent tribute to his memory. Rev. Dr. E. H. Rutherford pronounced the benediction.
Capt. Bramblett was born and reared in Bourbon County, Ky., near the historic grounds of old Cane Ridge Church. He was a young man of great prominence, endowed with fine personal appearance, possessed of a large farm and many slaves.
He enlisted in the Mexican War and served as Lieut. in Capt. Simms' Co.
from 1847 to 1848.
In 1861 he enlisted in Col. Roger Hanson's Regt, Gen. John C. Breckinridge's brigade. At the battle of Murfreesboro, where 45,000 Confederates were engaged and during the terrific charge made by Breckenridge in which 2,000 were killed and wounded, Peter Bramblett was one of the number wounded, and while being borne tenderly from the field by Capt. Henry and other comrades, he was again wounded, this time yielding up his precious life as one of the bravest and knightliest of soldiers and truest and tenderest of gentlemen.
Pall Bearers: Capt. Hugh Henry of Louisville, William E. Knox of Wilmore; Lieut. L. D. Young of Carlisle; Dr. C. J. Clark of Paris; James McDonald, of Kansas City; Capt. James R. Rogers of Cane Ridge. About 800 old soldiers and friends were present.
August 2, 1905.
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