Albert Taylor Bledsoe

Born in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1809, Albert Taylor Bledsoe built an unusually varied career. He graduated from West Point, taught mathematics, practiced law, and later entered the Episcopal ministry. Over the years he was connected with teaching posts and public work in several states, giving him a reputation as a learned and energetic man of letters.

Bledsoe is remembered less for any one profession than for his controversial writing. Before the Civil War he published arguments defending slavery, and during and after the conflict he became a prominent supporter of the Confederate cause in print. He also edited the Southern Review, where he promoted ideas that helped shape the early Lost Cause interpretation of the war.

For readers today, Bledsoe is a revealing figure because his books and essays show how philosophy, religion, and politics could be woven together in defense of the antebellum South. His work remains of interest mainly as a window into the intellectual history of the Civil War era rather than as a neutral account of it.