First
Kentucky "Orphan" Brigade 
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Capt. William Peter Bramblette
Co. H, Fourth Kentucky Infantry, CSA
The following information on William Peter Bramblette was gathered from a biography in the 1895 Confederate Veteran Association of Kentucky membership book (Lexington, 5th Edition), page 86 (also the source of this image). The other items shown here were found in the files of the Paris, Kentucky, public library. These items had been gathered from old newspapers by Patty Biddle of Paris.
WM. PETER BRAMBLETT, PARIS -- Born in Bourbon County, Kentucky, October 21, 1823. Enlisted in the Army of the Confederate States at Camp Boone, Tennessee, July, 1861; was elected Captain Company H, 4th Kentucky Infantry, September 13, 1861. He was in the battles of Shiloh, Vicksburg, Baton Rouge and was mortally wounded at the battle of Murfreesboro and fell into the hands of the enemy and died at Nashville, Tennessee, January 28 1863. His regiment at the time of his death was in Hanson's Brigage [sic], Breckinridge's Division, Hardee's Corps, Army of Tennessee.
REMINISCENCES OF A FEDERAL SURGEON (Confederate Hospital)
Dr. F. G. Hickman, of Vandalia, Ill., writes of prison hospital service in Nashville. This hospital was on Cherry Street, south of Nashville.
After many hours which I was engaged as assistant surgeon, Dr. Walton, of Kentucky, who was in charge, said to us: "We will not do any more work tonight."
Just then we heard an exclamation from this officer, and I insisted that he be brought in and his wounds dressed. This was done, and he asked me if his wounds were fatal. I told him that the chances were greatly against him. He was shot through the chest and through the leg. He was carried to a shed near by and laid on some unbaled cotton. I gave him some water and brandy. The night was very cold; I got an order for a pair of blankets and placed them over him and told him that I would see him in the morning, but I failed, as he was sent to Nashville very early. He was CAPTAIN PETER BRAMBLETTE, Second [Fourth] Kentucky Infantry, of Paris, Ky. Ten days later I saw his death announced in a Nashville paper. Mrs. Payne who was a frequent visitor at the hospital wanted to have a friend of her's paroled and taken to her home, and related to me that she had cared for several Confederate soldiers, one of whom was Captain Bramlett, who had died at her house.
She said that when he was about to die she concluded to remove the coarse blankets and replace them with neater ones; that he caught her hand and said: "No, do not remove those blankets, for they saved my life at Stone's River. They were placed over me that cold night by the hand of the enemy, but a brother. You may come across him sometime; and if you should, tell him I died under the blankets he placed over me that night." She sent them to his parents in Paris, Ky.
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. H.
(This article, which may be from a newspaper dated 26 March 1892, was very likely written by Hugh Henry, who succeeded Bramblette to the Captaincy of Co. H, 4th Kentucky Infantry. GRW)
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.
Capt. Bramblette's grave marker in the Confederate lot, Paris Cemetery
NOTES: Some of the above references show Capt. Bramblette as having been a member of Col. Hanson's 2nd Kentucky Infantry, but this was in error.
Persons identified in the article on his re-interment:
Col. A. T. Forsythe -- probably Pvt. A. T. Forsyth, Co. C, 9th Kentucky
Cavalry
Hugh Henry -- Capt., Co. H, 4th Kentucky
Infantry (1st Lt. under Capt. Bramblette)
William E. Knox -- 1st Sergeant, Co. H, 4th Kentucky Infantry
Lot Dudley Young -- 1st Lieutenant, Co. H,
4th Kentucky Infantry
Dr. C. J. Clark -- possibly Pvt. Charles J. Clark, Co. D, 6th Kentucky
Infantry
James McDonald -- 4th Sergeant, Co. E, 2nd Kentucky
Infantry
Capt. James R. Rogers -- Adjutant, 3rd Battalion, Kentucky Mounted Rifles
During the War with Mexico, Wm. P. Bramblette served as Lieutenant of Capt. William Simms' Company in the 3rd Kentucky Volunteer Infantry.
He served as Captain of the Flat Rock Grays, Kentucky State Guard (organized militia in Bourbon County, commissioned May 1860).
Further biographical and genealogical information can be found in the Bramblett/Bramlett Information Center, in the military section.
URL: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~orphanhm/bramblette.htm
