BRECKINRIDGE, William Campbell Preston, (grandson of John Breckinridge, uncle of Levin Irving Handy, and
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.