American political apologist for the Southern Confederacy, Albert Taylor Bledsoe (1809-1877) was at various times an educator, attorney, author, and clergyman.

Albert Bledsoe's forebears were among the early settlers of Kentucky, and Albert was born at Frankfort on Nov. 9, 1809. He was a fellow cadet of Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee at West Point and graduated in 1830. Bledsoe resigned from the Army after 2 years' service in the West. He entered Kenyon College in Ohio to study law and theology and then taught mathematics and French there (1833-1834). He took orders in the Episcopal Church and became an assistant to Bishop Smith of Kentucky. Because of his opposition to the mode of infant baptism, Bledsoe abandoned his clerical career.

Bledsoe was a man of near-genius and tried many careers. In 1838 he was admitted to the bar. He practiced law periodically in Washington, D.C., and Springfield, III. In Springfield...