William Henry Bramblitt, M.D.

Source: Confederate Military History, Vol. III, pp. 748-749.

William Henry Bramblitt, M. D., a prominent physician and citizen of Pulaski City, Va., who in earlier life gave four years’ service to he Confederate cause, was born in Bedford City, January 29, 1820. He was reared from infancy near New London, Campbell county, and was educated for the profession of medicine, being graduated in 1857 by the university of New York. Soon after he had entered upon the duties of his profession the crisis of 1861 arrived and he entered enthusiastically into the military preparation for the defense of his native State. Early in 1861 he organized a company of cavalry in Grayson county, where he was then engaged in practice, of which he was elected captain. This company, known as the Grayson Cavalry, Col. W. H. Jenifer commanding, served under Gens. John B. Floyd and Henry Heth in southwest Virginia and the Kanawha valley of West Virginia during 1861, and during this period he commanded his company with efficiency and gallantry. At the close of the first year’s service he was transferred to the medical department, commissioned surgeon, and assigned to the Sixty-third Virginia infantry regiment. With this command he served in the army of the Kanawha, and in the Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee campaigns of 1863, and was with the regiment, in Buckner’s corps of the army of Tennessee during the battle of Chickamauga. Subsequently he was on hospital duty at Forsyth, Ga., and at the Floyd House hospital, Macon, until the close of the war. He was captured by the enemy at the fall of Macon, April 20, 1865. While in the military service and since then he has been distinguished for his success in some of the most difficult and dangerous of surgical operations. After the close of hostilities he resumed the practice of his profession at Newbern, Pulaski county, Va., and in 1884 he removed to his present home at Pulaski City, where he is engaged actively in his profession.