Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 7.djvu/418

Rh Soon afterward he was elected brigadier-general, and held that position until 1861. In 1836 he was a delegate to a State convention, to nominate a candidate for vice-president, to run on the same ticket with Andrew Jackson. He was also a delegate to all Democratic State conventions from 1836 to 1861. In 1851 he was nominated by the Democrats to run against the secessionists and was elected. In 1855 he was nominated to the legislature but declined, and being again nominated unanimously he declined the position, but in 1857 he accepted the nomination and was elected. He was a delegate to the Charleston convention of i860, and was a candidate for elector on the Douglas ticket. After the election of Lincoln he was an independent candidate against secession. As a member of the Alabama convention he voted against secession, and refused to sign the ordinance, which had been printed on parchment; but when it became necessary to raise an army to maintain the position taken by his State he accompanied and assisted Governor Shorter in organizing the cavalry. In the winter, when recruiting became a drag, he raised and organized a company, and went into camp at Loachapoka. With his assistance a regiment was raised. When it was organized he failed to be made colonel and went into service as a captain in the Forty-seventh infantry. After much campaigning it happened that, at the battle of Cedar Run, Captain Bulger was in command of the regiment, and during an attack on the flank he was wounded in the arm, but he bound his arm tightly, laid it in his bosom, and continued to command his regiment. A little later he was shot in the leg and an artery severed, but the indomitable soldier stopped the bleeding by placing a corncob on each side which he bound with a suspender, given him by one of the soldiers, and then persisted in the fight until, about to faint from loss of blood he was compelled to desist. The casualties on the ground occupied by the Forty-seventh Alabama were General Winder killed, General Taliaferro wounded,