John C. Breckenridge was one of four candidates for president in the Election of 1860, having been nominated by the Southern Democrats. He came in behind the winner, Abraham Lincoln, as well as Stephen A. Douglas, the candidate of the northern Democrats.
After Secession, Breckenridge served first as a general in the Confederate Army and then in the cabinet of Jefferson Davis as the fourth and last Secretary of War for the Confederate States of America.