Edward S . Bragg Edward Stuyvesant Bragg ( February 20 , 1827 – June 20 , 1912 ) was a Democratic politician , lawyer and Union Army general from Wisconsin . He served in the U . S . House of Representatives from 1877 to 1883 and from 1885 to 1887 and subsequently served as a foreign diplomat . Early life and career . Born in Unadilla , New York , Bragg attended district schools as a child . He then attended the local academy and Geneva College ( today Hobart College ) in Geneva , New York , where he was one of the charter members of The Kappa Alpha Society . He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1848 , commencing practice in Unadilla until 1850 when he moved to Fond du Lac , Wisconsin , where he continued practicing law . A Democrat , he was elected district attorney of Fond du Lac in 1853 and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Charleston , South Carolina , in 1860 which nominated Stephen A . Douglas for President and Herschel V . Johnson for . Civil War . At the outbreak of the Civil War , Bragg entered the Union Army as a captain in the 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment on July 16 , 1861 . He was promoted to major on September 17 , 1861 , lieutenant colonel on June 21 , 1862 , and colonel on March 10 , 1863 . He missed the Gettysburg Campaign due to wounds suffered at the Battle of Chancellorsville . After recovering and returning to his field command , he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on June 25 , 1864 , which he served as until being mustered out on October 9 , 1865 . For the latter part of the war , he commanded the famed Iron Brigade . Bragg mustered out in 1865 and returned to Wisconsin to resume his law practice . Postbellum career . Following the war , Bragg was appointed postmaster of Fond du Lac , Wisconsin by President Andrew Johnson in 1866 , served in the Wisconsin Senate in 1868 and 1869 . In 1868 he was a delegate to the soldiers and sailors convention in New York City , which nominated Horatio Seymour for President . He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1872 which nominated Horace Greeley and B . Gratz Brown . He was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate to the United States Senate in 1874 , losing to Angus Cameron . Bragg was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1876 and was reelected in 1878 and 1880 , serving from 1877 to 1883 , not being a candidate for reelection in 1882 . He represented Wisconsin ' s 5th congressional district in the 45th , 46th , and 47th United States Congresses ( March 4 , 1877 – March 3 , 1883 ) . There , he served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Justice from 1877 to 1879 , of the Committee on War Claims from 1879 to 1881 and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1880 which nominated Winfield Scott Hancock and William H . English . At the Democratic National Convention of 1884 , he seconded the nomination of Grover Cleveland for President with the " We love him for the enemies he made " comment that marked the rest of the successful campaign . It referred to Cleveland ' s conflicts with the corrupt Tammany Hall organization . He was elected back to the House of Representatives in 1884 to the 49th Congress , serving again from March 4 , 1885 to March 3 , 1887 , this time as the representative of Wisconsin ' s 2nd congressional district . He also served as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs from 1885 to 1887 . After not being a candidate for reelection in 1886 , Bragg returned to his law practice in Fond du Lac , Wisconsin . He was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico by President Grover Cleveland in 1888 , serving until 1889 , and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1896 which nominated William Jennings Bryan and Arthur Sewall . He was appointed consul general in Havana , Cuba in May , 1902 , and in Hong Kong , then a British crown colony , in September , 1902 , serving from 1903 to 1906 . Bragg died in Fond du Lac and was interned in the town ' s Rienzi Cemetery .