He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and graduated from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky in 1855. He went on to earn his Juris Doctor from the University of Louisville in 1857. He returned to Lexington, Kentucky to engage in the practice of law. He entered the Confederate Army in 1861 as a Captain under John Hunt Morgan, and by the end of the war held the rank of Colonel. Breckinridge, a member of the Breckinridge political family, died November 18, 1904, and is interred in Lexington Cemetery. W.C.P. Breckinridge was the father of Sophonisba Breckinridge and Desha Breckinridge.