Joseph Holt and Abraham Lincoln

Joseph Holt and Abraham Lincoln. . Breckinridge County native Joseph Holt played an important role in keeping Kentucky in the Union during the Civil War. He also prosecuted the Lincoln assassination conspirators., Born on January 6, 1807, Holt attended Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, before practicing law in Elizabethtown. He became Commonwealth's Attorney of Louisville in 1833, and, two years later, moved to Mississippi, where he built a lucrative law practice. By age thirty-five he had retired and moved back to Louisville., Beginning in 1857, Holt served in many positions under President James Buchanan, including commissioner of patents, postmaster general, and secretary of war. His tenure as secretary of war ended when Abraham Lincoln was elected president. Holt became a staunch Unionist during the Civil War. He played a major role in orchestrating Unionist political victories across Kentucky in the summer of 1861 and helped keep Kentucky loyal to the Union., In 1862, President Lincoln appointed Holt judge advocate general of the United States. In this position, Holt presided over the trial of the eight Lincoln conspirators, obtaining the conviction of all the accused. Four were sentenced to be hanged, while four were sentenced to imprisonment with hard labor. Holt resigned this post in 1875, living in Washington, D.C, until his death on August 1, 1894. He is buried here in Breckinridge County next to the Holt homestead., Holt turned down Lincoln's offer to appoint him attorney general in 1864, writing instead to support fellow Kentuckian James Speed:, I can recall no public man in the State, of uncompromising loyalty, who unites in the same degree, the qualifications of professional attainments, fervent devotion to the union, and to the principles of your administration, and spotless purity of personal character. , , Joseph Holt to Abraham Lincoln, Washington, D.C., December 1, 1864, Left side: , Kentucky Lincoln Heritage Trail , 1809: Abraham Lincoln born at Sinking Soring farm, in present-day Larue County, Kentucky , 1816: Lincoln family moved from Kentucky , 1841: Abraham Lincoln visited his friend Joshua Speed at Farmington, the Speed family plantation, in Louisville, Kentucky , 1842: Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd of Lexington, Kentucky , 1847: The Lincoln family visited Lexington, Kentucky, en route to Abraham's only term in Congress , 1860: Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States in November , 1865: Abraham Lincoln assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., Captions: , Center: Judge Joseph Holt, Judge Advocate General, U.S.A. (1862-1875) Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division , Right: Judge Joseph Holt worked closely with Abraham Lincoln on many court-martial cases and presided over the trial of the assassination conspirators in 1865. This image shows the four hanged and hooded bodies of the convicted conspirators in Washington, D.C., including Mary E. Surratt (first hanged person on the left), the first woman to be executed by the United State government. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division