Thomas E. Bramlette

Thomas Elliott Bramlette (January 3, 1817 – January 12, 1875) was the 23rd governor of Kentucky. He was elected in 1863 and guided the state through the latter part of the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction. At the outbreak of the war, Bramlette put his promising political career on hold and enlisted in the Union Army, raising and commanding the 3rd Kentucky Infantry. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him district attorney for Kentucky. A year later, he was the Union Democratic Party's nominee for governor. Election interference by the Union Army gave him a landslide victory over his opponent, Charles A. Wickliffe. Within a year, however, federal policies such as recruiting Kentucky African-Americans for the Union Army and suspending the writ of habeas corpus for Kentucky citizens caused Bramlette to abandon his support of the Lincoln administration and declare that he would "bloodily baptize the state into the Confederacy".

After the war, Bramlette issued a general pardon for most ex-Confederates in the state. He opposed ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau in Kentucky. Among his accomplishments not related to the war and its aftermath were the reduction of the state's debt and the establishment of the Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical College (now the University of Kentucky). Following his term as governor, Bramlette returned to his legal practice in Louisville. He died January 12, 1875, and was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery.

Early life Thomas Elliott Bramlette was born on January 3, 1817, at Elliott's Cross Roads in Cumberland (now Clinton) County, Kentucky. He was the son of Colonel Ambrose S. and Sarah (Elliott) Bramlette. His father served two terms in the Kentucky Senate and several terms in the Kentucky House of Representatives. In September of that year, Bramlette married Sallie Travis, the first of his two wives. The couple had two children, Thomas and Corinne.

Bramlette's political career began in 1841, when he was elected to represent Clinton County in the General Assembly. In violation of Kentucky's agreement to remain neutral in the Civil War, he raised and commanded the 3rd Kentucky Infantry. A delay allowed Breckinridge to escape before the arrest was made, and he enlisted in the Confederate Army shortly thereafter. During his tenure in this position, he vigorously enforced Kentucky's wartime laws against Confederates and Confederate sympathizers. During his term, he turned down an offered seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as well as a nomination to become the Democratic candidate for Vice-President in 1864. January 4 of the following year, he proclaimed that rebel sympathizers would be held responsible for all guerrilla raids in the state, and specified stiff fines and imprisonment for anyone found to be aiding the guerrillas. By April, enslaved men, despite the stipulation of owner consent and motivated by the prospect for their emancipation, fled to enlist. This led to a wave of violence towards those seeking enlistment. Given this onslaught, by June 1864 owners’ consent was no longer required, as ordered by Union Army Adj. Gen. Lorenzo Thomas.

The situation worsened when on July 5, 1864, President Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus for citizens of the Commonwealth. Burbridge continually menaced Kentucky's citizens, interfering with the presidential election of 1864, and banishing Lieutenant Governor Richard T. Jacob from the state.

Reconstruction era Despite his disagreements with the Lincoln administration, Bramlette proclaimed a day of fasting and prayer upon receiving news of Lincoln's assassination. He is buried at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.