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Russellville Convention
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Russellville Convention was a sovereignty convention held in 1861 by Kentucky secessionists to form a Confederate government for their state.
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After holding a preliminary meeting in October, 116 delegates from 68 counties met in Russellville, Kentucky on November 18, 1861 after the state government formally declared neutrality in the American Civil War. Trigg County's Henry Burnett was elected presiding officer. Over the next three days, delegates to the convention ratified an ordinance of secession, adopted a new state seal, designated Bowling Green (then under the control of Confederate general Albert Sydney Johnston) as the Confederate State capital, and elected George W. Johnson as governor. There is also some indication that Horatio F. Simrall was elected lieutenant governor, but soon fled to Mississippi to escape Federal authorities.[1] In fact, by the third day, the entire convention had to be moved for the delegates' safety to a tower on the campus of Bethel College, a now-defunct institution in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
The Confederate States of America recognized the convention and admitted Kentucky into the confederacy, but the fledgling government faced enormous challenges from the beginning. After the Ulysses S. Grant's victory at the Battle of Fort Henry, General Johnston withdrew from Bowling Green into Tennessee on February 7, 1862. A week later, Governor Johnson followed, only to be killed two months later at the Battle of Shiloh. Richard Hawes was quickly elected to replace Johnson, but the government formed by the Russellville Convention lacked any real power after 1863, and was dissolved in 1865 following the end of the war.
(1992) "Confederate State Government", in Kleber, John E.: The Kentucky Encyclopedia, Associate editors: Thomas D. Clark, Lowell H. Harrison, and James C. Klotter, Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813117720.
- ^ Powell, Robert A. (1976). Kentucky Governors. Frankfort, Kentucky: Kentucky Images. ISBN B0006CPOVM.
- Text of Kentucky's ordinance of secession
- Sessession and the Union in Tennessee and Kentucky: A Comparitive Analysis James Copeland, Walters State Community College
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