Person

Joseph Holt (Washington, D.C., Judge Advocate General (U.S.A.))

b. 1807-01-06 d. 1894-08-01

Washington, District of Columbia, lawyer. Breckenridge County, Kentucky, native. Son of John Washington Holt and Eleanor Stephens Holt. Married to Mary Harrison Holt. Married to Margaret Wickliffe Holt in Nelson, Kentucky on April 2, 1850. Attended St. Joseph's College and Centre College. Attorney in 1831. Attorney for Jefferson County Circuit in 1833. U.S. Commissioner of Patents from 1857 to 1859. U.S. Postmaster General from 1859 to 1860. Attorney in Washington, D.C. in 1860. Employed Jane Clark and Alfred Simmes in Washington, D.C. in 1860. Secretary of War under President James Buchanan from December 1860 to March 1861. Served as Judge Advocate General of the United States Army from September 3, 1862, to 1875. Head of the Bureau of Military Justice at its establishment in 1864, and promoted to brigadier general. Chief prosecutor in the Lincoln Assassination Trials in May 1865. Prosecutor in the Henry Wirz Trial for war crimes at Andersonville Prison in August 1865.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules,Washington, District of Columbia, Washington Ward 4, p. 560.

Kentucky Marriage Records, Madison County Courthouse, Richmond, Kentucky, Nelson County Marriages, Film 000481488.

Find A Grave, "Joseph Holt (1807-1894)," Memorial #5894187, http://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5894187 (accessed April 29, 2019).

Francis Drake, Dictionary of American Biography, (Boston: Houghton, Osgood and Company, 1879), 446-447.

United States Army, The Army Lawyer: A History of the Judge Advocate General's Corps, 1775-1975, (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975), 52-53.

Citation

Holt, Joseph. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32207762 (November 12, 2026).

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