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 November 11, 2025 Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives Office of the Governor, Thomas E. Bramlette: Governor's official correspondence file, petitions for pardons, remissions, and respites 1863-1867 KYR-0001-004-1941 BR14-82 to BR14-83

Thomas Elliott Bramlette (KY governor 1863-67, atty, D.A., col 3rd KY Inf) N001000 1817-01-03 1875-01-12 Categories: People

Twenty-third governor of Kentucky, attorney and soldier. Cumberland County, Kentucky, native. Married to Sallie Travis Bramlette in September 1837. Father of James T. Bramlette, William L. Bramlette, Eugene Bramlette, and Corrina Bell Bramlette. Practiced law in Clinton County, Kentucky, and Columbia, Kentucky. Represented Cumberland and Clinton counties in the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from 1841 to 1843. Commonwealth's attorney of the 8th Judicial District of Kentucky from 1848 to 1850. Owned two enslaved persons in 1850. Circuit judge of the 6th Judicial District of Kentucky from 1856 to 1861. Owned nine enslaved persons in 1860. Served as colonel of the 3rd Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment (U.S.A.) from 1861 to 1862. District attorney of the United States District Court for Kentucky in 1863. Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from September 1, 1863, to September 3, 1867. Owned law firm of Bramlette & Van Winkle in partnership with Ephraim L. Van Winkle.

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Clinton County, District No. 1, p. 181A. Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Clinton County, District No. 1, p. 335 (p. 2 of 2 on microfilm). Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Adair County, The Town of Columbia 1st Division, p. 13 (p. 2 of 3 on microfilm). Ninth Manuscript Census of the United States (1870), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Jefferson County, Louisville Ward 8, p. 83B. Ross A. Webb, “Thomas E. Bramlette (1863-1867)” in Lowell H. Harrison, ed., Kentucky’s Governors (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004), 93-97 Lowell H. Harrison, "Bramlette, Thomas Elliott" in The Kentucky Encyclopedia, John E. Kleber, ed. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992), 112-13. Edwin Terrell (Shelby County, KY, captain, guerrilla hunter) N00009010 1845? 1868? Categories: People

Shelby County, Kentucky, soldier. Kentucky native. Son of Robert and Martha Terrell. Resident of Shelby County in 1850. Served in the 1st Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regiment (C.S.A.) as private from 1861 to 1863. Served in the 37th Kentucky Volunteer Mounted Infantry Regiment (U.S.A.) as private from 1863 to 1864. Captain of a counter-guerrilla unit (U.S.A.) in Shelby County and Spencer County in 1865.

Relationships Military: John William Vessels (farmer, Meade County) Military: Independent Kentucky Scouts (U.S.A.) Military: Innis Wootton (Spencer County, Kentucky, blacksmith and guerrilla) Military: Hercules Walker (Jefferson county, Kentucky, guerrilla and farmer) Military: John McAuley Palmer (Military Governor of Kentucky) Legal: Shelby Circuit Court Military: 37th Regiment Kentucky Mounted Infantry (U.S.A.)

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Shelby County, District 2, p. 348. Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers who Served in Organizations from the State of Kentucky, NARA RG 109, Microfilm Series M319, Roll 0079. Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Union Soldiers who Served in Organizations From State of Kentucky, NARA RG 94, Microfilm Series M397, Roll 420. Matthew Christopher Hulbert, "The Rise and Fall of Edwin Terrell, Guerrilla Hunter, U.S.A.," Ohio Valley History vol. 18, no. 3 (Fall 2018), 42-61. Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kentucky, vol. 2, 1861-1866 (Frankfort: Kentucky Yeoman Office, 1867), 374. “Terrell: Death of a Notorious Kentucky Guerilla,” Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.),December 14, 1868, p. 4. Hercules Walker (Jefferson county, Kentucky, guerrilla and farmer) N00010851 1824? 1865 Categories: People

Jefferson County, Kentucky, farmer and guerrilla. Kentucky native. Son of Gideon Walker and Eliza Walker. Farmer in Jefferson County, Kentucky, in 1850. Confederate guerrilla. Killed by Edwin Terrell, commander of the Independent Kentucky Scouts (U.S.A.), in 1865.

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Jefferson County, District 2, p. 233A. Hulbert, Matthew Christopher, The Ghosts of Guerrilla Memory: How Civil War Bushwhackers Became Gunslingers in the American West (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2016), 268, n. 15. Hills (Garrard County, KY, feuding family, member Killed by Hercules Walker in Jefferson Co) N00010854 Categories: People

Family known for fighting the Evans family in Garrard County, Kentucky. Mentioned in a petition written to Thomas Bramlette by Zachariah Wheat on behalf of Edwin Terrell, on June 10, 1865.

Relationships Military: Hercules Walker (Jefferson county, Kentucky, guerrilla and farmer)

KYR-0001-004-1941. Evans (Garrard County, Kentucky, feuding family) N00010855 Categories: People

Family known for fighting the Hills family in Garrard County, Kentucky. Mentioned in a petition written to Thomas Bramlette by Zachariah Wheat on behalf of Edwin Terrell, on June 10, 1865.

Relationships Military: Hercules Walker (Jefferson county, Kentucky, guerrilla and farmer)

KYR-0001-004-1941. John McAuley Palmer (Military Governor of Kentucky) N00006072 1817-09-13 1900-09-25 Categories: People

Carlinville, Illinois, attorney, politician, and soldier. Eagle Creek, Kentucky, native. Married to Malinda Ann Neely Palmer. Attorney in Carlinville, Illinois, in 1840. Delegate to the Illinois State Constitutional Convention in 1847. Member of the Senate of the State of Illinois from 1852 to 1854. Delegate to the National Republican Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1856. Presidential elector for the State of Illinois to the Republican ticket of 1860. Delegate to the Peace Convention in Washington, D.C., on February 4th, 1861. Served in the 14th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment (U.S.A.) as a colonel, brigadier general, and major general from 1861 to 1866. Appointed by Abraham Lincoln to command the Department of Kentucky from February 1865.

Relationships Military: Department of Kentucky Military: United States War Department Military: Office of the Adjutant General of Kentucky Military: United States Army

George T. Palmer, A Conscientious Turncoat: The Story of John M. Palmer, 1817-1900. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1941). John M. Palmer, Personal Recollections of John M. Palmer: The Story of an Ernest Life. (Cincinnati: R. Clarke Co., 1901). "John McCauley Palmer," Appletons' Cyclopedia of American Biography (1600-1889), vol. 4, 640. "John McAuley Palmer (1817-1900)," Find a Grave, Memorial #5895174, accessed July 20, 2017, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5895174/john-mcauley-palmer. Innis Wootton (Spencer County, Kentucky, blacksmith and guerrilla) N00010852 1806? 1865? Categories: People

Spencer County, Kentucky, blacksmith and guerrilla. Kentucky native. Married to Catharine Hansborogh Wootten on Feburary 5, 1829. Father of Susan Wootten, Isabella Wooten, Louisa Wooten. Blacksmith in Shelby County in 1850. Owned nine enslaved persons in Shelby County in 1850. Master blacksmith near Taylorsville in 1860. Owned sixteen enlaved persons in Shelby County in 1860. Confederate guerrilla. Killed by Edwin Terrell, commander of the Independent Kentucky Scouts, in 1865.

Relationships Military: Edwin Terrell (Shelby County, KY, captain, guerrilla hunter)

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Spencer County, District No. 1, p. 10. Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Spencer County, District No. 1, p. 7. Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Spencer County, Taylorsville, p. 10. Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Spencer County, District No. 2, p. 4. Kentucky Marriage Records, Madison County Courthouse, Richmond, Kentucky, X County Marriages, Film #000482500. Zachariah Wheat (Shelby County, Kentucky, attorney ) N00010856 1806-07-26 1877-04-26 Categories: People

Shelby County, Kentucky, attorney. Bourbon County, Kentucky, native. Married to Mary Ann Monroe Wheat in Shelby County on July 22, 1831. Father of Laura Wheat. Married to Anna M. Logan Wheat in Shelby County on November 1, 1857. Father of Benjamin L. Wheat. Attorney in Adair County, Kentucky, in 1850. Circuit judge of the Eighth Judicial District in 1850. Circuit judge of the Fifth Judicial District from 1851 to 1856. Attorney in Adair County in 1860.

Relationships Legal: Lucinda Floyd McGaughey Burnett (Shelby County, Kentucky ) Legal: Shelby Circuit Court Legal: Edwin Terrell (Shelby County, KY, captain, guerrilla hunter) Social: Edwin Terrell (Shelby County, KY, captain, guerrilla hunter) Social: Richard H. George (Shelby County, KY, farmer and captain Shelby Co State Guard) Social: Thomas B. Cochran (Shelby County, KY, attorney and Lt Col 2nd KY Cav. USA) Political: Office of the Adjutant General of Kentucky

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Adair County, First District, p. 11B. Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Adair County, Columbia, p. 96. Ninth Manuscript Census of the United States (1870), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Shelby County, Shelbyville, p. 408A. Kentucky Marriage Records, Madison County Courthouse, Richmond, Kentucky, Shelby County Marriages, Film #000259275, p. 12. Kentucky Marriage Records, Madison County Courthouse, Richmond, Kentucky, Shelby County Marriages, Film #000469187, p. 121. Find A Grave, "Zachariah Wheat (1806-1877)," Memorial #55506723, http://www.findagrave.com/memorial/55506723 (accessed July 10, 2019). Kurt X. Metzmeier, "Judges of the Kentucky Circuit Courts, 1831-1861," Kentucky Ancestors: A Genealogical Quarterly of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 43, No. 3 (Spring 2008), 156-8. Lucinda Floyd McGaughey Burnett (Shelby County, Kentucky ) N00010857 1808? Categories: People

Shelby County, Kentucky, resident. Kentucky native. Daughter of Levi Floyd. Married to Thomas McGaughey in Shelby County, Kentucky, in January 1829. Mother of Martha S. McGaughey and M. McGaughey. Married to Henry Burnett in Shelby County on December 16, 1847. Stepmother of A. Burnett, M. Burnett, W. Burnett, and B. Burnett. Mother of Henry T. Burnett and Bettie M. Burnett. Resident of Shelby County in 1850. Resident of Shelby County in 1853.

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Shelby County, District 1, p. 274B. Kentucky Birth, Marriage and Death Records (1852-1910), KDLA, Frankfort, KY, Roll #994054, Shelby County Births, p. 7. Kentucky Death Certificates, 1911-1965, Kentucky Office of Vital Statistics, KDLA, Frankfort, KY, File #9135. Kentucky Marriage Records, 1783-1965, Madison County Courthouse, Richmond, Kentucky, Shelby County Marriages, 1818-1928, Film #000259289. Kentucky Marriage Records, 1783-1965, Madison County Courthouse, Richmond, Kentucky, Shelby County Marriages, 1799-1875, Film #000259289. Kentucky Marriage Records, 1783-1965, Madison County Courthouse, Richmond, Kentucky, Shelby County Marriages, 1852-1869, Film #000259275. Kentucky P001800 Categories: Places

State in the upper south of the United States. Capital at Frankfort. Located on the Ohio River.

38.2009, -84.8733 "Frankfort, Kentucky," USGS: Earth Explorer, accessed June 14, 2019, https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/. The Kentucky Encyclopedia, ed. John E. Kleber (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992). Shelbyville, Kentucky P00002066 Categories: Places

Seat of Shelby County, Kentucky.

38.212, -85.2236 Robert M. Rennick, Kentucky Place Names (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1987), 269. "Shelbyville County, Kentucky," USGS: Earth Explorer, accessed June 30, 2020, https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/. Jefferson County, Kentucky P001005 Categories: Places

County in north central Kentucky. Seat at Louisville. Located on the Ohio River.

38.2542, -85.7594 George H. Yater, "Jefferson County," in The Kentucky Encyclopedia, ed. John E. Kleber (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992), 464-67. "Louisville, Kentucky," USGS: Earth Explorer, accessed August 23, 2021, https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/. Garrard County, Kentucky P001011 Categories: Places

County in central Kentucky. Seat at Lancaster. Located on the Kentucky River.

37.6195, -84.578 "Garrard County" in The Encyclopedia of Kentucky, John E. Kleber, ed. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002), 488-89. USGS: Earth Explorer, "Garrard County, Kentucky" https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ (accessed on April 13, 2020). Independent Kentucky Scouts (U.S.A.) O00010853 1865? Categories: Organizations

Organized in Spencer County and Shelby County, Kentucky. Organized in early 1865. Commander: Captain Edwin Terrell. Engaged in guerrilla hunting operations in early 1865 around Spencer County, Kentucky.

Matthew Christopher Hulbert, "The Rise and Fall of Edwin Terrell, Guerrilla Hunter, U.S.A." Ohio Valley History Vol. 18, No. 3 (Fall 2018), 42-61. “Terrell: Death of a Notorious Kentucky Guerilla,” Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.),December 14, 1868, p. 4. KYR-0001-004-1942 Shelby Circuit Court O00000575 Categories: Organizations

Located in the 7th Judicial District of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Judge(s): Peter B. Muir and George W. Johnston. Commonwealth’s Attorney(s): Edwin S. Craig and James Robert Dupuy. Clerk(s): William A. Jones and John Robinson.

Relationships Legal: Thomas B. Cochran (Shelby County, KY, attorney and Lt Col 2nd KY Cav. USA)

Annual Report of the Auditor of Public Accounts of the State of Kentucky, for the Fiscal Year Ending October 10, 1861, Legislative Document Series, No. 1 (Frankfort, KY: Jno. B. Major, State Printer, 1862), 303-08. Annual Report of the Auditor of Public Accounts of the State of Kentucky, for the Fiscal Year Ending October 10, 1862, Legislative Document Series, No. 24 (Frankfort, KY: Wm. E. Hughes, State Printer, 1863), 298-306. Annual Report of the Auditor of Public Accounts of the State of Kentucky, for the Fiscal Year Ending October 10, 1863, Legislative Document Series, No. 10 (Frankfort, KY: Wm. E. Hughes, State Printer, 1864), 301-06. Annual Report of the Auditor of Public Accounts of the State of Kentucky, for the Fiscal Year Ending October 10, 1864, Legislative Document Series, No. 1 (Frankfort, KY: George D. Prentice, State Printer, 1865), 9-12. Annual Report of the Auditor of Public Accounts of the State of Kentucky, for the Fiscal Year Ending October 10, 1865, Legislative Document Series, No. 1 (Frankfort, KY: George D. Prentice, State Printer, 1866), 9-12. Annual Report of the Auditor of Public Accounts of the State of Kentucky, for the Fiscal Year Ending October 10, 1866, Legislative Document Series, No. 1 (Frankfort, KY: John H. Harney, Public Printer, 1866), 347-50. 1865-06-10 Correspondence English Version 2 of page "3": Changes to page transcript. Version 1 of page "4": Changes to page transcript. Version 2 of page "4": Changes to page transcript. Version 1 of page "3": Changes to page transcript. Version 2 of page "2": Changes to page transcript. Version 0 of page "4": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile. Version 2 of page "1": Changes to page transcript. Version 0 of page "3": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile. Version 1 of page "2": Changes to page transcript. Version 1 of page "1": Changes to page transcript. Version 0 of page "2": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile. Version 0 of page "1": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile.
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His Excellency Govr Thos. E Bramlette Dear Sir

I called at your office to-day & left for your consideration, the Petition of Capt. Edwin Terrell of the Independent Ky Scouts.

I hope you will grant the prayer of his petition. He is one of the bravest men I ever saw, & has done more to rid Kentucky of Guerrillas than any man I have heard of. The fact is, his little band have been more effective in this service, than some Brigades of Cavalry. His head quarters were in Shelbyville & they gave our town & county protection which we could not have obtained from any other source.

The Hercules Walker spoken of in his petition, is the man who killed the Hills a few years ago in Jefferson County -- The same Hills who figured with the Evans in Garrard County. Walker has been charged with about a half a dozen murders in his day.

I learn that Genl Palmer

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excused Terrell for killing Walker.

I have no personal knowledge of the facts about the killing of Ennis Wooten -- but have heard it from one of Terrells band, stated even more favorably to Terrell, than he states it in his petition.

I learn from undoubted authority, that Wooten was a noisy rebel from the commencement of the troubles.

Whether Terrell was justifiable, by strict law or not, in killing those two men, I do not pretend to assert. But I do say, that he has rendered such services to the state as to entitle him to some reward, and none would be more suitable to him than a free pardon for those two acts, and I hope you will grant the pardon without delay, as I most certainly would, if I were acting in your place.

This application is made by me without fee or reward, or the hope or promise thereof, made simply because I feel grateful to the man who has done such

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valuable services to the state.

June 10. 65. yrs &c

Z. Wheat

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Shelby Cir Ct vs Terrells Pent & Z Wheats letter

Address Mrs Lucy Burnett Shelbyville Ky
Refused

Notified