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 November 11, 2025 Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives Office of the Governor, James F. Robinson: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Military Correspondence, 1862-1863 KYR-0001-027-0007 R2-7 to R2-8

Harrrodsburg, Mercer County, Kentucky James Fisher Robinson (governor, state senator, businessman, attorney, and farmer) N001004 1800-10-04 1882-10-31 Categories: People

Twenty-second governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, banker, and legislator. Son of Jonathan Robinson and Jane Black Robinson. Married to Susan D. Mansell Robinson on December 26, 1821. Father of Emilie Jane Robinson and James F. Robinson, Jr. Married Willina S. Herndon Robinson on May 30, 1842. Father of Scott Herndon Robinson, John McCracken Robinson, George Sidney Robinson, Madison Johnson Robinson, Stephen Gano Robinson, Willa Ewing Robinson, Philip Eldon Robinson, and Stephen Gano Robinson. Educated at Forest Hill Academy and Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Trustee of Georgetown College. President of the Farmers' Bank of Georgetown. Represented Fayette and Scott Counties in the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from 1851 to 1855. Owned thirty-five enslaved persons in 1860. Represented Fayette and Scott Counties in the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from 1861. Speaker of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from September 3, 1861, to September 5, 1861. Speaker of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from August 16, 1861, to August 18, 1862. Governor of Kentucky from August 18, 1862, to September 1, 1863. Returned to practicing law and farming on retiring from politics in 1863.

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Scott County, District No 1, p. 216B, 230A. Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Scott County, District No 2, pp. 235, 236, 252. Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Jefferson County, Louisville Ward 4, p. 266. John David Smith, “James F. Robinson (1862-1863),” ed. Lowell H. Harrison, Kentucky’s Governors (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004), 89-92. William Henry Engle, Pennsylvania Genealogies: Scotch-Irish and German (Harrisburg: Lane S. Hart, 1886), 553, 556-7. Charles H. Spilman (Mercer County physician) N00009409 1810? Categories: People

Mercer County, Kentucky, physician. Married to Mary D. Spilman. Kentucky native. Father of Charles Spilman Jr., Elizabeth Spilman, John T. Spilman, Mary Francis Spilman, Lewis C. Spilman, Abraham T. Spilman, Benjamin F. Spilman, Jonathan E. Spilman, and Merrett L. Spilman. Physician in Mercer County in 1850 and 1860. Employed two enslaved persons from J. T. Willis and Clarisa Brinker in 1860.

Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Mercer County, District 1, p. 271A. Seventh Manuscript Census of the United States (1850), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Mercer County, District 1, p. 837. Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedules, Kentucky, Mercer County, p. 700. Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Slave Schedules, Kentucky, Mercer County, Harrodsburg, p. 4. Harrodsburg, Kentucky P00000555 Categories: Places

Seat of Mercer County, Kentucky.

37.7623, -84.8433 "Harrodsburg, Kentucky," USGS: Earth Explorer, accessed July 9, 2019, https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/. Ron D. Bryant, “Mercer County,” in The Kentucky Encyclopedia, ed. John E. Kleber (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992), 627. Corinth, Kentucky P00010136 Categories: Places

City in Grant County, Kentucky.

38.4967, -84.5641 Robert M. Rennick, Kentucky Place Names (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1984), 68. USGS: Earth Explorer, "Corinth, Kentucky," https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ (accessed on February 20, 2020). Harrrodsburg, Mercer County, Kentucky 1862-08-18 Correspondence English 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 0 of page "4": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile. Version 2 of page "1": Changes to page transcript. Version 1 of page "2": Changes to page transcript. Version 0 of page "3": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile. Version 0 of page "2": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile. Version 1 of page "1": Changes to page transcript. Version 0 of page "1": Empty transcript -- probably initial upload of page facsimile.
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Harrodsburg Ky Aug 18th 1862 Hon James F. Roberson

I am constrained to address you, although personally unacquainted, from a mingled feeling of apprehension & surprise. Apprehension from the most palpable evidence of the peralous position of our state which has been thickening & accumulating every hour since the evacuation of Corinth; & will manifestly, in ten days, without immediate energetic powerful resistence overwhelm us. Surprise, because with all this danger stairing us in the face for weeks & months we are to day permiting, without resistance marauding bands to pillage & lay waste many portions of our state; -- capture

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& destroy the supplies sent to Our brave army, & almost desolate those very sections that that have been render'd defenceless by the, generous & patriotic volunteeering of our brave citizens.

Unless there is a large force sent forward this week to relieve our little army at the Cumberland Gap, they will not only be cut off from supplies but the whole force will be captured In heaven's name if any thing can be done let it be done quickly for there is not a moment to lose. Instead of sending what force we have forword to check the headway of the invaders, they are being withdrawn to the interior thus inviting invasion.

If those whose duty it

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is to expedite this matter are supine under existing cuircumstances, let them be relieved & their places supplied by those who apprehend & appreciate, the situation.

The material for successful resistance is not wanting, All the people want is armed & skillful daring leaders & the work will soon be done.

In this section public confidence in those whose duty it is to lead off in this matter begins to falter,

I have a deep conviction that without more energy can be thrown into our military operations our state is gone.

Excuse this out-burst of a mind profoundly solici-

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tous on this important subject.

very Respectfully Your obt. Svt.

C. H. Spilman

C. H. Spillman No