Eastern Kentucky and the Civil War: The Specter of Abolitionism Leads to a Breach of the Peace

Kentucky court days functioned as important social and civic events in the communities. Traveling circuit judges and magistrates rode into county seats approximately once a month to try criminal cases, hear civil suits and settle legal disputes. People traveled from miles around to attend court, catch up on news, handle their mail and socialize in general. Farmers sold crops, swapped livestock or bought goods.

Kentucky Court Days Scene

During the term that was convened in Floyd County under Judge William H. Burns on June 3, 1861, tensions ran high. The country was officially at War. Kentucky had declared neutrality but the growing divide among communities had people on edge while others were already preparing for an armed conflict. On May 29, just days before court days began, a company of State Guards had been formed in the county under the command of Green M. Witten.

Against this backdrop, the atmosphere in the courthouse in Prestonsburg was already charged when thirty-eight-year-old Henry Clay Fitzpatrick, a Justice of the Peace, who lived on a farm near Prestonsburg at Middle Creek, found himself listening to “an Abolitionist or submissionist (sic) [who] was making a speech in the court House, advocating sentiments contrary to the well being of our institutions…”

Henry Clay Fitzpatrick
Image courtesy of Jane Hopson

Thie speaker may have been George W. Dunlap, the Union candidate for Congress, 6^th Congressional District who was scheduled to address the citizens of Floyd County at Prestonsburg on June 12, 1861.

At first Fitzpatrick remained silent, but the speech stirred his anger. As the speaker continued, his frustration boiled over. “In a voice a little above conversational” he burst out "Damn you, you are no better than a Lincoln abolition negro."

The remark was enough to draw notice, and with the grand jury already in session, the incident quickly became a legal matter. Fitzpatrick was indicted for breaching the peace.

Facing the prospect of being fined, Fitzpatrick appealed to Governor Beriah Magoffin for remittance. In August 1861, he submitted a formal petition, arguing that “he said the words under the excitement of the moment, but did not intend to be uprorious or to disturb the peace.” He had "immediately left the court House and has ever since cherished the same feelings but has acted with discretion & prudence, and moderation and will so continue to think and act.”

Prestonsburg law partners John M. Elliott, then Kentucky State Representative, and John M. Burns, Kentucky State Senator, came to his defense. “We the undersigned heard the utterances of Mr Fitzpatrick & for which he was indicted Mr Fitzpatrick is a gentleman but was very Much excited at the speech for it was one of abuse against slave holders We hope your excellency will pardon the offense as he has not yet been fined.”

H. C. Fitzpatrick Remittance
September 14, 1861

On September 14, 1861, Governor Beriah Magoffin granted Fitzpatrick's appeal and issued a remittance.

Context and Aftermath

Although Dunlap, who served as a member of the Border State Convention, ran as a Unionist, he was not known to publicly advocate abolition. Kentucky Unionists generally feared that radical emancipation would alienate loyal slaveholders and push the Commonwealth toward secession. Their primary goal was to preserve the Union; emancipation came second. Even so, Dunlap’s message may not have resonated in Floyd County, which leaned strongly Democratic. Unionists were in favor of supporting the federal government in all legal and Constitutional measures. For Southern Democrats and members of the Southern Rights party — especially in slaveholding counties such as Floyd that had more slave holders (40) than any other county in the Big Sandy Valley and the second-highest number of slaves (136) — the federal government and Lincoln were effectively synonymous. So it comes as no surprise that Dunlap won statewide but lost in Floyd County to local candidate Samuel Stephens, who received a mere sixty‑nine votes.

George W. Dunlap
Source: History of Kentucky, Zachariah F. Smith (1892)

Henry Clay Fitzpatrick was not a slaveholder contrary to his brother William H., Fitzpatrick who claimed three enslaved women in 1860.

On January 10, 1862, just four months after Henry Clay Fitzpatrick received his remittance, his farm would become the scene of the Battle of Middle Creek.

John M. Burns

John M. Elliott

Meanwhile, the political paths of his defenders, Elliott and Burns, diverged sharply. After taking their seats in the Kentucky General Assembly on September 2, 1861, Kentucky’s neutrality came to an end. Burns aligned with the Unionist majority while Elliott cast his lot with the Southern cause, aided the Confederate provisional government, and was expelled from the Legislature during the adjourned session of November–December 1861.

When Union forces under Colonel James A. Garfield occupied Prestonsburg after the Battle of Middle Creek, Burns fled to Louisa, fearing his past association with Elliott might lead to his arrest for treason. Garfield used Burns’s house at the mouth of Middle Creek as his temporary headquarters.

Records

Floyd County Court Order Book K: It appears that no court was held in Floyd County between the December Term 1860 and the June Term 1861, which begins at page 285. Twenty pages, 309-328 (part of Day 3, all of Day 4 and most of Day 5), are missing from the book which abruptly ends on page 330 (Day 5). Fitzpatrick’s indictment, therefore, is also missing from the records.

H. C. Fitzpatrick to Beriah Magoffin, 1861-08, Office of the Governor, Beriah Magoffin: Governor's Official Correspondence File, Petitions for Pardons and Remissions, 1859-1862, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/KYR-0001-020-1340

G. M. Witten to Beriah Magoffin, 1861-05-29, 37th - 76th Regiments Enrolled Militia Primary Source Documents (1861-1866), Kentucky Department of Military Affairs. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/KYR-0002-022-0002

Links of Interest

Civil War Governors of Kentucky

H. C. Fitzpatrick - Middle Creek Battlefield

The Burns House / A Brief History of the Garfield Place Historical Marker

The John M. Burns House, Garfield's Headquarters Following the Battle of Middle Creek The Samuel May House and Archive

The Burns House Historical Marker - Clio

ELLIOTT, John Milton | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives

DUNLAP, George Washington | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives