Presentation: Rebellion, Calamity, and Woe

Join the National Park Service (NPS) for the 3rd Annual Winter Lecture Series at Camp Nelson National Monument! The special programs feature guest speakers who present on a variety of topic related to the Civil War Era. The presentations take place on select Saturdays at starting at 11:00 am at the park. The 1.5-hour programs are free and open to the public.

January 27, 2024: Dr. Chuck Welsko, Digital Documentary Editor, Kentucky Historical Society, “Rebellion, Calamity, and Woe: Governor Thomas E. Bramlette’s Unionism in War and Memory”

Thomas E. Bramlette became the 23rd Governor of Kentucky during the Civil War. A strong Unionist at the start of the conflict, Bramlette served both as a colonel in the Union Army and a Federal District Judge before becoming defeating Charles Wickliffe for the governor’s office in August 1863. Almost immediately upon entering his official duties in Frankfort, Bramlette encountered the challenges of leading a Border State with divided loyalties and priorities, as well as an increasingly hard war waged by Federal authorities aimed at dismantling slavery across the South. A loyal slaveholding Unionist himself, Bramlette’s wartime experiences reflect the earliest foundations of Kentucky’s wartime experience and post-war memory, revealing how Kentuckians would grow disappointed and disillusioned with the consequences of the Civil War.