Old State Capitol has history, heritage
well worth its preservation activity

Preservation construction on Kentucky’s Old State Capitol is expected to continue through the fall.

All windows in the building will be repaired, restoring the sashes and installing new interior storm windows with ultraviolet filters. The Kentucky Division of Historic Properties is performing the task for the purpose of preserving the National Historic Landmark facility.

And, the building has a history and heritage worth preserving, particularly where the Civil War is concerned.

To begin with, the Greek Revival style building was the only pro-Union state capitol occupied by the Confederate Army during the War Between the States. It also was the site of much heated debate about the Civil War and what Kentucky’s role might be in it.

The building served as the Commonwealth’s capitol from 1830-1910 and was the state’s third such facility. But, in August 1862, the structure reverberated with concern about a Confederate invasion of Kentucky that reportedly was in progress.

A resolution was quickly passed in the House of Representatives, instructing that “whenever the Governor shall deem the city of Frankfort an unsafe place for the transaction of the public business of the Commonwealth, he is hereby authorized and directed ... to cause the records and archives of the State, to be removed to any other city or town in the Commonwealth.”

Two days later, the House resolved to “adjourn to meet again at the court house in the city of Louisville, Kentucky,” and the state legislators fled Frankfort.

On Sept. 3, Confederate Gen. E. Kirby Smith captured Frankfort. Gen. Braxton Bragg, Smith’s CSA partner, planned to install the provisional government there, assuring Confederate Gov. Richard Hawes that the capitol city was securely in rebel hands.

On Oct. 4, following a parade through downtown Frankfort, Hawes was sworn in at the capitol building’s House of Representatives chamber. Several generals spoke and Hawes said he would protect slavery and destroy Federal tyranny in Kentucky. He said that “the state would be held by the Confederate Army, cost what it might” and that “it is now a truth and a fact that the late Union cannot be restored.”

However, in the middle of a celebratory dinner, word arrived that Union forces were advancing on the capital. A planned inaugural ball was cancelled and the Confederate government quickly evacuated to avoid ambush by Union Gen. Don Carlos Buell and his artillery.