Joseph Holt
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Joseph Holt was an American lawyer, soldier, and politician. As a leading member of the Buchanan administration, he succeeded in convincing Buchanan to oppose the secession of the South. He returned to Kentucky and successfully battled the secessionist element thereby helping to keep Kentucky in the Union. President Abraham Lincoln appointed him the Judge Advocate General of the United States Army. He served as Lincoln's chief arbiter and enforcer of military law, and supporter of emancipation. His most famous roles came in the Lincoln assassination trials.
President Buchanan and his Cabinet, c. 1859 (left to right: Jacob Thompson, Lewis Cass, John B. Floyd, James Buchanan, Howell Cobb, Isaac Toucey, Joseph Holt and Jeremiah S. Black)
Joseph Holt (center) along with John Bingham (left) and Henry Burnett (right) were the three prosecutors in charge of the Lincoln assassination trial.
Breckinridge County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 20,432. Its county seat is Hardinsburg, Kentucky. The county was named for John Breckinridge (1760–1806), a Kentucky Attorney General, state legislator, United States Senator, and United States Attorney General. It was the 38th Kentucky county in order of formation. Breckinridge County is now a wet county, following a local-option election on January 29, 2013, but it had been a dry county for the previous 105 years.
Breckinridge County, Kentucky courthouse in Hardinsburg