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Collection Joseph Holt Papers

Related Resources

Selected Archival Collections

For Library of Congress collections, please click on the catalog record links for a fuller description and additional links to available online finding aids, indexes, and digital collections.

  • Robert Anderson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.
  • John Armor Bingham Papers, Department of Literary and Historical Manuscripts, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, N.Y. Catalog record available online External.
  • Jeremiah S. Black Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.
  • Blair Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.
  • James Buchanan and Harriet Lane Johnston Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record
  • Ulysses S. Grant Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.
  • James O. Harrison Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.
  • Joseph Holt: Miscellaneous Papers, 1857-1867, Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Ky. Catalog record available online through the Filson Historical Society Library catalog External.
  • Joseph Holt Papers, 1800-1893, Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif. Catalog record available online External.
  • Joseph Holt and John Torrey Correspondence, 1857-1858, part of the John Torrey Papers (PP), Archives, LuEsther T. Mertz Library, New York Botanical Garden, New York, N.Y. Catalog record available online through the Mertz Library catalog External. Digitized material available online External through the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Finding aid for the John Torrey Papers available online External.
  • Bernard John Dowling Irwin Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.
  • Andrew Johnson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.
  • August V. Kautz Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.
  • Horatio King Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.
  • Abraham Lincoln Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.
  • Montgomery C. Meigs Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.
  • Office of the Judge Advocate General Records, 1862-1863, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.
  • Fitz-John Porter Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.
  • Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Army), Record Group 153, National Archives and Records Administration. Includes court-martial case files and related material as well as records of the Lincoln assassination investigation. Description of RG 153 available online through the web version of Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States. More information on court-martial case files dating from 1800 to 1894 is available online through the National Archives catalog.
  • Edwin McMasters Stanton Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.
  • Lyman Trumbull Correspondence, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.
  • Gideon Welles Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. LC catalog record.

Selected Writings By or Associated with Joseph Holt

  • Digest of Opinions of the Judge Advocate General of the Army. Compiled by William W. Winthrop. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1865. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External. Editions from Holt’s time as judge advocate general available at the Library of Congress also include the years 1866, 1868, 1869.
  • Extension of the Goodyear Patent. Decision of the Commissioner. [Washington, D.C.], 1858. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External and Internet Archive.
  • The Fallacy of Neutrality. An Address by the Hon. Joseph Holt, to the People of Kentucky, Delivered at Louisville, July 13th, 1861, also His Letter to J. F. Speed, Esq. New York: J. G. Gregory, 1861. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External and Internet Archive.
  • Letter from the Hon. Joseph Holt, upon the Policy of the General Government, the Pending Revolution, Its Objects, Its Probable Results if Successful, and the Duty of Kentucky in the Crisis. Washington, D.C.: H. Polkinhorn, printer, 1861. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External. Second edition, Washington, D.C.: H. Polkinhorn, printer, 1861. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External.
  • Letters of the Hon. Joseph Holt, the Hon. Edward Everett, and Commodore Charles Stewart, on the Present Crisis. Philadelphia: W. S. & A. Martien, 1861. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External and Internet Archive.
  • Letters of the Hon. Joseph Holt, of the Hon. Edward Everett, and of the Hon. Reverdy Johnson. San Francisco, Calif.: Towne & Bacon, printers, 1861. WorldCat catalog record External.
  • Letters of John Lothrop Motley, and Joseph Holt. New York: Henry E. Tudor, printer, 1861. Available online through HathiTrust External.
  • A Magnificent Argument. The Union Forever. A Kentuckian Speaks. Letter from Hon. Jos. Holt. N.p.: n.p., [1861?] WorldCat catalog record External.
  • “New Facts about Mrs. Surratt: Correspondence of Judge Holt and Hon. James Speed.” North American Review 147, no. 1 (July 1888): 83-94. Available online through the Cornell University Library, Making of America Digital Collection and HathiTrust External.
  • Opinion of the Hon. Joseph Holt, Commissioner of Patents, Given January 28th, 1859, in the Matter of the Application of Cyrus H. McCormick for an Extension of His Patent of January 31st, 1845 for an Improvement in Reaping Machines: Extension Refused. Washington, D.C.: George S. Gideon, Printer, 1859. LC catalog record.
  • Rejoinder of J. Holt, Judge Advocate General, to Ex-President Johnson’s Reply to His Vindication of 26th August Last. [Washington, D.C.: n.p., 1873] LC catalog record.
  • Remarks of Hon. Joseph Holt, at a Dinner in Charleston, South Carolina, on the Evening of the 14th of April, 1865. Washington, D.C.: Gibson Brothers, 1865. LC catalog record. See also Treason and Its Treatment.
  • Reply of Hon. J. Holt to Hon. Montgomery Blair, Late Postmaster-General. [Washington, D.C.: n.p., 1865.] LC catalog record. Available online through Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
  • Reply of J. Holt to Certain Calumnies of Jacob Thompson. [Washington, D.C.: n.p., 1883]. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External.
  • Report of the Judge Advocate General on the "Order of American Knights," or "Sons of Liberty." A Western Conspiracy in Aid of the Southern Rebellion. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1864.  LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External.
  • Report on "The Order of American Knights," alias "The Songs of Liberty." A Western Conspiracy in Aid of the Southern Rebellion. Washington, D.C.: Chronicle Print., 1864. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External and Internet Archive.
  • Review by the Judge Advocate General of the Proceedings, Findings, and Sentence of a General Court Martial Held in the City of Washington, for the Trial of Major General Fitz John Porter of the United States Volunteers. Washington, D.C.: Daily Chronicle Press, 1863. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External and Internet Archive.
  • Speech of Joseph Holt, Delivered at a Democratic Meeting Held at the Court House, in the City of Louisville, on the Evening of the 19th of October, 1852. Louisville, Ky.: Harney & Hughes, printers, 1853. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External and Internet Archive.
  • Speeches of Hon. Joseph Holt, Recently Delivered in the Cities of Boston and New York, on the Present Crisis in the Affairs of the Republic. Washington, D.C.: H. Polkinhorn, 1861. Available online through Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
  • Treason and Its Treatment. Remarks of Hon. Joseph Holt, at a Dinner in Charleston, S.C., on the Evening of the 14th of April, 1865, after the Flag Raising at Fort Sumter. New York: Young Men’s Republican Union, 1865. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External and Internet Archive. See also Remarks of Hon. Joseph Holt.
  • Vindication of Hon. Joseph Holt, Judge Advocate General of the United States Army. Washington, D.C.: Chronicle Publishing Co., 1873. LC catalog record. Available online through Internet Archive.
  • Vindication of Judge Advocate General Holt from the Foul Slanders of Traitors, Confessed Perjurers and Suborners, Acting in the Interest of Jefferson Davis. Washington, D.C.: Chronicle Print., [1866]. LC catalog record.
  • Vindication of Judge Advocate General Holt, from the Foul Slanders of Traitors, Their Aiders, Abettors, and Sympathizers, Acting in the Interest of Jefferson Davis. Second edition. [Washington, D.C.: n.p., 1866]. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External and Internet Archive.

Selected Biographies, Histories, and Other Related Works

  • Allen, Mary Bernard. “Joseph Holt, Judge Advocate General, 1862-1875: A Study in the Treatment of Political Prisoners by the United States Government during the Civil War.” Ph.D. dissertation. University of Chicago, 1927. LC catalog record.
  • Anders, Curt. Injustice on Trial: Second Bull Run, General Fitz John Porter’s Court-martial, and the Schofield Board Investigation that Restored His Good Name. Zionsville, Ind.: Guild Press/Emmis Pub., 2002. LC catalog record.
  • Bartman, Roger J. “The Contribution of Joseph Holt to the Political Life of the United States.” Ph.D. dissertation. Fordham University, New York, N.Y., 1958. WorldCat catalog record.
  • Buchanan, James. The Works of James Buchanan, Comprising His Speeches, State Papers, and Private Correspondence. 12 vols. Edited by John Bassett Moore. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1908-1911. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External.
  • Burnett, Henry L. Some Incidents in the Trial of President Lincoln’s Assassins. The Controversy between President Johnson and Judge Holt. New York: Printed for the Commandery of the State of New York by D. Appleton, 1891. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External.
  • Chomsky, Carol. “The United States-Dakota War Trials: A Study in Military Injustice.” Stanford Law Review 43, no. 1 (November 1990): 13-98. LC catalog record.
  • Chronicling America, digitized historic American newspapers, available online through the Library of Congress.
  • Crofts, Daniel W. “Joseph Holt, James Buchanan, and the Secession Crisis.” In James Buchanan and the Coming of the Civil War, edited by John W. Quist and Michael J. Birkner, pages 208-236. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2012. LC catalog record.
  • Cumming, Carman. Devil’s Game: The Civil War Intrigues of Charles A. Dunham. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004. LC catalog record.
  • Dyer, Susan B. Lincoln’s Advocate: The Life of Judge Joseph Holt. Morley, Mo.: Acclaim Press, 2009. LC catalog record.
  • George, Joseph, Jr. “The North Affair: A Lincoln Administration Military Trial, 1864.” Civil War History 33, no. 3 (September 1987): 199-218. LC catalog record.
  • George, Joseph, Jr. “Subornation of Perjury at the Lincoln Conspiracy Trial?: Joseph Holt, Robert Purdy, and the Lon Letter.” Civil War History 38, no. 3 (September 1992): 232-241. LC catalog record.
  • Goodyear, Charles. The Petition of Charles Goodyear, Jr., Executor, for the Extension of Letters Patent, Granted to Charles Goodyear, Deceased, for the Invention of Vulcanized India Rubber. New York: G. F. Nesbitt & Co., 1864. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External and Internet Archive.
  • Grant, Ulysses S. The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant. Edited by John Y. Simon. 32 vols. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967-2012. LC catalog record. Available online through Mississippi State University Libraries, courtesy of The Ulysses S. Grant Association.
  • Hatch, Frederick. The Lincoln Assassination Conspiracy Trial and Its Legacy. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2015. LC catalog record.
  • Healy, John David. “Joseph Holt: Savior of the Union.” D.Litt. dissertation. Drew University, Madison, N.J., 2015. WorldCat catalog record External. PDF copy available online.
  • Johnson, Andrew. The Papers of Andrew Johnson. 16 vols. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1967-2000. LC catalog record.
  • Kastenberg, Joshua E. Law in War, War as Law: Brigadier General Joseph Holt and the Judge Advocate General’s Department in the Civil War and Early Reconstruction, 1861-1865. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 2011. LC catalog record.
  • Klaus, Samuel, ed. The Milligan Case. London, England: George Routledge & Sons, 1929. Reprint, Holmes Beach, Fla.: Gaunt, 1997. LC catalog record.
  • Klement, Frank L. Dark Lanterns: Secret Political Societies, Conspiracies, and Treason Trials in the Civil War. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1984. LC catalog record.
  • Koerting, Gayla. “For Law and Order: Joseph Holt, the Civil War, and the Judge Advocate General’s Department.” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 97, no. 1 (Winter 1999): 1-25. LC catalog record.
  • Johnson, Reverdy. A Brave Soldier, a True Patriot, a Noble Man, Defended against Partisan Malice: Reply of Hon. Reverdy Johnson to the Paper which Judge-Advocate Holt Furnished to the President, Urging General Porter’s Condemnation. [New York?: n.p., 1863?] LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External.
  • Johnson, Reverdy. A Reply to the Review of Judge Advocate General Holt, of the Proceedings, Findings and Sentence, of the General Court Martial: In the Case of Major General Fitz John Porter, and a Vindication of that Officer. Baltimore: John Murphy & Co., 1863. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External and Internet Archive.
  • The Judge Joseph Holt Home, Hardinsburg, Ky. Website External.
  • Lee, Jacob F. “An Honorable Position: Joseph Holt’s Letter to Joshua F. Speed on Neutrality and Secession in Kentucky, May 1861.” Ohio Valley History 7, no. 4 (Winter 2007): 32-55. LC catalog record.
  • Leonard, Elizabeth D. Lincoln’s Avengers: Justice, Revenge, and Reunion after the Civil War. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2004. LC catalog record.
  • Leonard, Elizabeth D. Lincoln’s Forgotten Ally: Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt of Kentucky. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011. LC catalog record.
  • Leonard, Elizabeth D. “Lincoln’s Judge Advocate General: Joseph Holt of Kentucky.” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 110, nos. 3 and 4 (Summer/Autumn 2012): 403-437. LC catalog record.
  • Leonard, Elizabeth D. “One Kentuckian’s Hard Choice: Joseph Holt and Abraham Lincoln.” Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 106, nos. 3 and 4 (2008): 373-408. LC catalog record.
  • Lincoln, Abraham. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Edited by Roy P. Basler. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953-1955. LC catalog record. Available online External courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Association.
  • Lowry, Thomas P. Don’t Shoot that Boy!: Abraham Lincoln and Military Justice. Mason City, Ia.: Savas Publishing Company, 1999. LC catalog record.
  • Neely, Mark E. The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. LC catalog record.
  • Neff, Stephen C. Justice in Blue and Gray: A Legal History of the Civil War. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2010. LC catalog record.
  • Nicolay, John G. An Oral History of Abraham Lincoln: John G. Nicolay’s Interviews and Essays. Edited by Michael Burlingame. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1996. LC catalog record.
  • Pitman, Benn, comp. The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators David E. Herold, Mary E. Surratt, Lewis Payne, George A. Atzerodt, Edward Spangler, Samuel A. Mudd, Samuel Arnold, Michael O’Laughlin. Cincinnati and New York: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin, 1865. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External, and Library of Congress Law Library in PDF and page view format.
  • Pitman, Benn, ed. The Trials for Treason at Indianapolis, Disclosing the Plans for Establishing a North-western Confederacy. Being the Official Record of the Trials before the Military Commission  . . . Containing the Testimony, Arguments, Finding and Sentence. Cincinnati, Ohio: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin, 1865. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External and Internet Archive.
  • Porter, Fitz-John. Proceedings of a General Court Martial, for the Trial of Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter, U.S. Vols. Washington, D.C.: n.p., 1862. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External.
  • Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Available online. The site offers a number of photographs and illustrations of or including Joseph Holt.
  • A Reply to the Hon. Reverdy Johnson’s Attack on the Administration in the Case of Fitz John Porter, Convicted of Shameful Misbehaviour Before the Enemy. Baltimore: Sherwood & Co., 1863. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External and Internet Archive.
  • Steers, Edward. Blood on the Moon: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001. LC catalog record.
  • United States. Army. Judge Advocate General’s Corps. The Army Lawyer: A History of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, 1775-1975. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1975. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External and Library of Congress website
  • United States. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901. LC catalog record. Available online External through the Cornell University Library, Making of America Digital Collection.
  • Weber, Jennifer L. Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln’s Opponents in the North. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. LC catalog record.
  • Welles, Gideon. The Civil War Diary of Gideon Welles, Lincoln’s Secretary of the Navy. Edited by William E. Gienapp and Erica L. Gienapp. Urbana, Ill.: Knox College Lincoln Studies Center and University of Illinois Press, 2014. LC catalog record.
  • Welles, Gideon. Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy under Lincoln and Johnson. Edited by Edgar T. Welles. 3 vols. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911. LC catalog record. Available online through HathiTrust External.
  • Welles, Gideon. Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson. Edited by Howard K. Beale. 3 vols. New York: W. W. Norton, 1960. LC catalog record.
  • Witt, John Fabian. Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History. New York: Free Press, 2012. LC catalog record.

Compiled January 2018