Charles S. Morehead - Civil War and Later Life

Civil War and Later Life

Morehead moved to Louisville in 1859 and formed a law partnership with his nephew, Charles M. Briggs. In February 1861, he attended the Peace Conference of 1861 that tried to resolve the sectional differences between the states. In May 1861, he was chosen as a delegate to the Border State Convention, an ultimately futile attempt to avert the Civil War. Morehead refused to sign the final document produced by the convention because he did not agree with all the statements it contained. He was an advocate of Kentucky's position of neutrality, but was personally sympathetic to the South and was an outspoken critic of the Lincoln administration. He condemned Secretary of State William H. Seward for cutting off trade with the South.

On September 19, 1861, Morehead, Louisville Courier editor Reuben T. Durrett, and a man named Martin W. Barr were arrested for disloyalty. The three were taken to Indianapolis, Indiana, and the next day, Louisville circuit court judge John Catron issued a writ of habeas corpus for Morehead. On September 24, the officer who had arrested Morehead told Catron that Secretary of War Simon Cameron had already ordered Morehead taken to Fort Lafayette in New York Harbor. Shortly after this, a grand jury was convened but failed to return any charges against Morehead.

Morehead was later transferred to Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. He complained to his captors about the conditions in the prison; specifically, the difficulty of writing letters when confined with nine other men in a room that measured just ten feet by twenty feet. Petitions for Morehead's release were delivered to President Lincoln, but Lincoln told Secretary of State Seward that Morehead and those arrested with them would be released "when James Guthrie and James Speed think they should be". Later, Guthrie told Lincoln that Morehead's arrest had "not been beneficial" to their cause in Kentucky. Morehead was paroled on January 6, 1862, on the condition that he swear an oath not to take part in the Confederate insurgence. On March 19, 1862, he was unconditionally discharged from his parole.

Morehead returned to his home in Louisville, but feared his refusal to take an oath of allegiance to the Constitution would lead to another arrest. In June 1862, he fled to Canada, then to Europe, and finally to Mexico. Following the war, Morehead returned to the United States and lived on his plantation in Greenville, Mississippi. He died there on December 21, 1868 and was buried on the grounds. On May 31, 1879, he was reburied in the Frankfort Cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky.