Henry Cornelius Burnett

U. S. House of Representatives, Kentucky, 1855-1861
Colonel, CSA, 1861
Provisional Confederate Congress Representative, Kentucky, 1861-1862
Confederate Senator, Kentucky, 1862-1865

Born: October 5, 1825, Essex County, Virginia.

• Moved with his parents to Kentucky in early childhood.
  
• Attended the common schools and an academy at Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
  
• Studied law, was admitted to the Kentucky bar, 1847
  
• Commenced his law practice in Cadiz, Kentucky.
  
• Clerk of the Trigg County Circuit Court, 1851-1853.
  
• Elected from Kentucky as a Democrat to the Thirty-fourth and to the three succeeding U. S. Congresses, serving from March 4, 1855 - December 3, 1861, when he was expelled.
  
• Colonel of the Eighth Regiment, Kentucky Infantry, in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
  
• President of the Kentucky Southern Conference, Russellville, Kentucky, October 29, 1861.
  
• President of the sovereignty convention, Russellville, Kentucky, November 18, which passed an ordinance of secession and organized a Kentucky Confederate State government.
  
• Representative from Kentucky to the Provisional Confederate Congress, serving from November 18, 1861 - February 17, 1862.
  
• Elected as a Senator from Kentucky to the First and Second Confederate Congresses, serving from February 19, 1862 - February 18, 1865.
  
• Resumed his law practice.

Died: October 1, 1866, Hopkinsville, Christian County, Kentucky.
Buried: East End Cemetery, Cadiz, Trigg County, Kentucky.

(Source: U.S. Congress. House. Biographical Directory Of The American Congress 1774-1949, 85th Cong., 2nd sess., H. Doc. 607 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950), pp. 759-2057.)