Benjamin Helm Bristow, 1832-1896, practiced law here until 1858, then became a Federal officer and staunch Unionist during secession. He actively recruited the 25th Volunteer Militia, of which he was lieutenant colonel, and the 8th Kentucky Cavalry, in which he served as colonel. He was at the battles of Fort Donelson and Shiloh in 1862, helped lead the capture of Morgan and his raiders in 1863, and was elected to the state senate while still in the field that year. From 1866 to 1870 he was U.S. attorney for the district of Kentucky, from 1870 to 1872 the first U.S. solicitor general, and as secretary of the treasury from 1874 to 1876 he exposed frauds in the Whiskey Ring operating in the Midwest. In 1876 he lost the Republican presidential nomination to Rutherford B. Hayes, remained a leading member of the Kentucky Bar Association until 1878, and then moved to New York.