Burnett, H. C. (Henry Cornelius), 1825-1866.

Henry Cornelius Burnett was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1855 to 1861 and a Confederate States Senator from 1862 to 1865. He was born in Essex County, Virginia on October 5, 1825. As a child he relocated with his parents to Cadiz, Kentucky. He was educated at local schools and later South Kentucky College in Hopkinsville. He began a law practice at Cadiz in 1847. In 1850, he was elected clerk of the circuit court of Trigg County. He ran and was elected representative of the 1st District of Kentucky in 1854. Burnett was expelled from Congress on December 3, 1861 for participating in succession conventions and recruiting for the Confederacy. He served as a Confederate senator from February 19, 1862 to February 18, 1865. Following the war he was charged with treason but never tried. He died of cholera on September 28, 1866.