Fort Hill is a hill overlooking downtown Frankfort, Kentucky, where military fortifications were built during the American Civil War to protect the city and its pro-Union state government. Although the Commonwealth of Kentucky did not secede from the Union, an attempt was made to set up a Confederate government at Bowling Green in western Kentucky. A Bluegrass Kentuckian, George W. Johnson of Scott County, was elected first Confederate Governor of Kentucky. [1] He was killed at the Battle of Shiloh. After his death, Richard Hawes of Bourbon County was inaugurated the next Confederate governor at the Old Capitol Building in Frankfort, on October 4, 1862.