Peter Turney (September 22, 1827October 19, 1903) was an American politician, soldier, and jurist, who served as the 26th governor of Tennessee from 1893 to 1897. He was also a justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1870 to 1893, and served as the court's Chief Justice from 1886 to 1893. During the Civil War, Turney was colonel of the First Tennessee Regiment, one of the first Tennessee units to join the Confederate Army. As governor, Turney ended the state's controversial convict lease system and enacted other prison reform measures. His second term was marred by the 1894 gubernatorial election, which he won only after the state's Democratic-controlled legislature threw out thousands of votes for his opponent, Henry Clay Evans. Early life Turney was born at Jasper, Tennessee, the son of Hopkins L. Turney and Teresa Francis. His father was a prominent politician who was elected to the United States Senate in 1845 with the help of the Andrew Johnson-led "Immortal Thirteen." Shortly after Peter's birth, the Turneys moved to Winchester, Tennessee. He attended public schools in Franklin County and a private school in Nashville, and read law, initially with his father, and later (after his father was elected to the Senate) with Judge W.E. Venable. After his admission to the bar in 1848, he practiced in Winchester. A strong Southern Democrat, Turney campaigned for John C. Breckinridge in the presidential race of 1860, and called for immediate secession after Abraham Lincoln's victory. In February 1861, he was the pro-secession candidate from his district for a proposed state convention at which Tennessee would have considered the secession issue (his pro-Union opponent was future governor Albert S. Marks). When Tennessee voters rejected this convention and upheld the state's ties to the Union, Turney spearheaded a movement that called for Franklin County to secede from Tennessee and join Alabama. In the two weeks following the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861, as sentiments in Tennessee shifted in favor of secession, Turney raised a regiment of troops, the First Tennessee Infantry (sometimes called "Turney's First" to distinguish it from a similarly-designated regiment). As Tennessee had yet to officially secede, Turney acted mostly in secret until early May, when the state aligned itself militarily with the Confederacy. Turney's unit arrived in Virginia on May 8, and was eventually attached to the Army of Northern Virginia. The unit took part in the First Battle