 On July 5, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln temporarily suspended the writ of "habeas corpus", which meant a person could be imprisoned without trial, his house searched without warrant, and the individual arrested without charge.Lincoln also declared martial law in Kentucky, which meant that military authorities had the ultimate rule.Civilians accused of crimes would be tried not in a civilian court, but instead a military court, in which the citizen's rights were not held as under the Constitution.