The Civil War: Behind the Scenes
Battlefield it's not, but Camp Nelson was a key player in the Civil War

In Jessamine County, the Kentucky River palisades tower 500 feet as its waters meander past rock ledges and thick woods relatively unchanged since the Civil War. Not only are the bluffs beautiful, but their craggy inaccessibility provided a natural fortification for Camp Nelson, home of the third-largest African-American recruitment camp of that bloody conflict and now the site of the 525-acre Camp Nelson Heritage Park, six miles south of Nicholasville.

From U.S. 127 a white-columned, antebellum house beckons, just as it did when Oliver Perry built it in 1846, before the gracious home was commandeered in 1863 by the Union Army for use as officers’ quarters. Now an interpretive center, the dwelling is the only surviving structure from a 4,000-acre, 300-building Union quartermaster and commissary depot, recruitment center and hospital facility.

Though the 30-acre Camp Nelson National Cemetery (begun in 1863) contains the graves of more than 4,000 Civil War dead and veterans from other wars (including Iraq), no conflict ever took place here. But the site is chock full of history, and there’s a lot to experience.

A new, still-expanding, 6,000-square-foot Interpretive Center and Museum is extremely visitor-friendly and presents a film of the camp’s history, after which visitors can ogle Civil War artifacts – a surgeon’s table and medical kit, a covered wagon and a working Napoleon cannon among them.

Along five miles of easy walking trails, you can pinpoint former locations of entrenchments, barracks, warehouses, stores, a prison and earthen forts built to defend the camp.

You can even bike, picnic or bring your pooch on a leash.

Near the creek, Fort Jones, with its extensive stone revetment walls, is one of the best-preserved Civil War forts in the state and overlooks the Hickman Creek Nature and Conference Center, rentable for a quiet corporate retreat or meeting.

There was nothing quiet about Camp Nelson in 1863, when the depot was begun by General Ambrose Burnside and named for Major General William “Bull” Nelson, who founded Camp Dick Robinson, the first Union recruitment camp in Kentucky. The camp played a critical role as a supply center and rendezvous point for three major Union campaigns and battles: Knoxville, Tenn., Saltville, Va., and southwestern Virginia. Employing 2,000 civilian workers, the core of the camp covered more than 800 acres on either side of the Lexington-Danville Turnpike.

“This single supply depot provided the Army of Ohio with everything they needed,” said Mary Kozak, project director for Jessamine County.

Structures included 20 warehouses and six industrial-sized warehouses. And as one of the first locations to rehabilitate war-wounded animals, multiple stables housed thousands of horses and mules.

Between 1863 and 1866, some 80,000 troops passed through, but Camp Nelson’s major significance was as one of the largest recruitment and training centers for African-American troops. Known as U.S. Colored Troops, 10,000 African-Americans enlisted and, as a result, earned their freedom here. Many brought wives and children, and eventually the Army set up a refugee camp, which provided housing for more than 3,000.

In its heyday as a recruitment camp for whites from slave-holding Kentucky and Tennessee and a recruitment and refugee camp for freed slaves, the facility represented a microcosm of the social and political issues that divided the nation and brought on war. Present-day interpretation offers fascinating insight into the day-to-day lives of soldiers, who actually spent little of their total enlistment time in conflict.

With advance notice you can participate in an archaeological dig and maybe find a soldier’s treasure. Or witness re-enactors using a Napoleon cannon, attend authentic period teas and luncheons, take a costumed, interpreted tour of the Perry White House and even eat barbecue in its dining room. The National Register of Historic Places dwelling boasts period furniture, a fireplace made of Kentucky marble, a gorgeous Empire cherry bed and a photo of the last living Buffalo Soldier.

Get a real feel of Camp Nelson’s glory days during the annual Civil War Heritage Trail festivities in mid-July, or at Civil War Days the second weekend in September, with infantry, cavalry and artillery demonstrations by re-enactors. There also are first-person interpretations of soldiers and civilians, ongoing archaeological digs, an authentic worship service, period music and lectures.

Discover more about this Civil War treasure at (859) 492-3115 or (859) 881-9126, or visit www.campnelson.org or www.jessamineco.com.

Katherine Tandy Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report.
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