Camp Nelson National Park-- Part 3: Major Recruitment and Training Center for USCT

Camp Nelson quickly became the largest of the eight black recruitment centers in Kentucky and the third largest training camp in the whole country for United States Colored Troops (USCT).  Once all restrictions on recruitment were removed by June 1864, the number of black enlistments exploded.

These new recruits, who were formerly slaves, were able to be emancipated upon joining.

More than 500 USCT mustered in during the month of June 1864, and a record 1,370 new troops enlisted at the camp in July.  In total, eight USCT regiments organized at Camp Nelson in 1864 to 1865.  Four were infantry units (114th, 116th, 119th and 124th), two were cavalry (5th and 6th) and two were artillery (12th and 13th).

By the time the 13th Amendment was ratified in December 6, 1865, ending slavery throughout the United States, roughly 10,000 Blacks had enlisted at Camp Nelson.

--Old Secesh

Camp Nelson National Monument-- Part 2: A Huge Camp and USCT Training Facility

At the heighth of its use in 1865, Camp Nelson encompassed roughly 4,000 acres, organized around an 800 acre core, including  more than 300 outlying buildings and tents that housed a quartermaster commissary depot, ordnance depot, recruitment center, prison and hospital.

In addition, eighteen earthen forts or batteries, primarily built by Blacks ringed the camp for protection.  The camp was also home to stables and corrals, a bakery and a steam-driven waterworks that could pump water up 470 feet from the Kentucky River tp a 500,000 gallon reservoir.

However, its location proved to be poor as a supply depot because of lack of transportstion, so Gen. William T. Sherman decided to also turn it into a training camp for incoming black soldiers of the United States Colored Troops (USCT).

Because of the supplies, it was also a possible target of Nathan Bedford Forrest.  

Some 3,000 impressed black workers were stationed at Camp Nelson by 1863, performing critical supply jobs as well as fortifying the camp and construction of railroads and the 300 buildings of the post.

And, then the USCT training camp was set up, and eventually some 23,000 black soldiers trained there, making it the second largest training center for them.

--Old Secesh

Camp Nelson National Monument

From Wikipedia.

CAMP NELSON NATIONAL  MONUMENT

Formerly Camp Nelson Civil War Heritage Park, is located about 20 miles south of Lexington, Kentucky.  The camp was established in 1863 as a depot for the Union Army and it became a recruiting and training ground or new soldiers from eastern Tennessee and for former slaves.

On October 26, 2018, President Trump proclaimed the site as Camp Nelson National Monument, the 418th unit of the National Park Service.

It was established as a supply depot for Union efforts in the area and in Tennessee.  It was named for Union General William "Bull" Nelson who had recently been murdered by Union General Jefferson C. Davis (not the Confederate president) over an insult.  (Another interesting story in itself.)

It was placed near the Hickman Bridge, the only bridge over the Kentucky River upriver from the state capital (Frankfort, Kentucky).

Only he northern side of the camp needed protection as the other three sides  have almost verticle 400-500 foot cliffs.

--Old Secesh

Preserving the Civil War's Camp Nelson in Kentucky

From the February 2023 American Battlefield Trust calendar.

CAMP NELSON, KENTUCKY

Beginning as a supply depot and encampment for the Union Army, Kentucky's Camp Nelson became the third largest recruitment and training ceneter for the U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War.

By the end of  1865, when slavery ended, some 10,000 Blacks had enlisted there and had been emancipated.

In 2018, the Trust, National Park Foundation and Jessamine County Fiscal Court helped facilitate a 380-acre donation to the National Park Service to create Camp Nelson National Monument.

--Old Secesh