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

Recruitment Poster for Co. K, 118th Pennsylvania Infantry-- Part 2: Monetary Incentives

Then followed a long lost of monetary incentives.

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$2, Government Premium when Recruit is Mustered in.

$10, Corn Exchange Bounty, when sent to Camp.

$25, City Bounty, when the Company is full.

$25, City Bounty, when the Regiment is formed.

$13, One Month's Pay  in advance.  And

$25,  One-fourth of Government Bounty.

Total, $100  before leaving the City.

$75,  Remainder of Government Bounty, when Mustered Out of service.

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Pretty good work and pay if you can get it.

"Jine" the 118th, Co. K.  Make Some Bucks!!  --Old Secesh

Recruitment Poster of Co. K, 118th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment-- Part 1

From the September 15, 2021 Laurel Hill Cemetery Blog "A Philadelphia Regiment's September baptism of fire" by Russell Dodge.

They have a copy of a poster calling for men to sign up for Company K of the regiment:

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"$162 BOUNTY

STEADY, ABLE-BODIED MEN WANTED

FOR CO. K., 

CORN EXCHANGE REGIMENT,

At 241  Race Street.

First Lieut.  W.M. McKeen

Second Lieut.  J. Mora Moss

Captain JOS. W. RICKETTS"

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These officers were all killed or wounded at the Battle of Shepherdstown.

Then it went into the financial benefits of joining which I will cover in my next post.

--Old Secesh

Roadtrippin' Thru History-- Part 5: A Famous Cavalry Unit and a Massacre

Spanish-American War

A famous cavalry unit

A  massacre

10-year-olds

World War I

World War II

Cold War

A weird U.S. Air Force base

A Civil War recruiting scam

A bank scam

One big-time retribution

Well, that pretty-well covers it.  Who wants to go Roadtrippin' Thru History with me?

Ready, Set, Go.  --Old Secesh

Galvanized Yankees at Rock Island Prison-- Part 2: 3,000 of Them from Rock Island

Joining the Union proved to be a popular option for Confederates at the Rock Island Prison Camp in Illinois. Several hundred of these "Galvanized Yankees" from Rock Island were refused after enlisting in the Union Army because of medical reasons.  Those men were just released and sent home.  That was one way to get out of prison.

Since the Galvanized Yankees were now considered  enlisted men instead of prisoners, they received better rations of food and clothing.  And, they were allowed to receive gifts of tobacco  and food from relatives in the South as they awaited assignments to units out West.

Of the  more than 12,000 Confederate prisoners who passed through the Rock Island Barracks during the Civil War,  only forty-one escaped in traditional wats.  But another  three thousand escaped by stepping up to the Union recruiting office and becoming those "Galvanized Yankees."  

Of interest, Union regiments stationed of the western frontier called these new Union soldiers ""White-Washed Rebels."

One Way of Escaping.  --Old Secesh

Galvanized Yankees at Rock Island Prison-- Part 1

From the April 6, 2021, WVIK MPR Quad Cities  "Galvanized Yankees" by Roald Tweet.

We were just talking about the Rock Island Confederate prison camp at Rock Island at the McHenry County (Illinois) Civil War Round Table discussion group at the end of March.

In August 1863, Union troops arrived at Rock Island to build a prison camp for Confederates.  Beginning with 468 Confederates captured at the Battle of Lookout Mountain, who arrived in December 1863 the camp eventually housed  more than 12,000.  Author of "Gone With the Wind," Margaret Mitchell,  called it the "Andersonville of the North."

It was set up like other Union prisons, only this one also had  a Union Recruiting Office that was set up in the prison in 1864.  A Union naval officer  arrived in January and within a week had 660 former Confederates enlisted in the Navy.

One unrepentant Confederate wrote in his diary that they were "664 traitors to our country."  But, serving on a Union ship was seen by some Confederates as being better than living under the horrible prison conditions.  Plus, the Union Navy always faced manpower shortages.

In September 1864, the recruiting officers began getting prisoners enlisted to fight out West.  A large part of the prison was set up for these brand new Yankees.  Prisoners remaining loyal to the Confederacy derisively dubbed these men "Galvanized Yankees."

--Old Secesh

Henry Mack, Born a Slave, Served USCT-- Part 5: 'There's a Lot of Damn Good Fight in Me Yet!'

His second wife, Sadie Johnson, died in 1935.  Then in his nineties, Mack moved in with her son from a previous marriage and his wife, Clarence and Allie Johnson.  They regularly drove him to GAR meetings and Sunday services at Zion Baptist Church.

With the United States engaged in World War II, Mack was in his 100s when he climbed the stairs for the first time in years, loaded a shotgun and put on his Army jacket.

When his family members found him on a nearby porch, he was headed to an Army recruiting station.

Told that he was too old to go to war again, Mack said:  "There's a lot of damn good fight in me yet!"

--Old Secesh

Jacob "Howling Wilderness" Smith-- Part 5: Judge Advocate Joseph Holt Gets Involved

At the time of his father-in-law's bankruptcy case, Jacob Smith had been given  a temporary judge advocate  assignment with the army that he hoped he could turn into a permanent position.  One of the parties in the bankruptcy case informed Joseph Holt, Judge Advocate of the U.S. Army, about Smith's bounty brokerage scheme and he began checking into  it.

Smith wrote a letter to Holt attempting to cast the scheme in a sympathetic light.  He said he had been in seven engagements and wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, wrapping himself in the flag.

Furthermore, he stated that he was "one who took  upon himself all the odium that the rebels and conservatives of Louisville, Kentucky, heaped upon him, by being the first officer, to my knowledge, who commenced  mustering into service the colored man in Kentucky during the year 1863."  Smith went on to say that he had scoured the  prisons, jails and workhouses to find recruits.  His only aim was to serve God and his country properly.

He did admit to speculating, but said that others had made three times as much money as he had and that he had not defrauded anyone.

Holt did not accept Smith's story and submitted papers to the Secretary of War with recommendations that it be turned over to the United States Senate Committee on Military Affairs.who had the authority to confirm the permanent judge advocate position that Smith sought.

The Secretary of War at the time was either Edwin M. Stanton, John M. Schofield or John A. Rawlins as the article didn't give a date for this.

Find out what happened in the next post.

Imagine Smith As A Judge Advocate With This Record.  --Old Secesh

Jacob "Howling Wilderness" Smith-- Part 4: About That Bounty Brokerage Scheme of Jacob's

Was this how Jacob Smith made all his new-found wealth?  You mean it didn't come from his father-in-law trying to hide his money and declare bankruptcy?

Here is Jacob Smith's bounty brokerage scheme:

During the war, eastern Union states offered bounties of up to $700 for recruits.  Midwestern states offered up to $300.  Wouldn't it be something to recruit in Kentucky, pay the recruit the $300 then send him out to recruiters in the east, get paid $700 and then split the $400 with those people.  Evidently, Jacob Smith saw an opportunity and took it.

Mr. Smith said he at first thought what he was doing was perfectly legal.

But, he took $92,000 from the eastern recruiters to cover the scheme.  Instead of using it for the intended purpose, he took that money and started making investments in side ventures of his own with it. Those included whiskey, gold and diamonds.  When the eastern recruiters found out and demanded their money back, Smith noticed that they did not engage the law to get it and decided that he wouldn't give the money back.  Then, their little scheme must have been illegal.

His investments were highly profitable and he claimed he had paid the easterners back all the money.

Verrrry Interesting As the Guy on Laugh-In Used to Say.  --Old Secesh

Jacob "Howling Wilderness" Smith-- Part 3: A Recruiting Scheme

He was not a general during the Civil War, but attained rank of brigadier general during the Spanish-American War and the Philippines Insurrection.

While a member of the Invalid Corps, due to his wound at the Battle of Shiloh, he served as an officer in recruiting and mustering in Louisville, Kentucky.  He was reported as being especially good at recruiting black soldiers.

However, this si also when some questionable activities arose.  In the last post I said that he met and married Emma L. Havrety, daughter of a very rich and important man in Louisville.  By 1869, Smith's father-in-law, Daniel Havrety was being sued for fraud in connection with bankruptcy.    Creditors looked into his finances, thinking that he had secretly transferred money to others.

And, guess what, Jacob Smith's assets had risen from $4,000 in 1862 to $40,000 in 1865.  Smith claimed ignorance  of any fraud on the part of his father-in-law, and explained that his sudden wealth came as a result of a bounty brokerage scheme.

And Then.  --Old Secesh

Jacob "Howling Wilderness" Smith's Civil War Service-- Part 2

Smith had a scar  from a saber cut  on the head which he received in July 1861 in Barboursville, Virginia. Since April 7, 1862, he had been carrying a Minie ball in his hip from the Battle of Shiloh.  He was disabled because of this wound, though he tried to return to duty that summer.

However, the wound would not heal properly.  As such, he became a member of the Invalid Corps where he served for the rest of the war.  In that capacity, he served as a recruiting/mustering officer in Louisville, Kentucky.  Word had it that he was especially good at recruiting colored troops.

While in Louisville on this duty, he met and later married Emma L. Havrety.

--Old Secesh

Camp Hobson, Kentucky-- Part 1: Union Recruiting and Training Camp

I have been writing about Colonel Ethelbert Ludlow Dudley of the 21st Kentucky Infantry Regiment (U.S.) who died of disease two months after his regiment was mustered in, Feb. 20, 1862.  Since the regiment did its initial training at Camp Hobson in Kentucky, he would have been on command then.

One source said Camp Hobson was located near Greensburg, Ky., along the Green River.  Another source had it listed  by Glasgow in Green County.

The Historical Marker Project has the camp bu Campbellsville in Taylor County.  This is probably the more correct location.

The site goes on to say that the camp operated December 1861 to February 1862 and that it was a Union recruiting and training camp named for Edward H. Hobson and on the farm of James Allen Sublett.  Between December 1861 and February 1862, U.S. Mustering Officer  Captain S.M. Kellogg mustered nearly 2,000 recruits into service there.  They became the  13th and 21st Kentucky Infantry regiments.

--Old Secesh

How Did a Small Piece of the Ellsworth Flag End Up in California?-- Part 3: Death of Ellsworth

Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth became the first Union officer killed in line of duty in the Civil War.  His body lied in state at the White House.  Then the body and blood-soaked flag was taken home to Mechanicsville, New York, for burial.

His death became a rallying point for recruiting.

Afton, Illinois, in the War

From the History of Afton, Illinois  History of DeKalb County, Illinois.  By Henry L. Boies, 1922.

I have been writing about this town in my RoadDog's RoadLog Blog in conjunction with the DeKalb Road Day back in 1916.

The name of the town comes from a favorite song of one of the early settlers, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton."

The town was organized in 1854.

During the Civil War, 81 men went into Union service out of a population of just 516.  Fifty-nine of them volunteered  When a tax was levied on the town because of the need for more men, seven more joined.

In the summer of 1864, with the huge casualties suffered as Grant battered Lee in Virginia, an additional tax was levied on the town, totaling $14,000 and fifteen more men joined.

Among those Afton residents who gave their lives:  Charles Elliott, DempsterWheeler, Alexander Campbell, Emerson T. Knight and Lewis Olverson of the 105th Regiment.  Also, L. Deforest of the 8th Cavaltu gave his life for the Union.

I did not know about taxes for troops.

--Old Secesh

The Chicago Tribune Reports the End of the War, April 14, 1865-- Part 12: No More Draft

These were the headlines of the paper on the morning of April 14, 1865:

NEWS BY TELEGRAPH.

THE END OF THE WAR.

The Draft Stopped and No More Recruiting.

TRADE RESTRICTIONS RESUMED.

The Expenses of the Army and Numbers of Officers Reduced.

THE NAVY DEPARTMENT REDUCING ITS FORCE

--Old Secesh