In mid-May 1861, U. S. Navy lieutenant William "Bull" Nelson armed Kentuckians loyal to the Union and that soon became the foundation for his receiving authority to enlist 10,000 troops for a campaign into East Tennessee.

Nelson to organize a military force on the [neutral] soil of Kentucky" prevented making the state a "battle ground for many months" and it thereby changed the whole direction of the war.

[2] In 1864, Salmon P. Chase declared in a speech at Louisville "when Kentucky faltered, hesitated" in the early stages of the Civil War, that undecided "status was settled by WILLIAM NELSON, at Camp Dick Robinson.

[4] With the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, a majority of the citizens in the Mercer, Boyle, Garrard, and Casey counties of Kentucky concluded that secession was "destructive of all permanent government and tending only to political chaos and anarchy."

During the third week in May, key leaders obtained 700 muskets from U. S. N. Lt. William Nelson, and distributed those arms to loyal Home Guard troops.

[6] Garrard County Judge Allen A. Burton went to Washington and urged President Lincoln to organize Union men into regiments.

This idea called for audacious leadership and as Burton started to leave the Executive Mansion, he encountered Lieutenant Nelson and promptly recommended him for that mission.

The later town was conveniently located at the south end of the turnpike in Garrard County and it was at the head of the Wilderness Road some sixty-five miles north of the Cumberland Gap.

The land extended one-half mile in either direction along the Danville and Lancaster Pikes and most importantly, it could sustain one thousand mules for four months out of the year.

On the Jessamine County side was a majestic 400-foot limestone palisade, and at the top, a pleasant four-mile journey led to Nicholasville, the terminus for the Covington & Lexington (Kentucky Central) Railroad.

[15] The official dedication took place on August 10, and the following day the editor of the Louisville Journal, George D. Prentice, declared that intentions to supply these Union volunteers with arms was as "equipped for mischief as if it had been contrived .

"[17] On August 13, Nelson received additional instructions to those of July 1, 1861, that called for him to also "accept and muster in wherever offered regiments for service in Tennessee and Kentucky in such numbers and of such arms as you may consider necessary for the best interests of the country.

[20] Secretary Chase advised Garrett Davis the president would not "disavow, directly or by implication, the action of Lieutenant Nelson under the sanction of his [Lincoln's] own authority, given at the urgent instance of some of the wisest & best Union men in Ky. & Tenn."[21] On August 26, Governor Beriah Magoffin received a reply from President Lincoln that stated Camp Dick Robinson was "established at the request of many Kentuckians."

"[23] Many believed the Confederates were about to make a two-column advance from Knoxville and Nashville that was to join with secessionists in Kentucky to "seize Frankfort, occupy Louisville, and carry the state out of the Union.

The Kentucky General Assembly promptly asked Governor Magoffin to "call out the military force of the State to expel and drive out the invaders.

Nelson received an appointment to Brigadier General of Volunteers with orders to raise another brigade and stop a Confederate incursion toward Lexington from eastern Kentucky.

Thomas had 9,000 troops, and he ordered those previously assembled by Nelson beyond Crab Orchard and east into the Rockcastle Hills to keep the enemy from coming north on the Wilderness Road.

[29] At the end of November, Thomas went in pursuit of Zollicoffer near Somerset, and Camp Dick Robinson continued to serve as a receiving area for new troops that joined in the Battle of Mill Springs on January 19, 1862.

Kirby Smith ordered the dispersal of the Garrard County Home Guard on September 27, and Maj. Gen. Braxton Bragg directed that the Confederate depot at Danville "be transferred as rapidly as practicable to Bryantsville and Camp Dick Robinson, where all supplies will in the future be concentrated."

[31] Some ten days later, Bragg discovered during the bloody Battle of Perryville the Army of the Ohio outnumbered him and he chose to withdraw from Kentucky.

[32] Three days later, the Third Regiment Ohio Volunteer Cavalry arrived at Camp Dick Robinson and found Col. W. A. Hoskins in charge of stores abandoned by the Confederate Army.

[33] In the early spring of 1863, plans to conduct the long-neglected East Tennessee expedition led to Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside's becoming commander of the newly reformed Army of the Ohio.

[35] The following month, friends and associates of William Nelson commemorated his service by raising a huge silk flag up a 130-foot pole beside his grave on July 4.