The site was selected to protect the bridge, to have a base of operations in central Kentucky, and to prepare to secure the Cumberland Gap and eastern Tennessee.

[8] Its drawbacks as a well situated supply depot led General William Tecumseh Sherman to prioritize Camp Nelson to take a major role in training 10,000 black soldiers who volunteered there for the U.S.

Recognizing that the Camp Nelson supply depot and the nearby Hickman Bridge were valuable targets for Confederate raider General John Hunt Morgan, Union forces geared up for attacks in July 1863 and June 1864.

This law applied to the Confederacy only and declared that if enslaved people are considered property, then the military has the right to not only deny the access to the owner but also to impress these individuals into work.

[4] With the goal of enlistment of Kentucky blacks into the Union Army, Lincoln authorized a special census in 1863 which showed 1,650 freemen and 40,000 enslaved males of military age.

[10][16] Given this figure and using the justification that whites were not fulfilling the state's draft quota, pro-slavery Governor Thomas E. Bramlette reluctantly agreed in March 1864 that African-American men in Kentucky were allowed to join the US Army with consent of their owners who received $300.

This situation led to a wave of violence as the military allowed squads hired to seize runaways from Camp Nelson.

For example, the Danville group “was assailed with stones and the content of revolvers,” reported Thomas Butler, superintendent of the United States Sanitary Commission.

[21] Since these orders were ineffective, on November 22–25, 1864, District Commander Speed S. Fry, native of Danville, KY, under pressure from slave-owners, resorted to violence.

Edwin Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, followed up with an order that a permanent shelter be established for all refugees, regardless of any family ties to USCT troops.

“At this moment, over four hundred helpless human beings....having been driven from their homes by United States soldiers, are now lying in barns and mule sheds, wandering through the woods....literally starving, for no other crime than their husbands and fathers having thrown aside the manacles of Slavery to shoulder Union muskets.”[17] By December 1864, the military reversed its policies, and authorized the construction of the Home for Colored Refugees.

[6] This surpassed capacity, and added were 60 army supplied large wall tents as well makeshift housing constructed by the refugees, similar to before the expulsion.

Two African Americans were included, E. Belle Mitchell and Reverend Gabriel Burdett who was also a USCT soldier and assisted Fee in ministry work.

General Stephen G. Burbridge lead the Ill-fated Saltville I, the objective of which was to destroy the Confederate saltworks, which had been fortified by impressed enslaved workers whose owners were compensated.

[26] Though Saltville I in October 1864 was a defeat, Colonel James Sanks Brisbin reported his admiration for the bravery and tenacity of the 400 soldiers, noting that he'd been in 27 battles with the white troops and seen none more courageous.

Assigned to herd about 1,000 cattle from Camp Nelson to Louisville, KY, 80 soldiers of Company E 5th USCC were ambushed by Confederate guerrillas led by Capt.

Thomas D. Butler, a superintendent of the United States Sanitary Commission, who had as his responsibility their care, described the situation of one refugee family with six children, “...the rebels had driven her and her children from their home, and destroyed their property...for many weeks...wandered, homeless, hungry and sick, through cold and stormy weather, to reach Camp Nelson.” The husband was a discharged Union soldier who was captured en route with the family.

[6] The United States Sanitary Commission (USSC) operated a soldiers' home for a time at Camp Nelson, in former barracks.

[35][36] Peter Bruner wrote with his daughter his autobiography, A Slave’s Adventure Toward Freedom, Not Fiction, but the True Story of a Struggle, also included in the UNC's Documenting the American South.

Another member of the 12th, he enlisted with 16 other men, walking 41 miles from Irvine, Ky. Post war, Bruner moved to Oxford, Ohio and became the first African American to work at Miami University where he also enrolled.

[37] Gabriel Burdette while enslaved in neighboring Garrard County became active in the ministry serving at the Forks Dix River Church.

The violence associated with the 1876 presidential election convinced Burdett to join the Exodusters Movement to the West and emigrate with his family to Kansas.

In August 2017, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke suggested to U.S. president Donald Trump that Camp Nelson Civil War Heritage Park be made into a national monument.

The park has five miles of walking trails, open dawn to dusk, lining the northern border where remnants of the forts and fortifications are marked with historic signage.

Re-enactors of the USCC 5th fire the site's Napoléon 12 pound cannon there during the Annual Civil War Heritage Weekend held in mid-September.

[3] It has organized records of burials online so that families may trace relatives buried here, in addition to those who trained or lived at the camp.

Inspired by researching his ancestors who enlisted at Camp Nelson, Walker moves chronologically from the antebellum era through Reconstruction.

His forebears are Mary and Randal Edelen, 125th UCST Infantry and Elvira and Henry Clay Walker, 12th USCT Heavy Artillery.

[47] The Civil War's Last Massacre on the PBS series Secrets of the Dead depicts the second murderous assault on the USCC 5th in Simpsonville, KY in January 1865.

[48] Reel History, a presentation at Camp Nelson by historian Jared Frederick explores interpretations of African American Civil War soldiers through films from Birth of a NatIon to Glory.