Camp Nelson, Kentucky: A Civil War History
Camp Nelson, Kentucky, was designed in 1863 as a military supply depot for the Union Army. Later it became one of the country's most important recruiting stations and training camps for black soldiers and Kentucky's chief center for issuing emancipation papers to former slaves. Richard D. Sears tells the story of the rise and fall of the camp through the shifting perspective of a changing cast of characters -- teachers, civilians, missionaries such as the Reverend John G. Fee, and fleeing...
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"Camp Nelson, Kentucky, was designed in 1863 as a military supply depot for the Union Army. Later it became one of the country's most important recruiting stations and training camps for black soldiers and Kentucky's chief center for issuing emancipation papers to former slaves. Richard D. Sears tells the story of the rise and fall of the camp through the shifting perspective of a changing cast of characters — teachers, civilians, missionaries such as the Reverend John G. Fee, and fleeing slaves and enlisted blacks who describe their pitiless treatment at the hands of slave owners and Confederate sympathizers. Sears fully documents the story of Camp Nelson through carefully selected military orders, letters, newspaper articles, and other correspondence, most inaccessible until now. His introduction provides a historical overview, and textual notes identify individuals and detail the course of events.
PrefaceAcknowledgmentsHistorical IntroductionAbbreviations1The Establishment of Camp Nelson and the Invasion of East Tennessee12Black Recruitment543Soldiers, Missionaries, Refugees974The Expulsion1345The Refugee Home1826Administrative Troubles and the Belle Mitchell Incident2297Closing the Camp2748Claiming the Remains329Afterword375Select Bibliography377Index381
\ From the Publisher"Sears draws together a wealth of documents from and about the camp to tell the story of its rise and fall." -- Winchester Sun\ "Camp Nelson, Kentucky is an expansive, well edited, and valuable compilation of primary source material for military and socio-political students of the Civil War in the Bluegrass State to explore. It will also serve as a great resource for the study of Ambrose Burnside's East Tennessee campaign, an operation that is yet to receive a book length treatment. Recommended." -- Civil War Books and Authors (cwba.blogspot.com)\ \ \
