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Collection: Museum: University of St Andrews

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Any enslaved man is allowed to enlist in the US Army without permission from their enslaver.

General Orders No. 20 formalizes African American enlistment in Kentucky and authorizes the creation of eight training centers for United States Colored Troops (USCT), including at Camp Nelson.

Black refugees are first expelled from Camp Nelson. The US Army forcibly removed Black refugees on eight separate occasions through November 1864.

322 Black men enlist with the United States Colored Troops at Camp Nelson; the single largest recruitment day in the camp’s history. Between 1864 and 1865, over 10,000 men enlisted with the USCTs at Camp Nelson.

President Abraham Lincoln is reelected, Kentucky is one of three states won by Lincoln’s opponent.

The US Army, by order of Brig. Gen. Speed S. Fry, expels over 400 Black refugees, mostly women and children, from Camp Nelson. 102 people died of exposure and illness in the immediate aftermath.

The US Army reverses its policy and allows African American refugees into Camp Nelson. Capt. Theron Hall and Rev. John G. Fee open the “Home for Colored Refugees,” which included wooden cottages, education and religious services, and a hospital.

Massacre at Simpsonville, Kentucky. Twenty-two soldiers from Company E of the 5th US Colored Cavalry are killed by Confederate guerrillas while driving cattle from Camp Nelson to Louisville. Many of these recruits were formerly enslaved, and many came from Shelby County and the area near where the massacre took place.

As a direct result of the November 1864 expulsion of refugees, Congress passes legislation, emancipating the wives and children of USCT soldiers.

Surrender at Appomattox Court House. In the weeks that followed, Confederate military forces surrendered across the country, ending the Civil War. Camp Nelson continues to operate as a military base and refugee center.

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