NPS Camp Nelson 1865The US Army established Camp Nelson on April 29, 1863. Over the next three years, the site served as a fortified supply depot, hospital, recruitment and training center, and refugee camp. The National Park Service (NPS) commemorates the 160th Camp Nelson (2023-26) with a series of special events, programs, and multi-media presentations! 
Library of Congress and University of Kentucky 3rd Annual Summer Ranger SeriesJoin the NPS for the 3rd Annual Summer Ranger Series at Camp Nelson National Monument. The summer programs feature the 4th Annual History at Sunset series, the 1st Annula Freedom Day Festival (June 21st), and special events marking the 160th Anniversary of Camp Nelson (July 26th). The programs will be hosted at Camp Nelson National Monument and other sites throughout Kentucky managed by our partners and community organizations and will occur May through July 2025! 1st Annual Freedom Day FestivalSaturday, June 21st (10:00 am - 4:00 pm)The National Park Service (NPS) at Camp Nelson National Monument, in partnership with the Camp Nelson Preservation and Education Foundation, National Coalition of Black Veteran Organizations, Kentucky Center for African American Heritage, Jessamine County Tourism, and Kentucky Historical Society, announces the 1st Annual Freedom Day Festival from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday, June 21, 2025. The special event commemorates the Brigadier General Charles Young Memorial Historical Corridor—the 170-mile route from Camp Nelson National Monument in Jessamine County to Mays Lick—and concludes at the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Wilberforce, Ohio. Born to enslaved parents in 1864 in Mays Lick, Kentucky, Young become the third African American to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; the first African American superintendent of a national park; and the highest ranking African American U.S. Army officer at the time of his death in 1922. Young was posthumously promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the Regular Army on February 1, 2022. The festival features live music featuring The Marshall Law Band, food, arts and crafts, children’s activities, guided talks and walks, and presentations, and is free and open to the public. History at SunsetThe 4th Annual History at Sunset series returns in May 2025! The 2025 Lineup features special programs which mark the 160th Anniversary of Camp Nelson in 1865. The series features 3 programs (May-July) starting at 7:00 pm at the park and are free and open to the public. Saturday, May 31st: Campfire Program, "We Will Meet Again": US Colored Troops, Camp Nelson, and the End of the Civil War in 1865 Steve T. Phan, Chief of Interpretation, Education, and Visitor Services at Camp Nelson National Monument, explores the Civil War’s complex conclusion by examining the experience of Kentucky US Colored Troops and civilian refugees at Camp Nelson and their uncertain future as the guns fell silent in 1865. The campfire program will take place in the field adjacent to the Visitor Center and Museum. Visitors should bring camping chairs. Friday, June 20th: "Held in the Grasp of War": Why Civil War Veterans Struggled to Leave the Conflict Behind Dr. Brian Matthew Jordan, Associate Professor of U.S. Civil War History and Chair of the History Department at Sam Houston State University. The Civil War visited unprecedented violence on the United States. That violence was inscribed on the bodies and minds of the nearly two million men who donned Union blue between 1861 and 1865. How did Union veterans make sense of their physical, psychological, and emotional wounds as the nation plunged into the years of Reconstruction? How did the politics of the postwar years complicate their reintegration to civilian life and personal healing? Why were so many veterans so unwilling to let go of the war and its legacy, and what urgent messages do those ex-soldiers have for us today? The program takes place outside at the NPS Tent adjacent to the Visitor Center and Museum and will launch the 1st Freedom Day Festival Weekend. Saturday, July 26th: Campfire Program for 160th Anniversary (TBA) 160th Anniversary of Camp NelsonSaturday, July 26thSchedule and lineup to be announced soon. Camp Nelson National Monument 6614 Danville Road Loop 2 Nicholasville, KY 40356 
NPS (SP) Hall Cemetery Wayside DedicationSaturday, May 17, 2025 11:30 am - 12:00 pm The Camp Nelson Preservation and Education Foundation is unveiling a new interpretive wayside at Hall Cemetery on Saturday, May 17, 2025 starting at 11:30 am. The cemetery is the site of the Home for Colored Refugees and the final resting place for US Colored Troops [USCT] and their families and descendants. The Camp Nelson Foundation is requesting that all attendees meet near the Fee Memorial Church, located southwest of Camp Nelson National Monument Visitor Center off US-27 and Hall Road. From there, visitors can carpool or walk to the cemetery. The parking area north of the Fee Memorial Church is at the intersection of Hall Road and Church Street. 
Library of Congress The Unchartered Road to FreedomAfter the Army of the Ohio’s successful liberation of East Tennessee, the US Army nearly abandoned Camp Nelson as fortified supply depot in March 1864. However, the army’s controversial decision to organize, recruit, and train US Colored Troops [USCT] at Camp Nelson and other centers in Kentucky sparked the destruction of slavery in the Bluegrass State. 
National Archives and Records Administration Army of LiberationClick here to learn about the formation of the Army of the Ohio and its operations in Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee over the course of 1863. The new army was organized to liberate Unionists in East Tennessee from Confederate occupation and it would ultimately achieve that objective, but it would require marching far and fighting hard. The 21st Massachusetts Infantry was only one of many regiments in the Army of the Ohio, but the experiences of its members reveal both the hardships and triumphs of the 1863 campaign. 
NPS Civil War 160th in 60The National Park Service (NPS) commemorates the 160th Anniversary of Camp Nelson (2023-26) in a brand-new video series: Civil War 160th in 60!
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Last updated: May 12, 2025