I'm Ranger Cameron, and from Camp Nelson National Monument
this is another Civil War 160 in 60.
By the spring of 1863, with General Ambrose Burnside
at the head of the Department of the Ohio, it was imperative
to start building a military supply depot to support an eventual campaign into East Tennessee.
Major James H. Simpson was one of several US Army engineers
dispatched to central Kentucky to find a suitable locatio for a supply depot.
It had to be a large area, accessible by road, and it had to be made defensible against any enemy attack.
In a report, Major Simpson described his scouting mission into central Kentucky:
"Between the 27th and 29th of April, by direction of Major General Burnside
I, with Captain Dickerson, chief quartermaster, selected a site for a large depot
six miles beyond Nicholasville, between a bend of the Kentucky River
and Hickman Creek. Lt. Col. Babcock has been directed to me
under instructions from Maj. General Burnside to fortify the area
embracing about 4 1/4 square miles."
What you see behind me is a small portion of the 4,000 acres
Simpson and his men selected. 160 years ago today
this was quiet, Kentucky farmland. Once the US Army decided this would be the site of their supply depot
work began to build a massive military complex,
called Camp Nelson.