Hello. My name is Park Ranger Steve Phan from Camp Nelson National Monument
and welcome to Civil War 160th in 60
On this day, May 16th 1863, Maj. General Ambrose E. Burnside,
commander of the Department of the Ohio will issue orders
to his engineers to fortify this site.
The task falls to Lt. Colonel Orville Babcock,
chief engineer of the Ninth Corps, who submits his fortification plan
on May 19th, which is approved two days later on May 21st.
It is a seminal moment in Kentucky during the Civil War.
That summer the US Army will impress enslaved African Americans
to construct the defenses of Camp Nelson.
All the earthworks constructed here was done by the hands of enslaved African Americans
except Fort Putnam. It was named in honor of Col. Hadelman S. Putnam
of the 7th NH Infantry, who was killed in action at the second battle
of Battery Wagner in South Carolina on July 18th, 1863.
This battle is depicted in the film, Glory.
Captain Orlando Poe, chief engineer of the Twenty-Third Corps,
designed this site, an open, unclosed artillery position
as a training and experimental earthwork with members of the Twenty-Third Corps
engineering battalion. This site was destroyed in the 1960s
but it was brought back to life in the early 2000s
when Jessamine County, Kentucky, led by Dr. W. Stephen McBride
and supported by the Camp Nelson Foundation, surveyed, excavated and rebuilt
this site. In the summer of 2023, the National Park Service
will be replacing all the wooden revetments, gun platforms and embrasures
at Fort Putnam, and we hope to mount a reproduction 30lb Parrot rifle
by the end of the year. Visit Camp Nelson National Monument and #FindYourFort.