The Expulsion

Memorial obelisk lit by luminaria in honor of the 102 African American refugees who perished as a result of the November 1864 Expulsion.

NPS [ML]

Expulsion of African American Refugees

I told him that my wife and children had no place to go, and I told him that I was a Soldier of the United States. He told me that it did not make a difference; he had orders to take all out of camp. . .
-Private Joseph Miller, Co. I, 124th United States Colored Infantry

On November 23, 1864, the U.S. Army, by order of Brigadier General Speed S. Fry, camp commandant, forcibly expelled 400 African American refugees from Camp Nelson during the midst of a winter storm.

According to Captain Theron E. Hall, Assistant-Quartermaster, "More than four hundred poor women and children, families of Colored soldiers have been sent from Camp Nelson the past week. Some have died and all are in starving condition. . . The whole community are loud in denouncing the outrage." The refugee encampment was located south of the main industrial center of the military base. Soldiers traveled through the huts and tents, and rounded up women and children onto wagons that were driven beyond army lines. The refugee camp was destroyed to ensure that they did not return. The refugees wandered north along the Lexington-Danville Turnpike (US 27) toward Nicholasville. Many died along the route. Unlike men fit for military service, Black women and children, including family members of United States Colored Troops [USCT] soldiers, were not emancipated upon reaching Camp Nelson. They were granted no protection and their status was uncertain, subject to capture, expulsion from Federal lines, and re-enslavement. It was the seventh recorded expulsion of Black refugees from the camp since the army began recruitment of USCT regiments in June 1864.

General Fry's order was quickly rescinded by his superiors, notably General Stephen G. Burbridge, commander of the District of Kentucky, and the War Department. However, the ninth and largest expulsion of Black refugees from Camp Nelson proved to be the deadliest. Of the 400+ refugees expelled, 250 returned to Camp Nelson. Of that number, at least 102 died in the coming weeks and months. The status of the 150 refugees who did not return here is unknown, but likely many died from illness and exposure.

The tragic event made headlines in newspapers across the county and eventually reached the halls of Congress in Washignton, D.C. The War Department authorized the establishment of the Home for Refugees at Camp Nelson in early 1865, and changed policy which allowed freedom seekers protection at U.S. Army bases. On March 3, 1865, Congress passed legislation which emancipated the wives and children of USCT soldiers. The act spurred Black enlistment across Kentucky during the final year of the Civil War.