Sesquicentennial, planned exhibit may be comeback for Camp Nevin

The Union camp that once had some 14,000 troops stationed there has been nearly forgotten.

Motorists now zip past the 1861 site near Glendale as they drive along I-65 in Hardin County. The only thing providing evidence of the former Federal presence is when the land is being developed.

“People digging trenches for water lines have been surprised to find uniform buttons and scraps of blue cloth in the dirt,” according to Dan Lee, who has written a book about Camp Nevin. “Camp Nevin: Hardin County’s Contribution to Union Victory in the War of Rebellion” explains why these articles are found and keeps the story of a once thriving Union post from totally escaping the memory banks of history.

The countryside of what previously was Camp Nevin mostly draws attention these days from those interested in establishing an industrial site.  But, for a few months during the fall and winter of 1861, so many troops were stationed there that Hardin County’s population nearly doubled.

The land’s attraction were the same then as now in that the “flat and open acres were served by a railroad and a good highway,” Lee wrote in his book.

” Soldiers from across the region encamped on a farm owned by secessionist David Nevin and named it after him – to rub it in,” Lee wrote.

Officers with muddy boots eventually took over Nevin’s home for their headquarters and burned his fence posts for fuel. Troops were stationed there for training and to counter Confederate threats in Southern Kentucky.

The Civil War’s sesquicentennial and a planned Hardin County History Museum exhibit are expected to help spotlight Camp Nevin. The camp stretched for six miles along the Nolin River and provided some protection against the enemy, including those intent on burning railroad bridges.

Confederates, such as John Hunt Morgan, shot Union soldiers on picket duty from White Mills to Hodgenville. Others were injured during training.

Lee wrote about a couple of hapless Pennsylvania soldiers who barely survived a practice cannonball shot. One of them was injured, however, when he tossed the projectile into the air, didn’t catch it and was hit in the eye.

Disease, however, was the biggest threat to those stationed at crowded Camp Nevin. More than 900 soldiers died from illnesses, according to Lee.

“John Hunt Morgan,” he wrote,  “was a killer, but he was an amateur when compared to that enemy the men couldn’t even see.”

But, then, as that winter dragged on, the war shifted to the south and the camp fizzled out.