Interpretative marker honors Nelson
at Jessamine camp’s national cemetery

Union Major Gen. William (Bull) Nelson was honored on his 187th birthday with an interpretative marker at the national cemetery that bears his name.

Four organizations pooled their resources to place the marker at Jessamine County’s Camp Nelson National Cemetery Sept. 27. Project participants are the Kentucky Department of the Sons of the Union Veterans, the Battle of Richmond Association, the Nelson-Garfield Camp No, 3 - Sons of the Union Veterans (headquartered in northern Kentucky), and the Sgt. Elijah P. Marrs Camp No. 5 - Sons of Union Veterans (headquartered in Lexington).

Nelson, a native of Maysville, is the only individual on either side during the Civil War to achieve the rank of major general in the army while also being a naval officer.

After a noted career in the U.S. Navy, Nelson was transferred from the navy to the army at the behest of President Abraham Lincoln, a friend of the Nelson family. Nelson was ordered to Kentucky where he established Camp Dick Robinson, a Union recruitment center in Garrard County, in the summer of 1861. Nelson was made a brigadier general for his efforts.

Nelson’s troops fought at Shiloh (Tenn.) in the spring of 1862 and that summer he was promoted to major general and placed in command of the newly formed Federal Army of Kentucky. The inexperienced army met defeat at the Battle of Richmond in late August 1862, with Nelson losing nearly his entire command and sustaining a leg wound.

Placed in charge of the defenses of Louisville in early September 1862, Nelson was shot and killed by a fellow Union general over a “matter of honor” at the end of that month. The other general, Jefferson C. Davis, never was charged in Nelson’s murder.

Initially, Nelson was interred in Louisville, then Camp Dick Robinson, and finally in his hometown of Maysville.

Camp Nelson was opened in 1863 and named in honor of Nelson. It served as a Federal recruitment and training center as well as a supply depot. The camp closed immediately after the Civil War, but the cemetery remained.