Lindsey began colorful career raising
Union troops at Camp Dick Robinson

Col. Daniel Weisiger Lindsey became known initially when he helped raise the first group of Union troops in Kentucky.

The Frankfort native accomplished that task at Camp Dick Robinson in Garrard County as he worked with Gen. William (Bull) Nelson, who marched the first group of recruits into the camp on Aug. 6, 1861. That made it the first Federal base south of the Ohio River.

Lindsey’s stint at Dick Robinson came after a brief career as a captain in the Kentucky State Guard. When the Civil War broke out, he marched his company to its armory in Frankfort and resigned his commission. However, he quickly received a commission from the Military Board of Kentucky to raise a regiment and soon recruited and organized the 22nd Regiment of Kentucky, initially located at Dick Robinson.

The regiment was mustered in at Camp Swiger in Greenup County, Dec. 12, 1861, with Lindsey as colonel. Immediately, the regiment was ordered to service in the field, and Lindsey, with his command, participated in the campaigns in the Big Sandy Valley and around Cumberland Gap. From there, the 22nd moved up the Kanawha and on to Memphis, Tenn., where the colonel was placed permanently in the command of a brigade. With it, he participated in the campaigns under Gens. William Sherman and U.S. Grant against Arkansas Post, Vicksburg and Jackson, Miss., then was transferred to the Gulf Department.

Lindsey’s health was affected by his continuous service in the field and he resigned his command Oct. 14, 1863, to accept the position of inspector general of Kentucky, to which he was commissioned on Oct. 31. In the summer of 1864, he was commissioned adjutant-general of Kentucky, a position he held until the fall of 1867.

It was through Lindsey that the collection of rosters of Kentucky troops was made known in the adjutant-general’s report.

The Union leader was educated at the Kentucky Military Institute and studied law with his father, an eminent lawyer of Frankfort. He finished his studies at the law school in Louisville, where he graduated, 1857.